the earth is our home essay

Planet Earth, explained

Our home planet provides us with life and protects us from space.

Earth, our home planet, is a world unlike any other. The third planet from the sun, Earth is the only place in the known universe confirmed to host life.

With a radius of 3,959 miles, Earth is the fifth largest planet in our solar system, and it's the only one known for sure to have liquid water on its surface. Earth is also unique in terms of monikers. Every other solar system planet was named for a Greek or Roman deity, but for at least a thousand years, some cultures have described our world using the Germanic word “earth,” which means simply “the ground.”

Our dance around the sun

Earth orbits the sun once every 365.25 days. Since our calendar years have only 365 days, we add an extra leap day every four years to account for the difference.

Though we can't feel it, Earth zooms through its orbit at an average velocity of 18.5 miles a second. During this circuit, our planet is an average of 93 million miles away from the sun, a distance that takes light about eight minutes to traverse. Astronomers define this distance as one astronomical unit (AU), a measure that serves as a handy cosmic yardstick.

Earth rotates on its axis every 23.9 hours, defining day and night for surface dwellers. This axis of rotation is tilted 23.4 degrees away from the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun, giving us seasons. Whichever hemisphere is tilted closer to the sun experiences summer, while the hemisphere tilted away gets winter. In the spring and fall, each hemisphere receives similar amounts of light. On two specific dates each year—called the equinoxes—both hemispheres get illuminated equally.

Many layers, many features

About 4.5 billion years ago, gravity coaxed Earth to form from the gaseous, dusty disk that surrounded our young sun. Over time, Earth's interior—which is made mostly of silicate rocks and metals—differentiated into four layers.

For Hungry Minds

At the planet's heart lies the inner core, a solid sphere of iron and nickel that's 759 miles wide and as hot as 9,800 degrees Fahrenheit. The inner core is surrounded by the outer core, a 1,400-mile-thick band of iron and nickel fluids. Beyond the outer core lies the mantle, a 1,800-mile-thick layer of viscous molten rock on which Earth's outermost layer, the crust, rests. On land, the continental crust is an average of 19 miles thick, but the oceanic crust that forms the seafloor is thinner—about three miles thick—and denser.

Like Venus and Mars, Earth has mountains, valleys, and volcanoes. But unlike its rocky siblings, almost 70 percent of Earth's surface is covered in oceans of liquid water that average 2.5 miles deep. These bodies of water contain 97 percent of Earth's volcanoes and the mid-ocean ridge , a massive mountain range more than 40,000 miles long.

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Earth's crust and upper mantle are divided into massive plates that grind against each other in slow motion. As these plates collide, tear apart, or slide past each other, they give rise to our very active geology. Earthquakes rumble as these plates snag and slip past each other. Many volcanoes form as seafloor crust smashes into and slides beneath continental crust. When plates of continental crust collide, mountain ranges such as the Himalaya are pushed toward the skies.

Protective fields and gases

Earth's atmosphere is 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, and one percent other gases such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, and argon. Much like a greenhouse, this blanket of gases absorbs and retains heat. On average, Earth's surface temperature is about 57 degrees Fahrenheit; without our atmosphere, it'd be zero degrees . In the last two centuries, humans have added enough greenhouse gases to the atmosphere to raise Earth's average temperature by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit . This extra heat has altered Earth's weather patterns in many ways .

The atmosphere not only nourishes life on Earth, but it also protects it: It's thick enough that many meteorites burn up before impact from friction, and its gases—such as ozone—block DNA-damaging ultraviolet light from reaching the surface. But for all that our atmosphere does, it's surprisingly thin. Ninety percent of Earth's atmosphere lies within just 10 miles of the planet's surface .

The silhouette of a woman is seen on a Norwegian island beneath the Northern Lights ( aurora borealis ).

We also enjoy protection from Earth's magnetic field, generated by our planet's rotation and its iron-nickel core. This teardrop-shaped field shields Earth from high-energy particles launched at us from the sun and elsewhere in the cosmos. But due to the field's structure, some particles get funneled to Earth's Poles and collide with our atmosphere, yielding aurorae, the natural fireworks show known by some as the northern lights.

Spaceship Earth

Earth is the planet we have the best opportunity to understand in detail—helping us see how other rocky planets behave, even those orbiting distant stars. As a result, scientists are increasingly monitoring Earth from space. NASA alone has dozens of missions dedicated to solving our planet's mysteries.

At the same time, telescopes are gazing outward to find other Earths. Thanks to instruments such as NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have found more than 3,800 planets orbiting other stars, some of which are about the size of Earth , and a handful of which orbit in the zones around their stars that are just the right temperature to be potentially habitable. Other missions, such as the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, are poised to find even more.

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'the earth, our home'.

Pope Francis's encyclical brings to mind Pope Paul VI's imperative.

In his encyclical on social justice, Paul VI said that if we want peace, we must work for justice. Why? Because peace and justice are interconnected.

Pope Francis's encyclical urges that if we want to continue our lives and all life on earth, then we must protect the earth's environment. Why? Because we are a part of the earth, and all life is a part of the life of the earth. This message more than any other message is central to this encyclical. The earth is not only our common home, but we are a part of the earth and therefore we have responsibility for it.

Encyclicals are technically an official and public letter that the Pope addresses to the Roman Catholic Church. In recent decades, the number and size of the encyclicals has increased. A papal encyclical has a penultimate authority in the Church, second only to teaching defined as dogma. It is meant as a teaching event, but in many cases also a deciding event in the face of controversies in the Church.

Paul VI's encyclical on contraception comes to mind. After withdrawing the issue from the Second Vatican Council, and after his appointed commission had overwhelmingly recommended a change, he came out against contraception to the consternation of many. Even some episcopal conferences recommended that the Catholic faithful attend to the teaching of the encyclical but also their conscience.

Pope Francis's encyclical comes at a completely different situation. Although some notable Roman Catholic politicians have questioned the theological, moral, and practical relevance of such an encyclical, there has actually been a remarkable consistency within the Church.

Pope Francis can appeal to recent popes, from Paul VI to John Paul II and Benedict XVI, not only to their warnings on environmental deterioration, but more importantly to their emphasis on the religious and moral significance of human responsibility for the environment.

Equally important, but often overlooked, is the consistent teaching of American Roman Catholic bishops. On June 15, 2001, the full body of the United States Conference of Bishops issued the document "Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good," which underscores the responsibility to address global warming, the role that the human use of fossil fuels has in global warming, and the disproportion impact global warming has on the poor.

The bishops view the issue not simply as an economic issue, but as a moral issue calling us to conversion "as individuals, as institutions, and as a people." Though acknowledging the right of private property, the bishops criticize a consumer culture that fails to serve the common good by protecting the planet for all, the poor, and the children. The vision of this document goes further than the more cautious advocacy by the Bishop's Committee on Social Development and Peace in its statement, "Reflections on the Energy Crisis" in 1981.

What is astonishing is that Catholic leaders, politicians, and intellectuals have criticized Pope Francis as if other popes or the American bishops had not previously underscored our moral and religious responsibility toward the environment. Is there anything new or different in Pope Francis's encyclical? The answer is: Yes and no!

The moral and religious imperative is basically the same. What is different is the urgency and starkness of his description of our environmental situation. In striking detail, Pope Francis spells out the increased pollution, climate change, scarcity of water, loss of biodiversity, and decline in the quality of human life.

Significantly, the pope argues that the very causes of these effects are leading to the increased breakdown of human society and global inequality. His response is to challenge "complacency and a cheerful recklessness," and the naïve belief in a myth of progress that new technology without ethical considerations will solve the problems. The encyclical argues at considerable length that an excessive confidence in technology alone, coupled with an anthropocentric worldview, not only cannot solve the problem, but actually heightens it. This critique is a step away from what some consider the optimism of Vatican II.

However, what is also central to his argument is that there are different approaches and what is needed is open and transparent dialogue. He frankly admits that the Catholic Church does not have a definitive answer. The problem is global, and what is needed is global and international cooperation. Here again what he underscores is the need for dialogue and cooperation among nations and experts; however, he balances this global emphasis with the notion of "cultural ecology."

The threats to nature also have an effect on local cultures and shared identities of groups and peoples. Cultures are more than inheritances. They are a living and dynamic present reality that must be included when dealing with the environment. Uniform global regulations should not overlook local problems and the need for local participation.

Throughout the encyclical, the Pope underscores the sacramentality of the earth and the importance of conversion and of structural (economic) and personal change. Our love and concern for one another goes hand-in-hand with our responsibility for our common home.

— by Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, Charles Chauncey Stillman Professor of Roman Catholic Theological Studies

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Essay on Save Earth: Samples in 100, 150 and 200 Words

• Updated on  
• Nov 11, 2023

There is a popular saying that goes, ’You don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Well, then why harm the planet that is providing for you?’ We all should know that our planet Earth is the only planet where life can exist. Our planet provides us with basic necessities such as water, air, food to eat, and much more. So if you want to save our planet Earth for yourself and for the coming future generations then do give this blog a read. Today we will be talking about how you can save your planet Earth by taking all the required measures. We have also listed some sample essay on Save Earth which will help you to talk about the same in public. 

Table of Contents

• 1 Why is Saving Earth so Important?
• 2 Essay on Save Earth in 100 Words
• 3 Essay on Save Earth in 150 Words
• 4 Essay on Save Earth in 200 Words

Why is Saving Earth so Important?

Our planet Earth is the only planet that provides us with raw materials, oxygen, food which we need for fuel, and other essential materials.  

There are a number of reasons why saving the Earth is so important:

• Our Earth is the only planet that supports life. Despite signs of organic molecules and water on other planets and moons, life is only known to exist on Earth. There would be nowhere else for us to go if not Earth.
• Our Earth provides us with basic necessities such as medicine, food, clean water, and air to breathe. 
• The combustion of fossil fuels releases harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which traps heat and warms the earth. Rising sea levels, melting glaciers, and more extreme weather events are just a few of the negative effects of climate change that are already being felt.

Also Read: Essay on Social Issues

Essay on Save Earth in 100 Words

The only planet in the cosmos that is known to sustain life is Earth. Since it is our home, we must take care of it.

There are numerous reasons why protecting the planet is crucial. To begin with, it is our only place of residence. There won’t be somewhere else for us to go if we destroy Earth. Second, Earth gives us food, water, air, and shelter—everything we require to survive. Third, a wide variety of biodiversity exists on Earth, which is vital to human health.

Unfortunately, the health of Earth is being threatened by human activity. Among the difficulties we confront are deforestation, pollution, and climate change.

To save the Earth, we can all do our part. Here are some actions you may take:

• Cut back on the use of fossil fuels. Make more of an effort to walk or bike, drive less, and take public transit wherever you can.
• Make the switch to alternative energy sources like wind and solar energy.
• At home, use less energy and water.
• Reduce trash via composting and recycling.
• Encourage companies and groups that are engaged in environmental protection.

Both our own life and the survival of future generations depend on saving the planet. We can contribute to ensuring that our planet is healthy and habitable for many years to come by acting now.

Also Read: Essay on Save Environment: Samples in 100, 200, 300 Words

Essay on Save Earth in 150 Words

Since the Earth is our home, it is up to us to preserve it. However, the health of the planet is in danger due to human activity. Among the difficulties we confront are deforestation, pollution, and climate change.

