I know most people on this site will probably get it. Sadly,

[Baitball Blogger]

there are people out there still working to find financial stability in their lives that won't take the time to see what's under their nose. Maybe, when they get older, they'll realize what most of us here see. The planet Earth, as it was, and still is, is a perfect world. Life on this planet, with its biodiversity and amazing seasonal changes is a miracle. How life has managed to adapt to this incredible blue marble is one in a triple trillion.

This is what always crosses my mind when I see how those with financial resources keep lighting a rocket to their chariots to seek a more perfect landing, somewhere else in space.

I'm in the last trimester of my life and I know that I'll never see space, and I'm okay with that. Each time I see one of those rockets take off I console myself with the fact that if I were ever a space explorer, what I would be seeking to find will never be as perfect as our planet Earth. Too many generations will be lost sorting through foreign dirt and rocks, working through hostile environments just to grow a seedling of green. And that, we have so much here on Earth. If only we can take the time to see it.

So, here's hoping a new breed will come forward to support and lobby the case for Planet Earth. Here's hoping that what we've experienced in the last two years will give us a keen eye on protecting what we have. What we've taken for granted for too long.

Here's hoping that 2022 will be a new beginning.

Happy New Year to all! The year we begin to think positive!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I love your hopeful message, my dear Baitball Blogger! It made me smile.

If we don't value what we have, we are at great risk to lose it.

And that would be truly awful.

Happy New Year!

[Baitball Blogger]

2. Wishing you the best in 2022, CaliforniaPeggy.

[wyn borkins]

3. I'm Planning For A Positive New Beginning In 2022

And I'm hoping you have a pleasant New Year with considerable happiness (!)

[Scrivener7]

4. As the man in the movie says, "We really did have everything, didn't we?"

Happy New Year to you.

Yes. 2022 is a new start.

[2naSalit]

5. K&R

I agree with much of this perspective, I hope things start getting better as the year progresses, something akin to the opposite of the past year.

[OLDMDDEM]

6. Your entry

was spot on. I just sent an email to my whole family basically saying what you have said. Thank you for that.

Have a safe and prosperous New Year. I am also in the last trimester of my life.

[FakeNoose]

7. I am positively hopeful for 2022

... as we all should be. I mean, what else is left if we don't have hope?

[Cracklin Charlie]

8. Think positive?

I’m ready!

Happy New Year, Baitball Blogger!

[underpants]

9. 🥳 Happy New Year

[Buckeyeblue]

10. I'm good with not going to space as well

I'm happy with a warm summer night in a place void of light pollution when I can look up at the vast and overwhelming swell of stars and let my mind wonder what "goes on for ever" means. I'm almost 52 and I still can't quite get my mind around that.

Individually, no matter how many friends and family surround us, we are all alone in this world. It's both frightening and beautiful.

[Jilly_in_VA]

11. I'm hopeful for the younger generation

I have a grandson who is planning to major in environmental science. This humongous (6'4, 265#), soft spoken kid has given up football and wants to do something to make living here on earth better.

[PufPuf23]

12. Thank you for what you wrote here Baitball B.

I am in my last 10% at best of life and agree with you about the wonder and beauty of Planet Earth.

I find myself ever more disappointed with most of humanity at just about any scale.

But see that there are people, young people, keeping the dream of life of humans living and respecting and loving the paradise and each other.

What else is there?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. I would love to go into space myself, but that's not going to happen, alas.

It's likely that we will never get to other solar systems, and actually colonizing any of the planets or moons in this one looks increasingly unlikely.

I recommend How to Die in Space by Paul M. Sutter. Eyeopening about how truly dangerous it is out there.

[Baitball Blogger]

16. I don't believe we'll make it to other solar systems on our own.

Which is my way of saying that I believe there is alien life out there, and probably more advanced than we are.

You have to wonder what they're expecting to see from us, before they are willing to show themselves. Without knowing more about their nature, it's a toss up. Evil or benevolent? Maybe I'll get to know the answer before my time is up.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

32. That there are others out there who are watching us is

a commonly held belief, with essentially zero basis in fact. Or even probability.

For one thing, according to My Son The Astronomer, most in his field think we may well be the first advanced technological civilization in our galaxy. Forget about other galaxies. They are really much too far away to count.

