This article by BBC hits the mark:
How to build a nuclear warning for 10,000 years’ time
Some perspective: the atmosphere's thickness is something in proportion to the thickness of a layer of paint on a basketball.
Teaching Environmental Science was an accident. The most fortuitous accident of all. As my grasp of the subject matured, the fog lifted. That was when I began prefacing every first class meeting with something like this:
This course will be an introduction to the impact of humans on our world: our planet, to be sure, and also our community. Throughout our history, we have treated the environment as a combined supermarket and rubbish heap. My generation has caused its share of the damage; but during this generation, more than any other, the condition of our planet has become a focus of attention.
In 1969, a human snapped a photo of Earth, from the Moon. This was not the first, but is a convenient marker for the time that the Earth became visible as a blue marble. Perhaps this marked the beginning of an Era.
My parents and my grandparents were unaware of the impacts of the lifestyle they had elected to pursue, with improvements in health, medicine, onsumer goods, transportation,... in every aspect of life. With the Industrial Revolution---beginning in about 1750---came an explosion of goods---cooking pots, weapons, locomotive, steam engines, ushering in a consumer economy on a massive scale. In the 1950s plastics appeared, refining this industry, making possible manufacture of previously unimaginable forms. Refrigeration, electricity, commonplace plumbing, automobiles, roads. This seemed to forebode a better life. In cities, human existence was transformed. Populations exploded.
But little attention had been given to consequences and side effects.
While none of us from previous generations intended all of this trouble, it has happened, and today, in the 21st century, Environmental problems such as global warming, over harvesting of marine life and trees, destruction of ecosystems, pollution of rivers and streams, plastics and microplastics in the Oceans---all of these problems now threaten the existence of our own species and our lifestyles. We have caused the extinction of numerous species, and accelerated the transport of other, robust species to places they do not belong.
In the 1970s, perhaps, the problems became obvious enough that Universities began to offer degrees in Environmental Science, and some high schools began, around that time to offer courses in Environmental Science. In recent times, almost all high schools in America and probably other coutries offer courses in Environmental Science. Something has happened.
Why are we teaching these classes? In a few words: we cannot be here to solve the problems that threaten the very existence of our children and students, so we need to help your generation and future generations to grapple with and solve them. We are obligated to provide you with tools, and to help you to understand the problems, the science, and possible future scenarios. Tools.
I would argue that Nuclear Waste is a different kind of problem.
Here's the core issue: Nuclear Waste does not go away, not in hundreds of lifetimes.
To the children, and their children's children, for hundreds of generations: Here's the crux of your inherited problem. Neither Mars, nor any other known planet, can save us. This is our planet, and we are destroying its life nurturing abilities. I think plastics are terrible; but even plastics should no longer be a problem by then.
When I look at that photograph of Earth from the Moon, it does not feel like a goodbye photo. We need to do better. Let's work on that.
For perspective, here is the first photo of Earth ever taken from space--in 1946.