The most important environmental issue of our day is climate change. Greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere, which causes the earth to warm. Among the detrimental repercussions of climate change that are already being felt are rising sea levels, melting glaciers, and an increase in extreme weather occurrences.

Pollution poses a serious threat to Earth as well. Among the materials we use to damage the air, water, and land are chemicals, plastics, and trash. Not only can pollution harm humans and wildlife, but it can also ruin ecosystems.

Deforestation is another issue. In this, the trees are removed and instead, buildings are constructed.  Forests filter water in addition to providing habitat for species and regulating the climate. Deforestation is one of the primary causes of both climate change and biodiversity loss.

We must take action to safeguard Earth from these threats. We can potentially reduce our carbon footprint by switching to renewable energy sources and consuming less energy. We can also reduce pollution by using less plastic, recycling, and composting. We can also safeguard forests by planting trees and promoting sustainable forestry practices.

Preserving the planet is essential for our own existence as well as that of future generations. To keep our world safe, each of us has a responsibility.

Also Read: Essay on Unity in Diversity in 100 to 200 Words

Essay on Save Earth in 200 Words

The only planet in the solar system where humanity can survive is Earth. Since our planet gives us access to fundamental essentials like clean water, fresh air, and food to eat, it is our duty as humans to make sure that it is habitable for future generations.

We can see that, among all the urgent problems, one of the most significant ones that affect humanity is climate change. Among the detrimental repercussions of climate change that are already being felt are rising sea levels, melting glaciers, and an increase in extreme weather occurrences.

Pollution is another major problem. The majority of the materials that are key to pollution of the air, water, and land are harmful chemicals, plastics that are carelessly thrown away, and other materials. This is not only harmful to humans and wildlife but also to the environment. 

Deforestation is the third main issue; it is the removal of trees for construction or other purposes, like agriculture. One of the main contributors to both climate change and biodiversity loss is deforestation. Consequently, we need to act to defend Earth from these dangers. 

We hope this essay on Save Earth helped you with some knowledge of some of the pressing issues we face on a daily basis and what we can do to save our planet. 

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We can conserve the globe by avoiding contamination of the Earth and its natural resources, including the air and water.

Reducing carbon emissions is the first step towards saving our planet. This can be done by using environmentally friendly resources, conserving water and following the Reduce, Reuse and Recycling practices.

Clearing forest areas for agricultural, human settlement or any other commercial activities is known as deforestation.

For more information on such interesting topics, visit our essay-writing page and follow Leverage Edu ! 

Malvika Chawla

Malvika is a content writer cum news freak who comes with a strong background in Journalism and has worked with renowned news websites such as News 9 and The Financial Express to name a few. When not writing, she can be found bringing life to the canvasses by painting on them.

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Mother Earth Essay

Earth has many natural resources to help people live healthier lives. Mother Earth provides us with air, water, food and shelter. Writing a mother Earth essay helps children know the importance of protecting our planet.

Earth is a planet that hosts life and is inhabited by humans and other living beings. It is made out of rocks, metals, and gases. Earth is the only planet in our solar system where life can sustain and live on. Mother Earth is the third planet from the Sun and is home to more than seven billion people.

The Earth is a vital resource for life. We depend on it to grow plants, trees, and food. When we destroy the planet, we start destroying many things like the environment, our health and other things that help us survive. There are many ways to protect it, such as planting more trees, adopting a sustainable lifestyle etc.

The Earth is an amazing planet with various landscapes, ecosystems, and natural resources. It is essential to preserve them to ensure that future generations can enjoy the same unique beauty that we do now. To ensure this, it is crucial to have conservation programmes across the world. Environmental organisations have been around for decades, trying their best to protect the Earth’s biodiversity and promote environmental awareness.

Save Mother Earth

There are many ways to save this planet. Reducing our plastic consumption is one huge step that doesn’t require a lot of effort. By creating awareness about the consequences of our actions, we can save Mother Earth from global warming and other ecological problems.

The Earth is our home, and we should care for it. Our planet is precarious as a result of global warming, pollution, and a decreasing water level. It’s time to stop being complacent and take action.

Our planet is changing soon, and we need to act quickly. The best way to save Mother Earth is by reducing our carbon footprint. By setting sustainability goals and sticking to them, we can help make a difference in the planet’s health.

Another way to help save the planet is to reduce our carbon emissions. Governments around the world have already adopted various plans and laws to achieve this, but it is not easy.

Today, people are starting to realise their everyday actions that affect the Earth. They also recognise the need to start doing more responsible things to protect their future. Fortunately, there is a way for everyone to make a positive difference in the world: by adopting recycling and other eco-friendly strategies. While going green sounds difficult, it has become easier with advancements in today’s technology.

Frequently Asked Questions on Mother Earth Essay

How to save mother earth.

Saving our planet is everyone’s duty. We can start doing this by segregating wet and dry waste, avoiding mining activities, reducing plastic usage and stopping deforestation.

What are the causes of pollution?

The causes of pollution are industrial emissions, usage of harmful chemicals, plastic usage, mining and agricultural activities, transportation and many more.

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Essay on Save Earth for Students and Children

500+ words essay on save earth.

Earth and the resources of earth make life possible on it. If we were to imagine our lives without these resources, that would not be possible. As life cannot function without sunshine , air, vegetation , and water . However, this is soon going to be our reality if we do not save the earth now.

The resources earth provides us with are limited. They are blessings which we do not count. Human has become selfish and is utilizing the earth’s resources at a rapid rate. We need to protect them in order to protect our lives. This is so because man and all living organisms depend on the earth for their survival.

It is The Need of the Hour

To say that saving the earth is the need of the hour would be an understatement. All the activities of humans driven by greed and selfishness have caused immense damage to the earth. It is degraded it beyond repair. Almost all the natural resources are now polluted due to these activities.

When all these resources will be under threat, naturally lives of all living organisms will be under peril. This is why we need to save the earth at all costs. All the other issues are secondary and saving the earth is the main concern. For when the earth will not remain, the other issues will go away automatically.

Earth is the only planet which can sustain life on it. We do not have a planet B which we can move onto. This makes it all the more serious to save the earth and save our lives. If we do not take strict actions now, we will lose the chance of seeing our future generations flourish forever. Everyone must come together for the same causes, as we are inhabitants of this planet firstly and then anything else.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

How to Save Earth

As all human activities are impacting the lives of other organisms, humans only need to take steps to protect the earth and its resources. A little effort will go a long way on everyone’s end. Each action will make a difference. For instance, if one man decides to stop drinking bottled water, thousands of plastic can be saved from consuming.

Furthermore, we can start by planting more trees to make up for the deforestation that is happening these days at a rapid rate. When we plant more trees, ecological balance can be restored and we can improve the quality of life.

Similarly, we must stop wasting water. When done on individual levels, this will create a huge impact on conserving water. We must not pollute our water bodies by dumping waste in it. It is essential to save water most importantly as it is running out rapidly.

In short, the government and individuals must come together to save the earth. We can make people aware of the consequences of not saving the earth. They can be taught ways and how they can contribute to saving the earth. If all this collective effort starts happening, we can surely save our planet earth and make brighter earth.

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A photo-essay from NASA’s Earth Science Division — February 2019 Download Earth in PDF , MOBI (Kindle), or ePub formats.

Of all celestial bodies within reach or view, as far as we can see, out to the edge, the most wonderful and marvelous and mysterious is turning out to be our own planet earth. There is nothing to match it anywhere, not yet anyway. —Lewis Thomas

Sixty years ago, with the launch of Explorer 1, NASA made its first observations of Earth from space. Fifty years ago, astronauts left Earth orbit for the first time and looked back at our “blue marble.” All of these years later, as we send spacecraft and point our telescopes past the outer edges of the solar system, as we study our planetary neighbors and our Sun in exquisite detail, there remains much to see and explore at home.

We are still just getting to know Earth through the tools of science. For centuries, painters, poets, philosophers, and photographers have sought to teach us something about our home through their art.

This book stands at an intersection of science and art. From its origins, NASA has studied our planet in novel ways, using ingenious tools to study physical processes at work—from beneath the crust to the edge of the atmosphere. We look at it in macrocosm and microcosm, from the flow of one mountain stream to the flow of jet streams. Most of all, we look at Earth as a system, examining the cycles and processes—the water cycle, the carbon cycle, ocean circulation, the movement of heat—that interact and influence each other in a complex, dynamic dance across seasons and decades.

We measure particles, gases, energy, and fluids moving in, on, and around Earth. And like artists, we study the light—how it bounces, reflects, refracts, and gets absorbed and changed. Understanding the light and the pictures it composes is no small feat, given the rivers of air and gas moving between our satellite eyes and the planet below.

For all of the dynamism and detail we can observe from orbit, sometimes it is worth stepping back and simply admiring Earth. It is a beautiful, awe-inspiring place, and it is the only world most of us will ever know.

NASA has a unique vantage point for observing the beauty and wonder of Earth and for making sense of it. Looking back from space, astronaut Edgar Mitchell once called Earth “a sparkling blue and white jewel,” and it does dazzle the eye. The planet’s palette of colors and textures and shapes—far more than just blues and whites—are spread across the pages of this book.

We chose these images because they inspire. They tell a story of a 4.5-billion-year-old planet where there is always something new to see. They tell a story of land, wind, water, ice, and air as they can only be viewed from above. They show us that no matter what the human mind can imagine, no matter what the artist can conceive, there are few things more fantastic and inspiring than the world as it already is. The truth of our planet is just as compelling as any fiction.

We hope you enjoy this satellite view of Earth. It is your planet. It is NASA’s mission.

Michael Carlowicz Earth Observatory Managing Editor

The astonishing thing about the Earth... is that it is alive.... Aloft, floating free beneath the moist, gleaming membrane of bright blue sky, is the rising Earth, the only exuberant thing in this part of the cosmos.... It has the organized, self-contained look of a live creature, full of information, marvelously skilled in handling the Sun. —Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. —T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. —T.S. Eliot “Little Gidding”

Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books. —John Lubbock, The Use of Life

Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books. —John Lubbock The Use of Life

ice and snow

It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living. —David Attenborough

Imagery and data courtesy of:

• NASA Earth Observatory
• U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA Landsat Program
• International Space Station (ISS) Crew Earth Observations Facility
• LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team
• MABEL Science Team
• Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive & Distribution System Distributed Active Archive Center (LAADS DAAC)
• EO-1 Science Team
• Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP)
• NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group
• NASA/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS/Japan ASTER Science Team

Adapted for the web by Paul Przyborski

About the Authors

Michael Carlowicz is managing editor of the NASA Earth Observatory. He has written about Earth science and geophysics since 1991 for several NASA divisions, the American Geophysical Union, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and in three popular science books. He is a baseball player and fan, a longtime singer and guitarist, and the proud father of three science and engineering majors.

Kathy Carroll supports the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. She previously worked as a manager and organizer at for-profit and non-profit organizations and on political campaigns. She is a diehard baseball and hockey fan, and she volunteers with animal rescue organizations.

