Posted on 08/04/2005 8:07:09 AM PDT by goarmy
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that greater care was needed to protect natural resources.
Her comments came as NASA pondered whether to send astronauts out on an extra spacewalk to repair additional heat-protection damage on the first shuttle mission since the 2003 Columbia disaster.
Discovery is linked with the International Space Station and orbiting 220 miles above the Earth.
"Sometimes you can see how there is erosion, and you can see how there is deforestation. It's very widespread in some parts of the world," Collins said in a conversation from space with Japanese officials in Tokyo, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
"We would like to see, from the astronauts' point of view, people take good care of the Earth and replace the resources that have been used," said Collins, who was standing with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi in front of a Japanese flag and holding a colorful fan.
Collins, flying her fourth shuttle mission, said the view from space made clear that Earth's atmosphere must be protected, too.
"The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it's so very thin," she said. "We know that we don't have much air, we need to protect what we have."
Is there really anyone here that doesn't agree with protecting resources and using them well, as she said? Do we have to be so paranoid about politics that our knee jerk reaction to environmentalism is that it's completely unnecessary?
I'm sure she's not even speaking of the US, who have been the first to ensure reforestation after logging, and the first to care about our impact on the planet and cleaning up polluting industries. No.... when she looks down and sees a perspective none of us have seen.... I don't feel too threatened by her noticing that from there, the world seems like a beautiful delicate place where in some parts, human influence on it is visible from afar and not always good.
You know that will end up somewhere on the Internet, under the heading of "The Truth Is Revealed: What FReepers Secretly Want to Do to Our Environment!"
LOL!
So, we actually have enough to bottle now! We could make a mint!!!
:)
susie
She must've talking about North America. Certainly the rest of the World is in fine shape and they respect nature. Besides, Bush causes natural disasters and globull warming, along with the Jooos.
Yep.
We probably shouldn't have mined all that metal ore to build your ship and fuel tanks, processed all those hydrocarbons to build your space suits and electrical wiring insulation, utilized all that energy to machine all those machines that moved your spacecraft to its launching pad....
Yep. We definitely need to terminate NASA. It's killing the Earth.
It's all Big Air's fault. They are keeping us dependent on foreign Oxygen.
WTF?
Is this flight to be forever known as the "Idiot Flight"?
Who is "we"? Does she have a mouse in her pocket or is she condemning her fellow astronauts?
I hope eventually she will be more specific.
One would think that an exquisitely educated and trained individual would know that, with the exception of some spacecraft, ever bit of matter which existed a million years ago is still here.
Matter can be neither created nor destroyed.
Matter can be transformed but not eliminated.
No trash disposal company I have ever heard of shoots trash, garbage, refuse and recyclables into the sun.
WHAT AN IDIOT STATEMENT!
good one. If she did make these ridiculous statements then there was one more use for the duct tape. It should have been put on her damn mouth. She is an idiot. NASA must be infested with leftists. I am really bothered by the politicization of all aspects of Science and most of NASA. Disgusting.
" It's very widespread in some parts of the world," Collins said in a conversation from space with Japanese officials in Tokyo, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. "
Sad part is , Koizumi and his cronies probably believe her !
I think she was talking about the massive deforestation in the Amazon basin and in Indonesia, in the tropics, in other words...replacing forests with range land. It does have an environemental impact. It directly affects the water shed, how much rain an area gets, and what carrying capacity for growing things the land has.
And they aren't replanting and practicing the type of land management that is used in the US.
This is the reality. Humans have always shaped their enviroments in ways that seem good to the do-ers at the time. Sometimes it's good, like how clear cuts actually work better in some types of forests than selective harvesting, and sometimes it works worse, like daming the Nile, or overgrazing marginal areas.
This is the way the world works. Things change.
Those that worship the environment get stupid about it, like sacrificing lots of land where beetles have killed the trees because they don't want any logging at all, and thus the areas burn hot and the soil sterilizes somewhat and the natural plant succession is interrupted, and they end up destroying more than they save.
Those that understand the real science and aren't pushing an agenda sometimes manage to do something about it in positive ways. This is land management. Poor cultures don't do that nearly as much as rich ones. Therefore, the best way to get the world in good land management use is to encourage the economic development of these areas in the tropics, and get them to the point where they can afford to take care of their lands.
"Commander"...SHUT UP AND FLY.
When poor third world people do it you can bet it is environmental damage. How dare they try to make a living without asking for UN help.
Doesn't that just figure with that woman in charge -- had a bad feeling about her and it is turning out to be true. Too many feel good women were promoted in the military under Hillary -- I swear she picked some of these women to push like this environmentalist wacko.
Planet Earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do ...
If I was the President, I would fire her. It is outrageous the incessant blathering and outright lies of the left.
ping list.
Her comment is probably accurate, but what nobody wants to mention is that the most devastating environmental destruction has occurred in Third World sh!t-holes and NOT the United States.
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