From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Fri Jan 17 2003 - 20:26:59 PST
SO WHAT IF THE END OF THE WORLD HAS ALREADY BEGUN?
>From Worth Crouch <doagain_at_jps.net>
"End of World Has Already Begun"; The newswire article dated 1/13/2003,
refers to a newly published book ''The Life and Death of Planet Earth''
written by Brownlee and Ward. Eagerly the Boston Globe and other paper and
Internet publications are covering the story. The articles report, "In its
4.5 billion years, Earth has evolved from its hot, violent birth to the
celebrated watery blue planet that stands out in pictures from space. But in
a new book, two noted University of Washington astrobiologists say the
planet already has begun the long process of devolving into a burned-out
cinder, eventually to be swallowed by the sun." They go on to say, "The
prospects of humans surviving by moving to some other habitable planet or
moon aren't good, Brownlee and Ward contend, because even if such a place
were found, getting there would be a huge obstacle."
Then again, many scientists agree with a thesis I was invited to present to
the NASA Astrobiology Institute's (NAI) Annual 2001, Meeting in Washington
D.C. The thesis concluded that although the end of the World is probably
inevitable humankind has the ability to protect the Earth for a long time.
After all it has only been 100 years since the Wright brothers taught us to
fly. And given that, if we can hold on for at least a few thousand more
years we should be able to disperse life in general, along with human life,
to other habitats away from this planet.
Except for some changes in life's duration, such as their calculation that
most life will become extinct in 500 million years, the book doesn't offer
much that's new or hopeful. As a matter of fact few people now will be
affected by or even care about what happens 500 million years in the future.
Moreover, if there is to be a continuance of life beyond an ultimate cosmic
catastrophe, such as a Shoemaker-Levy 9 Comet Earth impact, or the sun's
consumption of Earth, the continuance will probably be the result of
intelligent biological intervention by machine capable beings working in
teams.
Thus, highly evolved life from the Earth does not necessarily face dead end
extinction, as has been traditionally predicted and accepted by Brownlee and
Ward. On the other hand, it is not yet a certainty that our kind of human
being will be the machine capable beings needed to do the job.
Worth Crouch
=======
(10) CONFERENCES
>From Alan Penny <alan.penny_at_rl.ac.uk>
Dear Benny,
Three conferences you may like to consider:
UK Astrobiology 2003 Cambridge, UK March 27-28
Eddington Palermo, Italy April 9-11
Darwin Heidelberg, Germany April 22-25
1) UK Astrobiology 2003
Cambridge UK March 27-28 2003
An opportunity for the UK Astrobiology Community to gather and
discuss topics of mutual interest.
http://astrobiology.rl.ac.uk/uk_astrobio_2003.html
2) 2nd Eddington Workshop
Palermo, Italy April 9-11 2003
This workshop is an invitation to the wider scientific community
to get involved in the Eddington mission - both the planet finding
and asteroseismology phases.
http://www.astropa.unipa.it/Eddington/Eddi2003.html
3) Toward Other Earths
Heidelberg, Germany 22-25 April 2003
Darwin / TPF and the search for extra-solar terrestrial planets
http://www.mpia-hd.mpg.de/DARWIN/
[This is a circular letter to people who signed a round-robin last
year to ESA supporting Exoplanets and Astrobiology.]
Regards, Alan Penny
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