Lawrence Friedl directs the Applied Sciences Program in the Earth Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. He works to enable innovative and practical uses of data from Earth-observing satellites. He has worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and as a Space Shuttle flight controller in NASA’s Mission Control Center. He and his wife have three children, and he enjoys ultimate frisbee and hiking.

Stephen Schaeberle is a graphic designer with the Communications Support Services Center at NASA Headquarters. He holds a bachelor of fine arts from the Pratt Institute, and he has received numerous awards and honors for his work and designs. He enjoys boating and fishing on the Chesapeake Bay.

Kevin Ward manages NASA’s Earth Observatory Group, including the Earth Observatory, Visible Earth, NASA Earth Observations (NEO), and EONET. He holds a master’s degree in library and information science and has spent more than 20 years developing Web-accessible resources in support of NASA Earth science communications. He and his wife have a son and a deep love of music.

Acknowledgments

Just a few names end up on the title page of a book, but it takes an entire cast of people to bring it from idea to draft to finished product. The cast for Earth begins with Maxine Aldred, Andrew Cooke, Tun Hla, and Lisa Jirousek, who shepherded the words and images through design and layout. Thanks are also due to Kathryn Hansen, Pola Lem, Rebecca Lindsey, Holli Riebeek, Michon Scott, and Adam Voiland, whose reporting and writing contributions gave this book its depth. Joshua Stevens, Robert Simmon, Jesse Allen, Jeff Schmaltz, Michael Taylor, and Norman Kuring applied their strong visual sense and processing skills to make each image pop with color and texture while remaining scientifically accurate.

We owe a debt to our scientific and outreach colleagues, who keep the satellites running, the sensors sensing, and the data and imagery flowing. Every one of the images in this book is publicly available through the Internet, truly making science accessible to every citizen. The Landsat teams at the U.S. Geological Survey and NASA, the LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, and the NASA Earth Observatory deserve extra gratitude for making our planet visible to the scientist and the layman every day.

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Pope Francis: The Earth, our home, is beginning to look like an immense pile of filth

An extract from Pope Francis’s encyclical on climate change, the environment and inequality

This is an extract from Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si

The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. In many parts of the planet, the elderly lament that once beautiful landscapes are now covered with rubbish. Industrial waste and chemical products utilised in cities and agricultural areas can lead to bioaccumulation in the organisms of the local population, even when levels of toxins in those places are low. Frequently no measures are taken until after people’s health has been irreversibly affected.

These problems are closely linked to a throwaway culture which affects the excluded just as it quickly reduces things to rubbish. To cite one example, most of the paper we produce is thrown away and not recycled. It is hard for us to accept that the way natural ecosystems work is exemplary: plants synthesise nutrients which feed herbivores; these in turn become food for carnivores, which produce significant quantities of organic waste which give rise to new generations of plants. But our industrial system, at the end of its cycle of production and consumption, has not developed the capacity to absorb and reuse waste and by-products. We have not yet managed to adopt a circular model of production capable of preserving resources for present and future generations, while limiting as much as possible the use of non-renewable resources, moderating their consumption, maximizing their efficient use, reusing and recycling them. A serious consideration of this issue would be one way of counteracting the throwaway culture which affects the entire planet, but it must be said that only limited progress has been made in this regard.

The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all. At the global level, it is a complex system linked to many of the essential conditions for human life. A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system. In recent decades this warming has been accompanied by a constant rise in the sea level and, it would appear, by an increase of extreme weather events, even if a scientifically determinable cause cannot be assigned to each particular phenomenon. Humanity is called to recognise the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it. It is true that there are other factors (such as volcanic activity, variations in the Earth’s orbit and axis, the solar cycle), yet a number of scientific studies indicate that most global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides and others) released mainly as a result of human activity. Concentrated in the atmosphere, these gases do not allow the warmth of the sun’s rays reflected by the Earth to be dispersed in space. The problem is aggravated by a model of development based on the intensive use of fossil fuels, which is at the heart of the worldwide energy system. Another determining factor has been an increase in changed uses of the soil, principally deforestation for agricultural purposes.

Many of those who possess more resources and economic or political power seem mostly to be concerned with masking the problems or concealing their symptoms, simply making efforts to reduce some of the negative impacts of climate change. However, many of these symptoms indicate that such effects will continue to worsen if we continue with current models of production and consumption. There is an urgent need to develop policies so that, in the next few years, the emission of carbon dioxide and other highly polluting gases can be drastically reduced, for example, substituting for fossil fuels and developing sources of renewable energy. Worldwide there is minimal access to clean and renewable energy. There is still a need to develop adequate storage technologies. Some countries have made considerable progress, although it is far from constituting a significant proportion. Investments have also been made in means of production and transportation which consume less energy and require fewer raw materials, as well as in methods of construction and renovating buildings which improve their energy efficiency. But these good practices are still far from widespread.

The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together; we cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to causes related to human and social degradation. In fact, the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable people on the planet: both everyday experience and scientific research show that the gravest effects of all attacks on the environment are suffered by the poorest. For example, the depletion of fishing reserves especially hurts small fishing communities without the means to replace those resources; water pollution particularly affects the poor who cannot buy bottled water; and rises in the sea level mainly affect impoverished coastal populations who have nowhere else to go. The impact of present imbalances is also seen in the premature death of many of the poor, in conflicts sparked by the shortage of resources, and in any number of other problems which are insufficiently represented on global agendas. It needs to be said that, generally speaking, there is little in the way of clear awareness of problems which especially affect the excluded. Yet they are the majority of the planet’s population, billions of people.

These days, they are mentioned in international political and economic discussions, but one often has the impression that their problems are brought up as an afterthought, a question which gets added almost out of duty or in a tangential way, if not treated merely as collateral damage. Indeed, when all is said and done, they frequently remain at the bottom of the pile. This is due partly to the fact that many professionals, opinion makers, communications media and centres of power, being located in affluent urban areas, are far removed from the poor, with little direct contact with their problems. They live and reason from the comfortable position of a high level of development and a quality of life well beyond the reach of the majority of the world’s population. This lack of physical contact and encounter, encouraged at times by the disintegration of our cities, can lead to a numbing of conscience and to tendentious analyses which neglect parts of reality. At times this attitude exists side by side with a “green” rhetoric. Today, however, we have to realise that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor.

T he same mindset which stands in the way of making radical decisions to reverse the trend of global warming also stands in the way of achieving the goal of eliminating poverty. A more responsible overall approach is needed to deal with both problems: the reduction of pollution and the development of poorer countries and regions. The twenty-first century, while maintaining systems of governance inherited from the past, is witnessing a weakening of the power of nation states, chiefly because the economic and financial sectors, being transnational, tends to prevail over the political. Given this situation, it is essential to devise stronger and more efficiently organised international institutions, with functionaries who are appointed fairly by agreement among national governments, and empowered to impose sanctions. As Benedict XVI has affirmed in continuity with the social teaching of the Church: “To manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the greater imbalances that would result; to bring about integral and timely disarmament, food security and peace; to guarantee the protection of the environment and to regulate migration: for all this, there is urgent need of a true world political authority, as my predecessor Blessed John XXIII indicated some years ago”. Diplomacy also takes on new importance in the work of developing international strategies which can anticipate serious problems affecting us all.

Since the market tends to promote extreme consumerism in an effort to sell its products, people can easily get caught up in a whirlwind of needless buying and spending. Compulsive consumerism is one example of how the techno-economic paradigm affects individuals. Romano Guardini had already foreseen this: “The gadgets and technics forced upon him by the patterns of machine production and of abstract planning mass man accepts quite simply; they are the forms of life itself. To either a greater or lesser degree mass man is convinced that his conformity is both reasonable and just”. This paradigm leads people to believe that they are free as long as they have the supposed freedom to consume. But those really free are the minority who wield economic and financial power. Amid this confusion, postmodern humanity has not yet achieved a new self-awareness capable of offering guidance and direction, and this lack of identity is a source of anxiety. We have too many means and only a few insubstantial ends. The current global situation engenders a feeling of instability and uncertainty, which in turn becomes “a seedbed for collective selfishness”. When people become self-centred and self-enclosed, their greed increases. The emptier a person’s heart is, the more he or she needs things to buy, own and consume. It becomes almost impossible to accept the limits imposed by reality. In this horizon, a genuine sense of the common good also disappears. As these attitudes become more widespread, social norms are respected only to the extent that they do not clash with personal needs. So our concern cannot be limited merely to the threat of extreme weather events, but must also extend to the catastrophic consequences of social unrest. Obsession with a consumerist lifestyle, above all when few people are capable of maintaining it, can only lead to violence and mutual destruction.

Yet all is not lost. Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start, despite their mental and social conditioning. We are able to take an honest look at ourselves, to acknowledge our deep dissatisfaction, and to embark on new paths to authentic freedom. No system can completely suppress our openness to what is good, true and beautiful, or our God-given ability to respond to his grace at work deep in our hearts. I appeal to everyone throughout the world not to forget this dignity which is ours. No one has the right to take it from us.

• Pope Francis’s encyclical is published in full by the Vatican here
• Environment
• Pope Francis
• Catholicism
• Christianity
• Climate crisis

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Scientific researchers on a bat-collecting expedition in Sierra Leone. Photo by Simon Townley/Panos

There’s no planet B

The scientific evidence is clear: the only celestial body that can support us is the one we evolved with. here’s why.

by Arwen E Nicholson & Raphaëlle D Haywood   + BIO

At the start of the 22nd century, humanity left Earth for the stars. The enormous ecological and climatic devastation that had characterised the last 100 years had led to a world barren and inhospitable; we had used up Earth entirely. Rapid melting of ice caused the seas to rise, swallowing cities whole. Deforestation ravaged forests around the globe, causing widespread destruction and loss of life. All the while, we continued to burn the fossil fuels we knew to be poisoning us, and thus created a world no longer fit for our survival. And so we set our sights beyond Earth’s horizons to a new world, a place to begin again on a planet as yet untouched. But where are we going? What are our chances of finding the elusive planet B, an Earth-like world ready and waiting to welcome and shelter humanity from the chaos we created on the planet that brought us into being? We built powerful astronomical telescopes to search the skies for planets resembling our own, and very quickly found hundreds of Earth twins orbiting distant stars. Our home was not so unique after all. The universe is full of Earths!

This futuristic dream-like scenario is being sold to us as a real scientific possibility, with billionaires planning to move humanity to Mars in the near future. For decades, children have grown up with the daring movie adventures of intergalactic explorers and the untold habitable worlds they find. Many of the highest-grossing films are set on fictional planets, with paid advisors keeping the science ‘realistic’. At the same time, narratives of humans trying to survive on a post-apocalyptic Earth have also become mainstream.

Given all our technological advances, it’s tempting to believe we are approaching an age of interplanetary colonisation. But can we really leave Earth and all our worries behind? No. All these stories are missing what makes a planet habitable to us . What Earth-like means in astronomy textbooks and what it means to someone considering their survival prospects on a distant world are two vastly different things. We don’t just need a planet roughly the same size and temperature as Earth; we need a planet that spent billions of years evolving with us. We depend completely on the billions of other living organisms that make up Earth’s biosphere. Without them, we cannot survive. Astronomical observations and Earth’s geological record are clear: the only planet that can support us is the one we evolved with. There is no plan B. There is no planet B. Our future is here, and it doesn’t have to mean we’re doomed.

