Your Morning Astronomy and Geology Lesson

   At 5:30 AM I went outside in my wheel chair to check on the moon.  Yes, I keep tabs on the moon, just to see if it is still there.  It usually is.

   I searched the sky to the east where I expected to see it  My view was blocked by big trees so I wheeled eastward,  I had to  travel half way around the old folks home to get a clear look east.  No moon. Curious.

   Then I looked due south. There, of course, was the last-quarter moon in clear view. i am glad to report it was in its correct position and shining brightly.

   But here is more to contemplate.  Take a student sized world map on a globe, about the size of a soccer ball, and measure twenty miles.  Twenty miles on that scale is little more than a wide pencil mark;  Now tip that narrow strip up from the surface of the globe.  That is the depth of the Earth's atmosphere.  That thin layer around the globe is all the air we have.  

   Now what do you think of global warming? Our big Earth is covered by a thin layer of air. Yes, we can change the world temperature. I used to view the world's air supply from down here where I live, beneath it. It seemed endless and far too big to be affected by anything we do. But considered from space, it is just a very thin layer around the globe. 

   And that's not all.  Take a two ounce jigger shot glass and place it on top of the globe,. If our Earth were the size of that common student's globe, all the water in all the lakes, rivers, and oceans would not fill that glass.  Makes you realize why we no longer dump our waste into rivers or the ocean. Wouldn't take much waste to pollute that jigger glass of water. 

   Mother Earth feeds and shelters us, but she is not indestructible. 

(End of today's sermon.)