Which brings me to just how vast interstellar distances are. Even travelling at c (the speed of light), the nearest star is four years away. Most are a lot farther. And you can't just invoke FTL drive, as, again according to My Son The Astronomer that just isn't, can't happen. And no, you don't get to invoke "Oh, they're millions of years more advanced than we are!" to get FTL. No, black holes won't solve the problem. You'll be killed getting into one. Period.

Again, read How to Die in Space. It covers all of these topics.

[Chainfire]

14. I am glad that other people are optimistic. That ship sailed for me.

I have lost hope for future generations. There is a reckoning coming, ecological and political, probably intertwined, it is just a matter of time. I hope that I don't outlive it.

[llashram]

15. last also

here's hoping

[tosh]

17. Beautiful message!

Thank you.

[ancianita]

18. Yep, and 99% of all astrophysicists agree with you.

The rocket charioteers are looking to start businesses in the sky, that's all.

Happy New Year to you, as well.

[Fla Dem]

19. I do not think we will ever, not in a hundred, not in a thousand, not in a million years

find a planet that will equal what we know and love as the Earth. There may be other intelligent life out there and maybe even a handful of planets with a sustainable atmosphere and environment, but we'll never see them.

I will probably not live long enough to see the demise of our home planet due to the pollution of the oceans, water and air. But I do weep for the next generation, the one after that and the ones after that.

Unless there are serious and committed world wide efforts to control pollution, life as we know it on Earth will no longer exist. The Climate Summit which was held in November got scant coverage on the the major news outlets. In fact unless there is a major climate related event like the recent flooding in Germany, or the violent F5 tornado in Kentucky, very little is reported on an ongoing basis about our climate emergency. While progress was made in agreements to cut back on methane, there is no real punitive action that can be taken against countries that do not follow through on the agreements made at the summit.
Pledges made in the last decade have fallen far short of their goals.

A decade ago, the world’s wealthiest economies pledged to mobilize $100 billion per year in climate finance for poorer countries by 2020. But they have fallen short by tens of billions of dollars annually. The COP26 agreement still leaves many developing countries without the funds they need to build cleaner energy and cope with increasingly extreme weather disasters.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/13/climate/cop26-climate-summit-takeaways.html

6 takeaways from the U.N. climate conference.
By The New York Times
Nov. 13, 2021

Before it started, the United Nations global climate summit in Glasgow known as COP26 was billed by its chief organizer as the “last, best hope” to save the planet.

Halfway through, optimistic reviews of its progress noted that heads of state and titans of industry showed up in force to start the gathering with splashy new climate promises, a sign that momentum was building in the right direction. The pessimistic outlook? Gauzy promises mean little without concrete plans to follow through. The Swedish activist Greta Thunberg accused the conference of consisting of a lot of “blah, blah, blah.”

On Saturday, diplomats from nearly 200 countries struck a major agreement aimed at intensifying efforts to fight climate change, by calling on governments to return next year with stronger plans to curb their planet-warming emissions and urging wealthy nations to “at least double” funding by 2025 to protect the most vulnerable nations from the hazards of a hotter planet.

More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/13/climate/cop26-climate-summit-takeaways.html

So Like you I hope 2022 is a turning point. That world governments will see how their own countries are being negatively impacted and there will be a renewed commitment to work to save Mother Earth. Here's hoping!

In the meantime, All the best everyone for a healthy and wonderful 2022!

[calimary]

20. A seriously GREAT meditation, Baitball Blogger!

Thank you so much for this!

Our precious planet. We need to keep Mother Earth HIGH UP in our thoughts - while we still have a little time to save her.

[allegorical oracle]

21. Exactly...

Like you, I treasure the planet we have. Each time I see a new billion-dollars space exploration, I fear I'm a Luddite -- yet, at the same time, also fear that with new possibilities of other planets to which humans can travel or live, we will consign our Earth to the disposable junk pile alongside last year's laptop. Just hope we can trust the upcoming generations to realize the glorious beauty of what we have and how precious it is.

[TeamProg]

22. To survive and thrive, all humans would have to denounce both greed and the desire

to 'keep up with the Jones'. That is not going to happen.