D eep down, we know this from instinct: we are happiest when immersed in our natural environment. There are countless examples of the healing power of spending time in nature . Numerous articles speak of the benefits of ‘forest bathing’; spending time in the woods has been scientifically shown to reduce stress, anxiety and depression, and to improve sleep quality, thus nurturing both our physical and mental health. Our bodies instinctively know what we need: the thriving and unique biosphere that we have co-evolved with, that exists only here, on our home planet.

There is no planet B. These days, everyone is throwing around this catchy slogan. Most of us have seen it inscribed on an activist’s homemade placard, or heard it from a world leader. In 2014, the United Nations’ then secretary general Ban Ki-moon said: ‘There is no plan B because we do not have [a] planet B.’ The French president Emmanuel Macron echoed him in 2018 in his historical address to US Congress. There’s even a book named after it. The slogan gives strong impetus to address our planetary crisis. However, no one actually explains why there isn’t another planet we could live on, even though the evidence from Earth sciences and astronomy is clear. Gathering this observation-based information is essential to counter an increasingly popular but flawed narrative that the only way to ensure our survival is to colonise other planets.

The best-case scenario for terraforming Mars leaves us with an atmosphere we are incapable of breathing

The most common target of such speculative dreaming is our neighbour Mars. It is about half the size of Earth and receives about 40 per cent of the heat that we get from the Sun. From an astronomer’s perspective, Mars is Earth’s identical twin. And Mars has been in the news a lot lately, promoted as a possible outpost for humanity in the near future . While human-led missions to Mars seem likely in the coming decades, what are our prospects of long-term habitation on Mars? Present-day Mars is a cold, dry world with a very thin atmosphere and global dust storms that can last for weeks on end. Its average surface pressure is less than 1 per cent of Earth’s. Surviving without a pressure suit in such an environment is impossible. The dusty air mostly consists of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and the surface temperature ranges from a balmy 30ºC (86ºF) in the summer, down to -140ºC (-220ºF) in the winter; these extreme temperature changes are due to the thin atmosphere on Mars.

Despite these clear challenges, proposals for terraforming Mars into a world suitable for long-term human habitation abound. Mars is further from the Sun than Earth, so it would require significantly more greenhouse gases to achieve a temperature similar to Earth’s. Thickening the atmosphere by releasing CO 2 in the Martian surface is the most popular ‘solution’ to the thin atmosphere on Mars. However, every suggested method of releasing the carbon stored in Mars requires technology and resources far beyond what we are currently capable of. What’s more, a recent NASA study determined that there isn’t even enough CO 2 on Mars to warm it sufficiently.

Even if we could find enough CO 2 , we would still be left with an atmosphere we couldn’t breathe. Earth’s atmosphere contains only 0.04 per cent CO 2 , and we cannot tolerate an atmosphere high in CO 2 . For an atmosphere with Earth’s atmospheric pressure, CO 2 levels as high as 1 per cent can cause drowsiness in humans, and once we reach levels of 10 per cent CO 2 , we will suffocate even if there is abundant oxygen. The proposed absolute best-case scenario for terraforming Mars leaves us with an atmosphere we are incapable of breathing; and achieving it is well beyond our current technological and economic capabilities.

Instead of changing the atmosphere of Mars, a more realistic scenario might be to build habitat domes on its surface with internal conditions suitable for our survival. However, there would be a large pressure difference between the inside of the habitat and the outside atmosphere. Any breach in the habitat would rapidly lead to depressurisation as the breathable air escapes into the thin Martian atmosphere. Any humans living on Mars would have to be on constant high alert for any damage to their building structures, and suffocation would be a daily threat.

F rom an astronomical perspective, Mars is Earth’s twin; and yet, it would take vast resources, time and effort to transform it into a world that wouldn’t be capable of providing even the bare minimum of what we have on Earth. Suggesting that another planet could become an escape from our problems on Earth suddenly seems absurd. But are we being pessimistic? Do we just need to look further afield?

Next time you are out on a clear night, look up at the stars and choose one – you are more likely than not to pick one that hosts planets. Astronomical observations today confirm our age-old suspicion that all stars have their own planetary systems. As astronomers, we call these exoplanets. What are exoplanets like? Could we make any of them our home?

The majority of exoplanets discovered to date were found by NASA’s Kepler mission, which monitored the brightness of 100,000 stars over four years, looking for dips in a star’s light as a planet obscures it each time it completes an orbit around it.

Kepler observed more than 900 Earth-sized planets with a radius up to 1.25 times that of our world. These planets could be rocky (for the majority of them, we haven’t yet determined their mass, so we can only make this inference based on empirical relations between planetary mass and radius). Of these 900 or so Earth-sized planets, 23 are in the habitable zone. The habitable zone is the range of orbits around a star where a planet can be considered temperate : the planet’s surface can support liquid water (provided there is sufficient atmospheric pressure), a key ingredient of life as we know it. The concept of the habitable zone is very useful because it depends on just two astrophysical parameters that are relatively easy to measure: the distance of the planet to its parent star, and the star’s temperature. It’s worth keeping in mind that the astronomical habitable zone is a very simple concept and, in reality, there are many more factors at play in the emergence of life; for example, this concept does not consider plate tectonics , which are thought to be crucial to sustain life on Earth.

Planets with similar observable properties to Earth are very common: at least one in 10 stars hosts them

How many Earth-sized, temperate planets are there in our galaxy? Since we have discovered only a handful of these planets so far, it is still quite difficult to estimate their number. Current estimates of the frequency of Earth-sized planets rely on extrapolating measured occurrence rates of planets that are slightly bigger and closer to their parent star, as those are easier to detect. The studies are primarily based on observations from the Kepler mission, which surveyed more than 100,000 stars in a systematic fashion. These stars are all located in a tiny portion of the entire sky; so, occurrence rate studies assume that this part of the sky is representative of the full galaxy. These are all reasonable assumptions for the back-of-the-envelope estimate that we are about to make.

Several different teams carried out their own analyses and, on average, they found that roughly one in three stars (30 per cent) hosts an Earth-sized, temperate planet. The most pessimistic studies found a rate of 9 per cent, which is about one in 10 stars, and the studies with the most optimistic results found that virtually all stars host at least one Earth-sized, temperate planet, and potentially even several of them.

At first sight, this looks like a huge range in values; but it’s worth taking a step back and realising that we had absolutely no constraints whatsoever on this number just 20 years ago. Whether there are other planets similar to Earth is a question that we’ve been asking for millennia, and this is the very first time that we are able to answer it based on actual observations. Before the Kepler mission, we had no idea whether we would find Earth-sized, temperate planets around one in 10, or one in a million stars. Now we know that planets with similar observable properties to Earth are very common: at least one in 10 stars hosts these kinds of planets.

Let’s now use these numbers to predict the number of Earth-sized, temperate planets in our entire galaxy. For this, let’s take the average estimate of 30 per cent, or roughly one in three stars. Our galaxy hosts approximately 300 billion stars, which adds up to 90 billion roughly Earth-sized, roughly temperate planets. This is a huge number, and it can be very tempting to think that at least one of these is bound to look exactly like Earth.

One issue to consider is that other worlds are at unimaginable distances from us. Our neighbour Mars is on average 225 million kilometres (about 140 million miles) away. Imagine a team of astronauts travelling in a vehicle similar to NASA’s robotic New Horizons probe, one of humankind’s fastest spacecrafts – which flew by Pluto in 2015. With New Horizons’ top speed of around 58,000 kph, it would take at least 162 days to reach Mars. Beyond our solar system, the closest star to us is Proxima Centauri, at a distance of 40 trillion kilometres. Going in the same space vehicle, it would take our astronaut crew 79,000 years to reach planets that might exist around our nearest stellar neighbour.

S till, let’s for a moment optimistically imagine that we find a perfect Earth twin: a planet that really is exactly like Earth. Let’s imagine that some futuristic form of technology exists, ready to whisk us away to this new paradise. Keen to explore our new home, we eagerly board our rocket, but on landing we soon feel uneasy. Where is the land? Why is the ocean green and not blue? Why is the sky orange and thick with haze? Why are our instruments detecting no oxygen in the atmosphere? Was this not supposed to be a perfect twin of Earth?

As it turns out, we have landed on a perfect twin of the Archean Earth, the aeon during which life first emerged on our home world. This new planet is certainly habitable: lifeforms are floating around the green, iron-rich oceans, breathing out methane that is giving the sky that unsettling hazy, orange colour. This planet sure is habitable – just not to us . It has a thriving biosphere with plenty of life, but not life like ours. In fact, we would have been unable to survive on Earth for around 90 per cent of its history; the oxygen-rich atmosphere that we depend on is a recent feature of our planet.

The earliest part of our planet’s history, known as the Hadean aeon, begins with the formation of the Earth. Named after the Greek underworld due to our planet’s fiery beginnings, the early Hadean would have been a terrible place with molten lava oceans and an atmosphere of vaporised rock. Next came the Archean aeon, beginning 4 billion years ago, when the first life on Earth flourished. But, as we just saw, the Archean would be no home for a human. The world where our earliest ancestors thrived would kill us in an instant. After the Archean came the Proterozoic, 2.5 billion years ago. In this aeon, there was land, and a more familiar blue ocean and sky. What’s more, oxygen finally began to accumulate in the atmosphere. But let’s not get too excited: the level of oxygen was less than 10 per cent of what we have today. The air would still have been impossible for us to breathe. This time also experienced global glaciation events known as snowball Earths, where ice covered the globe from poles to equator for millions of years at a time. Earth has spent more of its time fully frozen than the length of time that we humans have existed.

We would have been incapable of living on our planet for most of its existence

Earth’s current aeon, the Phanerozoic, began only around 541 million years ago with the Cambrian explosion – a period of time when life rapidly diversified. A plethora of life including the first land plants, dinosaurs and the first flowering plants all appeared during this aeon. It is only within this aeon that our atmosphere became one that we can actually breathe. This aeon has also been characterised by multiple mass extinction events that wiped out as much as 90 per cent of all species over short periods of time. The factors that brought on such devastation are thought to be a combination of large asteroid impacts, and volcanic, chemical and climate changes occurring on Earth at the time. From the point of view of our planet, the changes leading to these mass extinctions are relatively minor. However, for lifeforms at the time, such changes shattered their world and very often led to their complete extinction.

Looking at Earth’s long history, we find that we would have been incapable of living on our planet for most of its existence. Anatomically modern humans emerged less than 400,000 years ago; we have been around for less than 0.01 per cent of the Earth’s story. The only reason we find Earth habitable now is because of the vast and diverse biosphere that has for hundreds of millions of years evolved with and shaped our planet into the home we know today. Our continued survival depends on the continuation of Earth’s present state without any nasty bumps along the way. We are complex lifeforms with complex needs. We are entirely dependent on other organisms for all our food and the very air we breathe. The collapse of Earth’s ecosystems is the collapse of our life-support systems. Replicating everything Earth offers us on another planet, on timescales of a few human lifespans, is simply impossible.

