A Daunting Task Lies Ahead

Today I visited the Kennedy Space Center with my wife Ellen, my daughter Bonnie, her husband Eric, and their children Matthew (6) and Mia (almost 4). The space program is very special to me, especially since my brother Phil, a mechanical engineer, was leader of the design team for the Shuttle space suit and won the "Silver Snoopy" Award for his role on Apollo Project as designer of the space suite "backpack."

As I watched the rerun of John Kennedy's speech in 1962 dedicating our country to the Moon exploration project, it filled me this time with conflicting feelings. These were compounded by NASA forecasts of a new program to establish a station on the Moon as a stepping stone to manned expeditions to Mars. On the one, hand I am proud of our country's herioc efforts in space, but on the otherhand I am saddened and ashamed of the misguided priorities of our current administration and by recent articles in the newspapers about coal companies in Florida and Texas accelerating plans to build new supersized coal-fired powerplants "before new restrictions are put in place."

There is nothing worse to exacerbate global warming than constructing more coal-fired power plants. And our country should put aside for the foreseeable future at least any megaprojects in space. First, we must undertake massive reductions of greenhouse gas emissions to save our sick planet. NASA's pictures taken from the Moon of our lapis-colored Earth when compared to pictures of a barren Moon and a dead Mars should lead anybody to the conclusion that our planet is the jewel of the solar system, and it is the one planet we must nurture above all others. Earth is our home and the wastelands of the Moon and Mars can never sustain us. It is amazing to me that Bush, in the face of global warming and unprecedented fiscal deficits, would try to ride the coattails of the visionary John Kennedy and call for a renewed Moon program and manned missions to Mars at this time. It's bewildering how misguided Bush is about so many things.

As I watched my grandchildren's wide-eyed excitement today at this breathtaking exhibition of American technological might and the wonders of the Apollo and Shuttle programs, I was gripped with how important it is that everyone do what they can to save our planet from the calamity that is likely to befall it during my grandchildren's lifetimes. It is so obvious that this country with the skills and capabilities to go to the Moon and back should also take the steps needed to stop and reverse global warming. It drives me to redouble my efforts to help spread awareness of threatening climatic changes that are already taking place and to help change policy in order to incentivize carbonless energy production and to discourage the construction of new coal power plants . What a daunting task!!