Humans seem to have a psychological survival defense mechanism: we let go of the most painful events in our lives, like the pain of childbirth, lost loves, losses from risks, trauma.

It's in our DNA to forget the horrors of life so we continue to multiply - it's that simple.

Most of us will always have a positive attitude and sense of wanting to improve the world, but that does not make it so.

We can adapt, sure, but to a world that will be in dire shape from pollution, climate change, ocean rise, but we can adapt and we'll mostly try to keep a positive attitude.

Time really flies by as we age, so if you're about half-way years-wise, figure that it's more like two-thirds of your life has passed because the months and years seem to get shorter and shorter.

The reason for this is:

When you are five yrs old, one year is a FIFTH of your total life experience. A year is a looooong time.

When you are 20 yrs, one year is one-twentieth. A year is a pretty long time!

When you're 50, one year is a fiftieth of your total life experience. The years are starting to go fast.

When you're 85, a year is like what three months used to be.


Keep your chin up! Be happy or find happiness where you can.

Cheers to 2022!

[liberalmuse]

23. Beautifully said.

And a wonderful message to take with us into the New year.

[senseandsensibility]

24. Very well said

and I appreciate that you tried to be uplifting as well. That's really hard these days. Happy New Year, my friend.

[LisaM]

25. You are so right.

I'm sick of these Lost Boys and their quests. They can't even enjoy driving a car. They need to add in movies and video games.

There is plenty of perfect stuff to enjoy here and I am sorry they lack the tools to do it.

[Lonestarblue]

26. Thank you to all the DU posters and commenters. You educate me every day.

And may 2022 be the year we start regaining our democracy! Happy New Year!

[jeffreyi]

27. Beautiful message. Thanks.

[Martin Eden]

28. We've been blessed with a beautiful life sustaining planet.

Preserving this blessing for future generations should be our highest priority.

[Jetheels]

29. It's true how rare this planet is. And it took several billion years to form into its current

state, to be able to develop and support life.
It didn’t just come ready made.
The amount of one in a billion things that had to happen for the earth to become what it is, like the moon, tides, poles, atmosphere, etc, I doubt there are others like this planet.
Happy New Year everyone!

[wendyb-NC]

30. Wonderful message of hope

I agree with you. Planet earth has loved us, well. Now we must love her back.

[Solomon]

31. K&R

[LunaSea]

33. The advocates of space development are already there

with the ultimate goal of reducing our dependence on extraction of the earths resources.
The inner system has everything we need for the next thousand years if we are smart enough to figure out how to get them while also shrinking our industrial footprint here on earth.

I wish you could have been sitting next to me at the countless meetings of aerospace startups and
even NASA headquarters where just such ideas were repeatedly expressed. It's among the primary reason
most of them keep on pushing through most of their lives as they face the long series of disappointments
that follow most aerospace careers and endeavours. Many burn out. But many others are still at it every single day
well into their old age. They know why they do it.

Those aging, would-be explorers among us who are a bit sad at their own prospect of space exploration should remember
that in their own single lifetime they've seen more of the cosmos than all the generations before. the outer planets went from fuzzy blobs in the best telescopes, and places only artists could go to the detailed spheres that are beginning to reveal the secrets of how they came to be. And now we become aware of more distant worlds, places more weird and exotic than any science fiction ever dreamed of.
And you were there to witness it. You pitched in a few pennies a year.
You made it happen.

I'm really looking forward to what you make happen next.

[jaxexpat]

34. I can dig positive thinking. Good on you!

Just thought, while perusing your expat earthlings search for another planet suitable for habitation, do people stop to think it through? That when they, through all their explorations and calculations, find the most perfect planet, they'll find us already there? Maybe they could make their search easier by simply identifying the planets with the most manufactured debris in close orbit.

[DiamondShark]

35. Thank you, Happy New Year n/t

[jaxexpat]

36. If Democrats find themselves discourteously shoved aside. There's a template for this.

Remember the hapless European official rudely shoved aside by the orange, ham-handed one? All for prominence at a photo-shoot.

[LoisB]

37. Hear, hear!

[Demovictory9]

38. Happy New Year. Thanks for the kinda of hopeful message.

[markie]

39. listening to

"Science Friday" book ideas today... forgot which book but the author said "never use the term Natural Disaster" ...and that is because w/o humans there are no natural disasters... it is because of us that these events are "disasters"

very astute


Let us all celebrate and root for Planet Earth!