Some argue that we need to colonise other planets to ensure the future of the human race. In 5 billion years, our Sun, a middle-aged star, will become a red giant, expanding in size and possibly engulfing Earth. In 1 billion years, the gradual warming of our Sun is predicted to cause Earth’s oceans to boil away. While this certainly sounds worrying, 1 billion years is a long, long time. A billion years ago, Earth’s landmasses formed the supercontinent Rodinia, and life on Earth consisted in single-celled and small multicellular organisms. No plants or animals yet existed. The oldest Homo sapiens remains date from 315,000 years ago, and until 12,000 years ago all humans lived as hunter-gatherers.

The industrial revolution happened less than 500 years ago. Since then, human activity in burning fossil fuels has been rapidly changing the climate, threatening human lives and damaging ecosystems across the globe. Without rapid action, human-caused climate change is predicted to have devastating global consequences within the next 50 years. This is the looming crisis that humanity must focus on. If we can’t learn to work within the planetary system that we evolved with, how do we ever hope to replicate these deep processes on another planet? Considering how different human civilisations are today from even 5,000 years ago, worrying about a problem that humans may have to tackle in a billion years is simply absurd. It would be far simpler to go back in time and ask the ancient Egyptians to invent the internet there and then. It’s also worth considering that many of the attitudes towards space colonisation are worryingly close to the same exploitative attitudes that have led us to the climate crisis we now face.

Earth is the home we know and love not because it is Earth-sized and temperate. No, we call this planet our home thanks to its billion-year-old relationship with life. Just as people are shaped not only by their genetics, but by their culture and relationships with others, planets are shaped by the living organisms that emerge and thrive on them. Over time, Earth has been dramatically transformed by life into a world where we, humans, can prosper. The relationship works both ways: while life shapes its planet, the planet shapes its life. Present-day Earth is our life-support system, and we cannot live without it.

While Earth is currently our only example of a living planet, it is now within our technological reach to potentially find signs of life on other worlds. In the coming decades, we will likely answer the age-old question: are we alone in the Universe? Finding evidence for alien life promises to shake the foundations of our understanding of our own place in the cosmos. But finding alien life does not mean finding another planet that we can move to. Just as life on Earth has evolved with our planet over billions of years, forming a deep, unique relationship that makes the world we see today, any alien life on a distant planet will have a similarly deep and unique bond with its own planet. We can’t expect to be able to crash the party and find a warm welcome.

Living on a warming Earth presents many challenges. But these pale in comparison with the challenges of converting Mars, or any other planet, into a viable alternative. Scientists study Mars and other planets to better understand how Earth and life formed and evolved, and how they shape each other. We look to worlds beyond our horizons to better understand ourselves. In searching the Universe, we are not looking for an escape to our problems: Earth is our unique and only home in the cosmos. There is no planet B.

The environment

We need to find a way for human societies to prosper while the planet heals. So far we can’t even think clearly about it

Ville Lähde

Alien life is no joke

Not long ago the search for extraterrestrials was considered laughable nonsense. Today, it’s serious and scientific

History of ideas

Reimagining balance

In the Middle Ages, a new sense of balance fundamentally altered our understanding of nature and society

Return of the descendants

I migrated to my ancestral homeland in a search for identity. It proved to be a humbling experience in (un)belonging

Jessica Buchleitner

Neuroscience

How to make a map of smell

We can split light by a prism, sounds by tones, but surely the world of odour is too complex and personal? Strangely, no

Jason Castro

The cell is not a factory

Scientific narratives project social hierarchies onto nature. That’s why we need better metaphors to describe cellular life

Charudatta Navare

English Compositions

Short Essay on Our Planet Earth [100, 200, 400 words] With PDF

Earth is the only planet that sustains life and ecosystems. In this lesson, you will learn to write essays in three different sets on the planet earth to help you in preparing for your upcoming examinations.

Short Essay on Our Planet Earth in 100 Words

Earth is a rare planet since it is the only one that can support life. On Earth, life is possible for various reasons, the most essential of which are the availability of water and the presence of oxygen. Earth is a member of the Solar System. The Earth, along with the other seven planets, orbits the Sun.

One spin takes approximately twenty-four hours, and one revolution takes 365 days and four hours. Day and night, as well as the changing of seasons, occurs due to rotation and revolution. However, we have jeopardized our planet by our sheer ignorance and negligence. We must practise conservation of resources and look after mother earth while we have time.

Short Essay on Our Planet Earth in 200 Words

Earth is a blue planet that is special from the rest of the planets because it is the only one to sustain life. The availability of water and oxygen are two of the most crucial factors that make life possible on Earth. The Earth rotates around the Sun, along with seven other planets in the solar system. It takes 24 hours to complete one rotation, and approximately 365 days and 4 hours to complete one revolution. Day and night, as well as changing seasons, are all conceivable due to these two movements. 

However, we are wasting and taking advantage of the natural resources that have been bestowed upon us. Overuse and exploitation of all-natural resources produce pollution to such an alarming degree that life on Earth is on the verge of extinction. The depletion of the ozone layer has resulted in global warming. The melting of glaciers has resulted in rising temperatures.

Many animals have become extinct or are endangered. To protect the environment, we must work together. Conversation, resource reduction, reuse, and recycling will take us a long way toward restoring the natural ecosystem. We are as unique as our home planet. We have superior intelligence, which we must employ for the benefit of all living beings. The Earth is our natural home, and we must create a place that is as good as, if not better than, paradise.

Short Essay on Our Planet Earth in 400 Words

Earth is a unique planet as it is the only planet that sustains life. Life is possible on Earth because of many reasons, and the most important among them is the availability of water and oxygen. Earth is a part of the family of the Sun. It belongs to the Solar System.

Earth, along with seven other planets, revolves around the Sun. It takes roughly twenty-four hours to complete one rotation and 365 days and 4 hours to complete one revolution. Rotation and revolution make day and night and change of seasons simultaneously possible. The five seasons we experience in one revolution are Spring, Summer, Monsoon, Autumn, and Winter.

However, we are misusing resources and exploiting the natural gifts that have been so heavily endowed upon us. Overuse and misuse of all the natural resources are causing pollution to such an extent that it has become alarming to the point of destruction. The most common form of pollution caused upon the earth by us is Air Pollution, Land Pollution, Water Pollution, and Noise Pollution.

This, in turn, had resulted in Ozone Layer Depletion and Global Warming. Due to ozone layer depletion, there harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun are reaching the earth. It, in turn, is melting glaciers and causing a rise in temperature every year. Many animals have either extinct or are endangered due to human activities.

Some extinct animals worldwide are Sabre-toothed Cat, Woolly Mammoth, Dodo, Great Auk, Stellers Sea Cow, Tasmanian Tiger, Passenger Pigeon, Pyrenean Ibex. The extinct animals in the Indian subcontinent are the Indian Cheetah, pink-headed duck, northern Sumatran rhinoceros, and Sunderban dwarf rhinoceros.

The endangered animals that are in need of our immediate attention in India are Royal Bengal Tiger, Snow leopard, Red panda, Indian rhinoceros, Nilgiri tahr, Asiatic lion, Ganges river dolphin, Gharial and Hangul, among others. We have exploited fossil fuels to such an extent that now we run the risk of using them completely. We must switch to alternative sources of energy that are nature friendly. Solar power, windmills, hydra power should be used more often, and deforestation must be made illegal worldwide.

We must come together to preserve the natural environment. Conversation, reduction, reuse and recycling of the resources will take us a long way in rebuilding the natural habitat. We are as unique as our planet earth. We have higher intelligence, and we must use it for the well-being of all living organisms. The Earth is our natural abode, and we must make a place as close to Paradise, if not better.

Hopefully, after going through this lesson, you have a holistic idea about our planet Earth. I have tried to cover every aspect that makes it unique and the reasons to practise conversation of natural resources. If you still have any doubts regarding this session, kindly let me know through the comment section below. To read more such essays on many important topics, keep browsing our website. 

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Essay on Earth For Students

Table of Contents

Essay on Earth: The Earth is our home, a remarkable planet that has provided the perfect conditions for life to thrive. From the vast oceans to the towering mountains, our planet is a diverse and incredible place. However, it is also facing significant challenges, such as climate change and environmental degradation. In this article, we will explore the importance of Earth, its beauty, and the urgent need for us to protect and preserve it for generations to come. We have provided sample essays of various lengths (100, 200, 400, and 500 words) to help you understand the significance of our planet and the need to protect it.

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Long and Short Essays on Earth

Whether you are looking for a short essay on Earth of 100 words or a long essay of 500 words, we have got you covered. Here we have provided sample essays on earth with all the information that you need.

Short Essay on Earth of 100 Words

The Earth, often referred to as the “Blue Planet,” is a remarkable celestial body in our solar system. It’s situated at just the right distance from the Sun, allowing it to maintain a stable climate and support a wide variety of life forms. Earth’s diverse landscapes, from towering mountains to vast oceans, offer a breathtaking tapestry of natural beauty.

Our planet is home to a rich tapestry of ecosystems, from dense rainforests teeming with wildlife to arid deserts adapted to harsh conditions. Earth’s atmosphere, composed of vital gases like oxygen and nitrogen, sustains life by providing the air we breathe.

In recent years, concerns about environmental degradation, climate change, and biodiversity loss have highlighted the need to protect our planet. As inhabitants of Earth, it’s our collective responsibility to conserve its natural resources, reduce pollution, and combat climate change to ensure a sustainable and habitable world for future generations.

Earth Essay of 250 Words

The Earth is our home, a beautiful and complex planet that supports and sustains life. It is the only known planet in the universe that can sustain life and has a diverse range of ecosystems, from the deep oceans to the tall mountains.

One of the most remarkable features of Earth is its abundance of water. About 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, creating vast oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers. Water is essential for all forms of life, and it plays a crucial role in the planet’s climate and weather patterns.

Another crucial aspect of Earth is its atmosphere. The Earth’s atmosphere is made up of a mixture of gases, primarily nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%). This atmosphere protects us from the harsh conditions of outer space, provides us with the air we breathe, and helps regulate the Earth’s temperature. The atmosphere also acts as a shield, blocking harmful radiation from reaching the surface.

The Earth is also home to a wide variety of living organisms, from microorganisms to plants and animals. Biodiversity is essential for the stability and health of ecosystems. Each organism has its role to play in the intricate web of life on Earth, ensuring the balance of ecosystems and the survival of all species.

In conclusion, the Earth is a remarkable and precious planet that sustains life in all its forms. We must recognize the importance of preserving and protecting the Earth’s resources and ecosystems to ensure a sustainable future for ourselves and future generations.

Essay on Earth of 400 Words

The Earth, often referred to as the “Blue Planet,” is a marvel of the cosmos. It is the third planet from the Sun in our solar system, distinguished by its unique ability to support a diverse range of life forms. Earth’s breathtaking landscapes, intricate ecosystems, and dynamic climate make it a planet like no other.

One of the most striking features of our planet is its diverse geography. From the highest peaks of the Himalayas to the deepest ocean trenches, Earth’s landscapes are a testament to the forces of nature. Mountains, deserts, forests, grasslands, and oceans provide habitats for a rich tapestry of flora and fauna, each uniquely adapted to their environments.

