Jane Powerson our wonderful world
Despite this column being called Planet Matters, I often forget that we are actually living on a lump of rock that is orbiting a massive ball of fire, 93 million miles away. The fact that our planet's composition, and its position in the solar system, have allowed human life to develop and survive is the greatest miracle on earth. A little bit further from, or a little bit closer to the sun, and we'd all be either ice or toast.
Moreover, our atmosphere is a finely balanced casing of gases around our planet. It keeps out harmful solar rays, and lets in and conserves just the right amount of warmth, light and other energy, permitting us to grow and prosper. Our world has been like this for millennia, and if we'd like it to continue so, then it's time to sit up and pay attention. Since we entered the industrial age, and particularly the oil age, our planet's balance has become more and more wobbly. To put it baldly, earth is teetering on a wildly unstable fulcrum - humankind. Our actions - our CO2 emissions, our use of land, our consumption of water, hydrocarbons and other resources - will swing things one way or the other. Everything we do has an effect.
Climate change and resource depletion are everyday topics now, so I won't hector you with the "we have to stop doing what we're doing to the planet" speech. Instead, perhaps we could just celebrate our particular lump of matter, our third rock from the sun. I know, that sounds a little naive, but when you think of it, our earth is a marvellous thing: simultaneously spinning on its axis and travelling at 18.5 miles a second through space around the sun. Our skies are garlanded with clouds (check out the beautiful website of the Cloud Appreciation Society at www.cloudappreciationsociety.org), and 70 per cent of our surface is submerged in oceans, which are pulled to and fro by the force of the moon and the sun.
The oceans give moisture to the clouds, which in turn give rainfall to the land, which in its turn sends water back to the oceans. Everything is connected - in many more ways than I can mention in this article.
Children know all this. They learn it in school, and they portray it in their drawings: yellow sun, blue sky, white clouds, and a thin green line of earth. But somewhere along the way, we seem to have forgotten.