[Woodwizard]

40. We can do both

Exploration fuels curiosity and spurs technology.

Byproducts of space development like improved solar panels power my house many innovations came from space programs.

Greed and destruction of resources comes from all over

[Stuart G]

41. ONE OF THE BYPRODUCTS OF SPACE DEVELOPMENT..Small computers..like the one you are using right now!

[Woodwizard]

43. Yea to think they landed on the moon with

the computing power of a Commodore64, long way in a short time.

Many many innovations from space.

[llmart]

45. Thank you for posting what I was going to say.

My son, the NASA rocket scientist feels the same way. Humans and exploration of the unknown have and always will be with us, thankfully. So, too will humans and exploitation. The goal is to value exploration without exploitation.

[Celerity]

42. The earth is likely fucked long term for people my age (25) and younger

in terms of it being remotely as hospitable as it was. The Thwaites Glacier collapse, which is likely within 10 or so years, especially once the ice shelf goes in the next 4, 5 years, is enough to raise global sea levels 2 feet, and IF it draws in most or all the adjacent glaciers, it could cause rises in the 7 to 10 feet range.

Hundreds of millions, maybe over a billion plus perma flooded out, their home areas destroyed. Planet wide catastrophes and multiple murderous region resource/migration wars.

The several generations right before us were warned and warned, and for far too long did the equivalent of fuckall, and even doubled-down with lunacy like fracking. All fancy shit chat, empty and/or false promises, and little action that amounts to real mitigational and/or reversing impact over the long term. Just draw-bridging, and/or normalcy bias gaslighting, and/or 'I got mine so fuck you' posturing and actions.

Still raging over being lied to about those bloody drilling leases. Simply more Drill Baby Drill! (or in Manchin's case, Coal Baby Coal!) bollocks, just wrapped with a blue bow instead if a red one. That move alone has cost so much credibility with people my age that I speak with around the world, but I am sure that not only doesn't matter to a sizable chunk of the board, based on my 3 and a half years of observation, but makes me a target for attacks.

I do not care, as there are so few of us younger folk here, so I feel obligated to speak up, regardless of how uncomfortable I make some. We are entitled to a voice here, small though it may be. If you want 'Nothing to see here, all is totally fine and perfect from our end' lockstep, automaton cheerleading, go watch an NFL game or a Trump rally.


Revealed: Biden administration was not legally bound to auction gulf drilling rights

Justice department admits a previous ruling did not force the detonation of what environmentalists call ‘huge carbon bomb’

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/13/revealed-biden-administration-was-not-legally-bound-to-auction-gulf-drilling-rights

The Biden administration admitted that a court decision did not compel it to lease vast tracts of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling, shortly before claiming it was legally obliged to do so when announcing the sell-off, the Guardian can reveal.

Last month, the US government held the largest-ever auction of oil and gas drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico’s history, offering up more than 80m acres of the gulf’s seabed for fossil fuel extraction. The enormous sale, which took place just four days after crucial UN climate talks in Scotland, represented a spectacular about-turn from Joe Biden’s previous promise to halt offshore drilling and was denounced by outraged environmental groups as a “huge carbon bomb”.

The president’s administration insisted it was obliged to hold the lease sale due to a court ruling in favor of a dozen states that sued to lift a blanket pause placed on new drilling permits by Biden.

But a memo filed by the US Department of Justice before the lease sale acknowledges that this judgement does not force the government to auction off drilling rights to the gulf.

snip

[Woodwizard]

44. Unfortunately

a large percentage of your generation is oblivious to what is going on, vocal minorities have been screaming from the rooftops for decades.

I have been into sustainable energy all my life people on average just don't care, out of almost all my "concerned progressive friends"
Only one other has put solar on their house and improved on other energy efficiency. Biggest excuse on solar is "I am worried about my roof" Or they think they need thousands of dollars in batteries. Some self education goes a long way.

My daughter friends are for the most part oblivious they are in their early 30's.

I hope the general population wakes the hell up.

[malaise]

46. Thanks for a beautiful OP

Happy New Year!