Earth’s oceans, covering more than 70% of its surface, are teeming with life. Coral reefs, kelp forests, and the open ocean are home to a dazzling array of marine species, from the smallest plankton to the largest whales. The oceans play a crucial role in regulating the planet’s climate and are a source of sustenance for millions of people around the world.

The Earth’s atmosphere, a mixture of gases, is essential for life as we know it. Oxygen, nitrogen, and trace gases make up the air we breathe, while the ozone layer shields us from harmful ultraviolet radiation. The atmosphere also influences the planet’s climate, with weather patterns and climatic zones varying across the globe.

However, the Earth is facing a host of environmental challenges. Human activities, such as deforestation, industrial emissions, pollution, and the burning of fossil fuels, have contributed to climate change and the loss of biodiversity. The consequences of these actions are becoming increasingly evident, with rising global temperatures, more frequent extreme weather events, and the decline of numerous species.

Addressing these challenges requires a collective effort from the global community. As inhabitants of Earth, we have a shared responsibility to protect and preserve our planet for current and future generations. This includes adopting sustainable practices, conserving natural resources, and reducing our ecological footprint.

Efforts to combat climate change, transition to renewable energy sources, and protect vulnerable ecosystems are critical steps in safeguarding the Earth’s future. Environmental conservation, wildlife protection, and the promotion of sustainable agriculture are essential components of responsible stewardship of our planet.

In conclusion, the Earth is a remarkable and fragile planet, home to an incredible diversity of life and natural wonders. It is our duty to act as caretakers of this planet, ensuring that it remains a habitable and vibrant world for generations to come. By embracing sustainable practices and taking proactive measures to address environmental challenges, we can protect the invaluable gift that is our home, the Earth.

Long Essay on Earth of 500 Words

The Earth is our home, a beautiful blue-green planet spinning gracefully in the vastness of space. It is the only known planet that can sustain life, making it incredibly precious and deserving of our care and protection. In this essay, we will explore some of the unique characteristics of Earth, the importance of preserving our planet, and the role each individual can play in making a positive impact on our environment.

Firstly, Earth’s diverse ecosystems make it an extraordinary place. From lush rainforests to expansive deserts, the planet is home to an immense variety of flora and fauna. The intricate balance of these ecosystems is crucial to the overall health of our planet. Each species, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, plays a vital role in maintaining this balance. For instance, bees are essential for pollinating flowers and plants, contributing to the production of fruits and seeds. Understanding the interconnectedness of all living beings on Earth reminds us of the importance of preserving biodiversity and ensuring the survival of each species.

Secondly, Earth’s natural resources sustain human life and support various industries. Freshwater sources provide drinking water and irrigation for crops that feed billions of people. Our oceans not only contain a vast array of marine life but also serve as a source of food for many communities. The Earth’s minerals and fossil fuels, while valuable for energy and construction, are finite resources that need to be used wisely. By practicing sustainable consumption and resource management, we can ensure that future generations have access to these vital resources.

Furthermore, Earth’s climate plays a pivotal role in our daily lives. The Earth’s atmosphere acts as a protective shield, filtering harmful radiation and regulating temperature. However, human activities have led to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in climate change. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and the melting of polar ice caps are just some of the consequences of this phenomenon. We must acknowledge our responsibility in climate change and strive to reduce our carbon footprint through initiatives such as using renewable energy sources, reducing waste, and promoting sustainable transportation.

The 21st century poses numerous environmental challenges, but it also presents opportunities for positive change. Each individual can make a difference in preserving and protecting our planet. Education and awareness are essential in ensuring that everyone understands the importance of environmental conservation. Small actions such as recycling, reducing water usage, and supporting local and sustainable products can collectively have a significant impact. Additionally, governments and corporations play a critical role in enacting policies and practices that prioritize sustainability and reduce emissions. Collaboration between different sectors of society is necessary to address the global environmental crisis effectively.

In conclusion, the Earth is a remarkable planet, providing a home for countless species and sustaining human life. Preserving our planet’s ecosystems, conserving natural resources, and addressing climate change are crucial for the well-being of future generations. Each individual has a role to play in making a positive impact on the environment, whether through personal lifestyle choices or collective action. It is our responsibility to protect our planet and ensure that it remains a place of beauty and sustenance for generations to come.

FAQs on Essay on Earth

What is earth often referred to as.

Earth is often referred to as the Blue Planet due to the abundance of water covering over 70% of its surface.

What percentage of Earth's surface is covered by oceans?

Over 70% of Earth's surface is covered by oceans, making them a defining feature of our planet.

What are the key challenges Earth faces today?

Earth faces challenges such as environmental degradation, climate change, and the loss of biodiversity, primarily driven by human activities.

Why is combating climate change important for Earth's future?

Combating climate change is crucial because it addresses rising global temperatures, sea-level rise, extreme weather events, and their impact on ecosystems, communities, and the planet's habitability.

What is the significance of raising awareness about environmental issues?

Raising awareness is vital to educate people about environmental challenges and inspire action to protect and preserve Earth's delicate balance.

What is the essay of Earth?

An essay about Earth provides a comprehensive exploration of our planet, including its geography, ecosystems, significance, and the environmental challenges it faces.

What is a short paragraph about the Earth?

Earth, also known as the Blue Planet, is a remarkable celestial body in our solar system, distinguished by its diverse landscapes, life-sustaining ecosystems, and the pressing need for environmental conservation.

What is Earth short notes?

The Earth, our home in the vast expanse of the cosmos, is a planet of unparalleled beauty, complexity, and significance. As the third planet from the Sun in our solar system, it occupies a unique position that has allowed life to flourish in all its diversity.

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Essay on Our Beautiful Earth

Students are often asked to write an essay on Our Beautiful Earth in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Our Beautiful Earth

Introduction.

Our Beautiful Earth is a unique planet brimming with life and beauty. It’s the only known celestial body to support life, making it extraordinary.

Earth’s Beauty

Earth’s beauty is diverse, from towering mountains to deep oceans. The changing seasons further enhance its charm, each bringing its own magic.

Nature’s Wonders

The Earth is home to various species of plants and animals. The diversity in ecosystems, from dense forests to arid deserts, is truly amazing.

Our Responsibility

As inhabitants, it’s our responsibility to preserve Earth’s beauty. By practicing sustainable living, we can ensure a healthy planet for future generations.

250 Words Essay on Our Beautiful Earth

Introduction: a blue marble in space.

Our beautiful Earth, a celestial body in the solar system, is an awe-inspiring testament to the universe’s capacity for life. It is a unique oasis, a ‘blue marble’ as seen from space, with its swirling clouds, blue oceans, and green landmasses.

The Earth’s Biodiversity

Earth’s biodiversity is a marvel, with millions of species coexisting in various ecosystems. From the microscopic organisms dwelling in the deepest trenches of the oceans to the gigantic mammals roaming the vast savannahs, Earth is a cradle of life. The intricate web of life forms an interconnected system, where each species plays a crucial role in maintaining the overall balance.

Earth’s Geographical Wonders

The geographical wonders of Earth are equally mesmerizing. Towering mountain ranges, expansive deserts, lush rainforests, tranquil lakes, and roaring rivers all contribute to the planet’s stunning beauty. Each geographical feature represents a different facet of Earth’s dynamic nature, shaped by millions of years of geological processes.

Human Interaction with Earth

Humans, as intelligent beings, have the privilege and responsibility of interacting with Earth in a mindful manner. Our actions can either enhance Earth’s beauty or lead to its degradation. The current environmental crisis is a stark reminder of the consequences of irresponsible interaction. Therefore, it is imperative to adopt sustainable practices to preserve Earth’s beauty for future generations.

Conclusion: A Call for Preservation

Our beautiful Earth is an irreplaceable gem in the vast cosmos. As we marvel at its beauty, we must also remember our duty to protect and preserve it. The Earth does not belong to us; we belong to the Earth. In this understanding lies the key to ensuring the continued beauty and vitality of our shared home.

500 Words Essay on Our Beautiful Earth

The splendor of our beautiful earth.

The Earth, our shared home, is an enchanting spectacle of life, diversity, and beauty. Its grandeur is not confined to its biological diversity, but extends to its geographical peculiarities, climatic variations, and the intricate harmony that exists among its various elements.

Geographical Diversity

Earth’s geographical diversity is a testament to its beauty. From the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas to the sandy dunes of the Sahara, the geographical variations are profound. The verdant Amazon rainforest, the expansive savannas of Africa, the serene beaches of the Caribbean, and the icy landscapes of the Arctic, all contribute to the Earth’s stunning panorama. Each geographical feature holds a unique charm, offering a different perspective of beauty.

Climatic Variations

The climatic variations on Earth further add to its allure. The Earth’s tilt and revolution result in distinct seasons, each with its unique characteristics. The blossoming of flowers in spring, the warmth of summer, the falling leaves of autumn, and the serenity of winter, all present a cyclic spectacle of change and renewal. These climatic variations not only add to the Earth’s beauty but also play a crucial role in the survival and evolution of various species.

Biodiversity: The Earth’s Living Tapestry

Earth’s biodiversity is another aspect that accentuates its beauty. It is home to an estimated 8.7 million species, each with its unique traits and roles in the ecosystem. From the microscopic organisms in the ocean depths to the majestic elephants in the African plains, life on Earth is a vibrant tapestry of interdependence and co-existence. This biodiversity is a testament to the Earth’s capacity to sustain life in all its forms, adding to the planet’s aesthetic and intrinsic value.

The Harmony of Earth

Perhaps the most striking feature of our beautiful Earth is the harmony that exists among its various elements. The water cycle, carbon cycle, and nitrogen cycle are all examples of how different components of the Earth interact to maintain balance. This intricate harmony is a testament to the Earth’s resilience and its ability to support life. The Earth’s beauty lies not just in its individual components, but in the way these components interact and co-exist to create a balanced and sustainable system.

While we marvel at the Earth’s beauty, we must also acknowledge our responsibility towards its preservation. The Earth’s beauty is under threat due to human activities like deforestation, pollution, and climate change. As inhabitants of this beautiful planet, it is our duty to protect and preserve it for future generations.

In conclusion, our Earth is a beautiful entity, a complex amalgamation of various elements working in harmony. Its beauty lies in its diversity, its capacity to sustain life, and its resilience. As we continue to explore and understand our planet, let’s also strive to protect and preserve its beauty. After all, there is no Planet B.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on My Earth My Responsibility
• Essay on Importance of Earth
• Essay on Importance of Earth Day

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3 female saints teach that Earth is our common mother and home

"Food Program in Guatemala" by Oblate of St. Francis de Sales Br. Mickey McGrath (Mickey McGrath)

by Mickey McGrath

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I was blessed in 2017 with a life-changing opportunity to travel to Guatemala with Catholic Relief Services and do nothing but sketch. I was only there for one week with a handful of other American observers, but what a life changing week it was. Our primary mission was to visit schools and other CRS-sponsored programs dedicated to education, but we also visited other sites and facilities such as the one depicted above in the drought-stricken and dusty hills of Quiche, home to Mayan Indians in the mountainous region of central Guatemala. 

I couldn't wait to sketch the mothers, many with babies wrapped in colorfully woven blankets, as they explained to us their struggles in the midst of drought and devastation. It was dusty and dry with no evidence of green vegetation of any kind, yet colorful balloons hung above our heads to celebrate our visit in a sign of their joyful welcome.

The woman on whose land we gathered opened with a lovely prayer in praise and thanks to God for the Earth. I later learned that Guatemalan farmers thank Mother Earth and ask her forgiveness before digging into the soil with their shovels and pickaxes. Meanwhile, in full view on a neighboring hillside was the rather ostentatious mansion of a local drug lord, which did not inspire me to draw even the littlest of thumbnail sketches. 

Earth is the lovingly maternal, beautifully feminine, life-giving evidence of our living, breathing God. And yet over time we have consistently missed that message and are now paying the price.  Tweet this

My visit to Guatemala and all the "terrible beauty" (to borrow  a phrase from Irish poet William Butler Yeats) I witnessed there have contributed to my ever-evolving awareness of Mother Earth and all of creation as gifts from God which we are meant to work with and nurture, not exploit and plunder. Earth is the lovingly maternal, beautifully feminine, life-giving evidence of our living, breathing God. And yet over time we have consistently missed that message and are now paying the price.

Since that visit to Guatemala, and maybe even because of it, I have come to take a fresh look at our concept of the Earth as humanity's common mother and home. And some of my favorite women saints from across times and cultures have stepped up and have inspired me with new levels of awareness and understanding.

Three of them are depicted standing beneath a tree in my recent drawing of Brigid of Ireland, Hildegard of Bingen and Kateri Tekakwitha; each of them was firmly rooted to the Earth while their spirits soared to the heavens. 

"Sisters of the Earth" by Br. Mickey McGrath (Mickey McGrath) 

The Indigenous people of Ireland, the Celts, were passionate in their love and respect for their very green homeland. And since the Romans never quite made it across the Irish Sea from Britain when they were conquering the rest of Europe, the Celts were able to preserve and maintain their unique cultural identity free of Roman interference — whether it be from the Empire or the church — until they couldn't.

Sts. Brigid, Patrick and Columcille, who are called the Irish Holy Trinity, each lived in these earlier, more free-spirited times wherein all of creation and her creatures were much clearer proofs of God's presence in our midst than all the later doctrines and dogmas combined.

A wild goose stands at Brigid's feet in my drawing because in the early days of Irish Christianity, the Holy Spirit was symbolized as a goose, not a dove. Brigid's close identification with nature was evidenced in the many stories and legends of her life involving her connection to creatures. She had a miraculous cow that never stopped giving milk to feed people in times of famine; she domesticated a fox and gave it to a chieftain whose own beloved pet fox had been killed by a peasant farmer.

Brigid also said that we should all see ourselves as midwives, male or female, whose job it is to give birth to Christ over and over again in our present world. Through us, Christ is eternally incarnate when we work together and make deep connections to each other, to all creatures and to Mother Earth herself. 

Later in the Middle Ages, Irish monks and mystics found their way onto the continent where they opened schools and monasteries or sometimes lived alone in hermitages. One of them, St. Disibod, became a natural remedies healer in Germany whose simple garden hermitage eventually became the site of a Benedictine monastery where Hildegard of Bingen began her brilliant career as a mystic and Doctor of the Church. She even wrote a biography of him because of his importance in her own spiritual development.

"St. Hildegard's Green Holy Spirit" by Br. Mickey McGrath (Mickey McGrath)

Hildegard, a Benedictine nun and "mere woman" (her words), possessed one of the most brilliant and creative minds in all of church history. She was a visionary who traveled up and down the Rhine River preaching the Word and fearlessly challenged popes, priests and emperors — not always successfully — to loosen their grips on power and privilege and come to Jesus. Perhaps the influence of her beloved Irish St. Disibod taught her about Brigid's strong maternal spirit. 

Hildegard worked with nature, not against it, and spoke out against human exploitation and destruction of the Earth. She once said, "Human beings are the thinking heart of the universe called to be co-creators with God in shaping the world." I think she would have got along famously with Jesuit Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in our own times because, like him, she felt that God's Sacred Heart pulses throughout the universe, from the depths of the Rhine to the farthest stars.

Hildegard taught that the Holy Spirit is green, as seen here in the green tinted dove she holds in her hands. Green is the color of newly emerging life in spring and the abundant vibrancy of summer. It is the color of Irish hills and German river banks. We can enjoy heaven right here on Earth, St. Hildegard said, if we can remain sensitive to the Earth's green freshness. She even coined a word for it: viriditas. A thousand years later, we need that same spirit of viriditas more than ever, just as we need Hildegard's celebration of the maternal, feminine, life-giving side of God.  

"St. Kateri Tekakwitha" by Br. Mickey McGrath (Mickey McGrath)

Pope Benedict canonized Kateri Tekakwitha in 2012, the same year he officially canonized Hildegard of Bingen and named her a Doctor of the Church. Kateri is now a patron saint of ecology and the environment along with Francis of Assisi.

Mohawk on her father's side and Algonquin on her mother's, Kateri embodied all the spiritual depth and awareness that comes with Indigenous cultures around the world. Born in what is now New York state, she was only 24 years old when she died outside what is now Montreal, Canada. She had lots of mystical life experience and many challenges in those two short decades. For Kateri, as for all Native people, creation and creatures lead us to the Creator, the Great Spirit, the God who is both divine father and mother at the same time.

Born into the Turtle Clan of the Mohawks, Kateri knew the tricky balancing act of being equally at home in the physical, masculine world of land and the feminine, spiritual realm of water. The Jesuit missionaries who knew her well reported that she loved to retreat into the woods every afternoon and prayed beneath a white oak tree that is still alive and well today. (You can view that tree in the woods behind her shrine in Fonda, New York.) And Kateri equally loved to meditate before the Blessed Sacrament in the various mission chapels where she lived. 

Servant of God Nicholas Black Elk, in keeping with his Lakota tradition, taught that the earth is our mother and grandmother and every step we take upon her should be done prayerfully. None of the three saintly women presented here were mothers themselves, but each heard the beat of God's maternal heart in the hills of Ireland, Germany and North America, and each felt the breeze of the feminine spirit of God as it flowed from the Shannon to the Rhine to the Mohawk Rivers.

More than ever in these treacherous times we too must rediscover — and reverence — the presence of God in our midst, just as I was blessed to experience it with those beautiful Mayan mothers in the mountains of Guatemala. 

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Hometown — Home is Where the Heart Is: An Exploration of the Meaning

Home is Where The Heart Is: an Exploration of The Meaning

• Categories: Hometown

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Published: Sep 12, 2023

Words: 682 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

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Introduction, the emotional attachment to home, impact on personal values and beliefs, home as a place of comfort, security, and belonging.

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At Disney World, adult visitors increasingly mix remote work and play

When working remotely on a laptop, technically, a worker can be anywhere. They could even be at Disney World.

From Disney bloggers and freelance journalists to tech industry professionals, travel agents and people with double monitors at Epcot, adult Disney World fans are documenting their remote work habit from inside the parks in social media posts.

It’s a phenomenon that has gained steam since around 2022, with a post-pandemic surge of people returning to the theme parks and the rise of both remote work and jobs in which people never truly sign off.

“People want to move to Orlando, they want to feel like they live in Disney World,” said AJ Wolfe, who has been writing about Disney parks, including via her popular Disney Food Blog , for more than 15 years. “You’re closer to the place that makes you happy, and you can access it much more quickly when you’re done working.”

Wolfe has been working in the parks and advising people where the best places are to work within them for almost as long. Since the parks reopened in late 2020 after Covid-19 forced their first-ever extended closure, Wolfe said she’s been noticing more people purposefully choosing to work remotely from inside Disney World.

“Lines are blurring between conventional workspaces and leisure time across the board,” she said. “I think people are adopting and looking to adopt a situation where they can work at the same time they’re experiencing something they enjoy.”

Disney World’s committed and vociferous fan base — there are dozens of online communities and creators dedicated to almost everything about the parks — has wrestled with the remote work practices.

The emerging practice has drawn some disbelief — and criticism. In late April, an Orlando resident posted on the Disney World subreddit about setting up a workspace at a cafe that opened in 2022 in Epcot. The thread had to be locked after users started complaining that the remote worker could be taking up a table that other guests wanted to use to eat (the post was from a Tuesday afternoon and the cafe appeared mostly empty).

Disney has also installed more places throughout the resort where people can charge their phones, since the mobile Disney World app has become an essential part of the experience — guests use it to bypass lines, order food, scan tickets, check wait times and more. Many counter service and cafe-style restaurants inside the parks have places to charge your devices. The newer wireless charging ports, like at the Epcot cafe, and outlets have in turn provided a place for people to plug in their tablet or laptop.

“I think they also probably realized that would also benefit folks who have just moved to Orlando to be closer to the parks and need some place to work,” Wolfe said.

Walt Disney World didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The rise of remote work at Disney World is accompanied by the steady growth of online content related to Disney Parks in general. Wolfe, who is working on a book about the “ Disney Adults ” phenomenon, said online “side hustles” related to Disney World are becoming more common.

Some of the people who have posted about working inside Disney World also offer travel-planning services to other Disney fans. Dozens of people have full-time jobs creating daily content about and from within the Disney parks, posting on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and blogs. They are almost never officially affiliated with The Walt Disney Co. They often fall somewhere between independent media and professional fans .

Separately, there are even more people who don’t make money from posting about Disney, but instead find community from sharing their Disney experiences online.

“It’s that vibe of ‘Epcot is my coffee shop,’” Wolfe said. “Instead of ‘I’m going to close my laptop and start watching Netflix,’ it’s like, ‘I’m going to close my laptop and go on Spaceship Earth.’”

Kat Tenbarge is a tech and culture reporter for NBC News Digital. She can be reached at [email protected]

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The Science of Siblings

Venus and earth used to look like 'twin' planets. what happened.

Regina G. Barber

Credit: Lily Padula for NPR

The Science of Siblings is a series exploring the ways our siblings can influence us, from our money and our mental health all the way down to our very molecules. We'll be sharing these stories over the coming weeks.

Ask which planet in the solar system is Earth's closest sibling, and many people might point to Mars. It orbits nearby, just a little farther from the Sun. It was born at the same time and with the same stuff as Earth. And it is thought to have once had rivers and lakes, even oceans. NASA has sent rovers to its surface to help us learn whether the 'red planet' could have once hosted life.

But there are planetary scientists who would tell you to look in the other direction, to a planet that's far less explored but is actually closer to Earth in size, looks, composition and actual distance ... that is, toward Venus.

Scientists who study Venus affectionately call themselves Venusians. They like to refer to Venus as Earth's twin.

Martha Gilmore is a proud Venusian and a professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Wesleyan University. She says that in the past, our planet would not have looked so different from its two neighbors.

"If you were an alien visiting our solar system 4 billion years ago, you would see three rocky planets, each of which had oceans," Gilmore says.

Those planets — Earth, Mars, and Venus — look very different from each other today. Earth is a temperate, blue-green marble transformed by living things. Meanwhile, its siblings have migrated to two extremes: Mars is a dry, cold, dusty planet with a paper-thin atmosphere, and Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, covered in a thick atmosphere that quickly destroys even nonliving visitors from Earth.

That's not an exaggeration: Ten probes that have made it to the Venusian surface; none of them have lasted more than two hours. Venus experiences temperatures over 800 degrees Fahrenheit and pressures that are more than 75 times that of what we experience on Earth.

So what happened to those ancient oceans on our two closest planets — and why is the surface of Venus such a harsh environment today?

For planets, size and location matter

Temperature and pressure are what set Venus apart from Earth. Gilmore says these differences stem from a couple of factors: distance from the sun, and the internal heat of the planet itself.

• COMIC: Our sun was born with thousands of other stars. Where did they all go?

All planets are born with a certain amount of heat from when they were created, says Gilmore, who explains this phenomenon to her students using a holiday dinner.

"It's like Thanksgiving. You have a hot potato, you know, baked potato and you've got peas and you want to eat that potato, but it's too hot. But the peas, they're ready to go because they have radiated out their heat because they're small."

Mars is a smaller potato, so it lost its heat faster. Venus and Earth were similarly sized spuds, so they should have cooled at the same rate.

But other than internal heat, there was something else keeping Venus warm: the sun. Because Venus sits much closer to the sun, it receives more of its energy. And that extra bit of energy, delivered over billions of years, is a big reason that Venus's atmosphere became far more intense than what we experience on Earth.

A delicate balance

Atmospheres act like "cozy blankets," Gilmore says. On Earth, for example, the atmosphere helps keep the planet habitable by shielding life from radiation and also keeps the surface at temperatures that we humans can live in. And to have a stable atmosphere, a planet needs a few things: volcanism, sufficient mass, and oceans.

"You have to be hot enough, big enough to have volcanism," says Gilmore, because volcanoes are powered by a planet's internal heat. Those volcanoes pump out the gasses that make up an atmosphere. But once that atmosphere is in place, a planet has to also be big enough that its gravity can actually "hold on to [that] blanket."

While Mars started out similar to Venus and Earth, its smaller size meant that its gravity wasn't strong enough to hold onto the small amount of atmosphere it had developed when it had oceans in its early life. And as Mars cooled down its volcanic activity slowed down ... and eventually stopped.

The problem is, planets actually need volcanoes to constantly replenish their atmospheres, because those atmospheres are constantly being lost to space, Gilmore explains.

"At the top of our atmosphere right now, there are all kinds of nasty rays that are eroding the atmosphere away, like cosmic rays and solar rays," she says.

So Mars's atmosphere was slowly eaten away — becoming so thin that water could no longer remain liquid on the surface. Some of it escaped to space, and some of it ended up frozen in ice.

For birds, siblinghood can be a matter of life or death

Meanwhile, Venus was so close to the sun that its oceans boiled away. Volcanoes also continued to pump out stuff like carbon dioxide — which is a potent greenhouse gas.

Earth's atmosphere also has carbon dioxide, but our oceans help moderate its heat-trapping effects by sucking up excess carbon and eventually turning it into rock. That's why it's so crucial to take care of our oceans, Gilmore says.

"Once you get rid of an ocean, you turn off the major mechanism to store carbon dioxide in rock," Gilmore says. "And therefore, it just stays in the atmosphere. And the greenhouse effect takes over, and you get a super, super hot blanket."

The runaway greenhouse effect that makes Venus uninhabitable to life as we know it on Earth is something scientists worry about when studying the effects of climate change. Currently humans pump out 100 times more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere than volcanoes do annually.

Venus is the closest exoplanet

Studying Venus could give scientists insights of what a world looks like when there are no carbon sinks left. But it also happens to be the closest 'Earth-like' planet that researchers know of.

Hundreds of planets found outside of our solar system are Earth-sized and may be habitable. But these planets are so far away that sending spacecraft to investigate them will not be feasible for many generations.

Venus, Gilmore says, is much closer by. It's somewhere that we visited before, and can visit again. Earth is scientists' first data point on what a habitable planet can look like — but Venus's past could give us a glimpse of another planet that was once habitable before it was altered forever.

More from the Science of Siblings series:

• In the womb, a brother's hormones can shape a sister's future
• These identical twins both grew up with autism, but took very different paths
• astrobiology

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Guest Essay

A Year on Ozempic Taught Me We’re Thinking About Obesity All Wrong

By Johann Hari

Mr. Hari is a British journalist and the author of “Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits — and Disturbing Risks — of the New Weight Loss Drugs.”

Ever since I was a teenager, I have dreamed of shedding a lot of weight. So when I shrank from 203 pounds to 161 in a year, I was baffled by my feelings. I was taking Ozempic, and I was haunted by the sense that I was cheating and doing something immoral.

I’m not the only one. In the United States (where I now split my time), over 70 percent of people are overweight or obese, and according to one poll, 47 percent of respondents said they were willing to pay to take the new weight-loss drugs. It’s not hard to see why. They cause users to lose an average of 10 to 20 percent of their body weight, and clinical trials suggest that the next generation of drugs (probably available soon) leads to a 24 percent loss, on average. Yet as more and more people take drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, we get more confused as a culture, bombarding anyone in the public eye who takes them with brutal shaming.

This is happening because we are trapped in a set of old stories about what obesity is and the morally acceptable ways to overcome it. But the fact that so many of us are turning to the new weight-loss drugs can be an opportunity to find a way out of that trap of shame and stigma — and to a more truthful story.

In my lifetime, obesity has exploded, from being rare to almost being the norm. I was born in 1979, and by the time I was 21, obesity rates in the United States had more than doubled . They have skyrocketed since. The obvious question is, why? And how do these new weight-loss drugs work? The answer to both lies in one word: satiety. It’s a concept that we don’t use much in everyday life but that we’ve all experienced at some point. It describes the sensation of having had enough and not wanting any more.

The primary reason we have gained weight at a pace unprecedented in human history is that our diets have radically changed in ways that have deeply undermined our ability to feel sated. My father grew up in a village in the Swiss mountains, where he ate fresh, whole foods that had been cooked from scratch and prepared on the day they were eaten. But in the 30 years between his childhood and mine, in the suburbs of London, the nature of food transformed across the Western world. He was horrified to see that almost everything I ate was reheated and heavily processed. The evidence is clear that the kind of food my father grew up eating quickly makes you feel full. But the kind of food I grew up eating, much of which is made in factories, often with artificial chemicals, left me feeling empty and as if I had a hole in my stomach. In a recent study of what American children eat, ultraprocessed food was found to make up 67 percent of their daily diet. This kind of food makes you want to eat more and more. Satiety comes late, if at all.

One scientific experiment — which I have nicknamed Cheesecake Park — seemed to me to crystallize this effect. Paul Kenny, a neuroscientist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, grew up in Ireland. After he moved in 2000 to the United States in his 20s, he gained 30 pounds in two years. He began to wonder if the American diet has some kind of strange effect on our brains and our cravings, so he designed an experiment to test it. He and his colleague Paul Johnson raised a group of rats in a cage and gave them an abundant supply of healthy, balanced rat chow made out of the kind of food rats had been eating for a very long time. The rats would eat it when they were hungry, and then they seemed to feel sated and stopped. They did not become fat.

But then Dr. Kenny and his colleague exposed the rats to an American diet: fried bacon, Snickers bars, cheesecake and other treats. They went crazy for it. The rats would hurl themselves into the cheesecake, gorge themselves and emerge with their faces and whiskers totally slicked with it. They quickly lost almost all interest in the healthy food, and the restraint they used to show around healthy food disappeared. Within six weeks, their obesity rates soared.

After this change, Dr. Kenny and his colleague tweaked the experiment again (in a way that seems cruel to me, a former KFC addict). They took all the processed food away and gave the rats their old healthy diet. Dr. Kenny was confident that they would eat more of it, proving that processed food had expanded their appetites. But something stranger happened. It was as though the rats no longer recognized healthy food as food at all, and they barely ate it. Only when they were starving did they reluctantly start to consume it again.

Though Dr. Kenny’s study was in rats, we can see forms of this behavior everywhere. We are all living in Cheesecake Park — and the satiety-stealing effect of industrially assembled food is evidently what has created the need for these medications. Drugs like Ozempic work precisely by making us feel full. Carel le Roux, a scientist whose research was important to the development of these drugs, says they boost what he and others once called “satiety hormones.”

Once you understand this context, it becomes clear that processed and ultraprocessed food create a raging hole of hunger, and these treatments can repair that hole. Michael Lowe, a professor of psychology at Drexel University who has studied hunger for 40 years, told me the drugs are “an artificial solution to an artificial problem.”

Yet we have reacted to this crisis largely caused by the food industry as if it were caused only by individual moral dereliction. I felt like a failure for being fat and was furious with myself for it. Why do we turn our anger inward and not outward at the main cause of the crisis? And by extension, why do we seek to shame people taking Ozempic but not those who, say, take drugs to lower their blood pressure?

The answer, I think, lies in two very old notions. The first is the belief that obesity is a sin. When Pope Gregory I laid out the seven deadly sins in the sixth century, one of them was gluttony, usually illustrated with grotesque-seeming images of overweight people. Sin requires punishment before you can get to redemption. Think about the competition show “The Biggest Loser,” on which obese people starve and perform extreme forms of exercise in visible agony in order to demonstrate their repentance.

The second idea is that we are all in a competition when it comes to weight. Ours is a society full of people fighting against the forces in our food that are making us fatter. It is often painful to do this: You have to tolerate hunger or engage in extreme forms of exercise. It feels like a contest in which each thin person creates additional pressure on others to do the same. Looked at in this way, people on Ozempic can resemble cyclists like Lance Armstrong who used performance-enhancing drugs. Those who manage their weight without drugs might think, “I worked hard for this, and you get it for as little as a weekly jab?”

We can’t find our way to a sane, nontoxic conversation about obesity or Ozempic until we bring these rarely spoken thoughts into the open and reckon with them. You’re not a sinner for gaining weight. You’re a typical product of a dysfunctional environment that makes it very hard to feel full. If you are angry about these drugs, remember the competition isn’t between you and your neighbor who’s on weight-loss drugs. It’s between you and a food industry constantly designing new ways to undermine your satiety. If anyone is the cheat here, it’s that industry. We should be united in a struggle against it and its products, not against desperate people trying to find a way out of this trap.

There are extraordinary benefits as well as disturbing risks associated with weight-loss drugs. Reducing or reversing obesity hugely boosts health, on average: We know from years of studying bariatric surgery that it slashes the risks of cancer, heart disease and diabetes-related death. Early indications are that the new anti-obesity drugs are moving people in a similar radically healthier direction, massively reducing the risk of heart attack or stroke. But these drugs may increase the risk for thyroid cancer. I am worried they diminish muscle mass and fear they may supercharge eating disorders. This is a complex picture in which the evidence has to be weighed very carefully.

But we can’t do that if we remain lost in stories inherited from premodern popes or in a senseless competition that leaves us all, in the end, losers. Do we want these weight loss drugs to be another opportunity to tear one another down? Or do we want to realize that the food industry has profoundly altered the appetites of us all — leaving us trapped in the same cage, scrambling to find a way out?

Johann Hari is a British journalist and the author of “Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits — and Disturbing Risks — of the New Weight Loss Drugs,” among other books.

Source photographs by seamartini, The Washington Post, and Zana Munteanu via Getty Images.

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