[Music]
Behold the Earth,
teaming with life,
ideally suited for the development of human civilization.
It's no wonder that previous generations
held the fundamental belief that the
that the resources of the world were unlimited,
that our planet with this ideal environment for life
was provided for our benefit
and that we bear no responsibility for ensuring
that the Earth remains fertile for the development of
our civilization. But as our population has
grown, our appetite for energy has
increased and in some cases we have misused
our land. We can no longer assume
that the Earth will remain eternally ideal
for the advancement of our civilization
or the quality of our life.
Rather we will forevermore
be called upon to heed that biblical admonition,
we need to be wise stewards of creation.
But how do we know what to do?
How does the Earth really work?
How could humans influence our climate or sea levels
or any other aspect of the habitability of our planet?
Fortunately,
as our technological civilization has grown to where humans
can affect the Earth, we have also been provided
with the tools to study the Earth
and understand it, predict its future and determine the
actions that will be most effective to
protect our future for generations to come.
In the early 1980s,
we've been studying
the individual components of the Earth; the atmosphere
through meteorology and atmospheric chemistry, the oceans
through oceanography, the land and its biology through ecology,
but the Earth is more complicated than that.
The atmosphere, the oceans,
the biosphere, the cryosphere are all coupled with
complicated feedback mechanisms, governing their interactions.
The Earth is not simply
individual components. It is an integrated system
that we need to understand is a system, if
we are to predict the future of the Earth.
In the late 1980s,
NASA embraced the concept
of Earth system science by bringing to bear
the most important resource for studying the earth as a system,
the global perspective of Earth that
is provided by orbiting spacecraft.
NASA undertook one of its most important
programs, the Mission to the Planet Earth and the Earth
observing system with the Terra and the Aqua and the Aura
satellites as the principal observatories for studying the Earth
as a system. Many satellites
have been added to this fleet of satellites
observing the Earth and these satellites are and will continue
to provide comprehensive observations
from which we can understand the earth and develop the models
that allow us to predict our future. In tonight's
program, we are going to celebrate what we have learned
about the key components of the Earth systems since we embarked
upon Mission to Planet Earth some three decades ago.
But as we celebrate, all that we
have learned, we need to be aware
that we are in a race against time. The Earth
is changing. Human civilization is influencing the Earth.
We need the best possible scientific
understanding of all the factors that will influence the future of the planet
so that we can make wise policy decisions
to protect and to preserve this planet
on which our civilization depends and if need be
adapt to the changes that will come.
We need to become and forevermore remain
wise stewards of creation.
We begin this evening with Gail Jackson;
who will discuss the water cycle that is
essential for life. Then Lola Fatoyinbo
will talk about the carbon cycle which is driven by
many events including changing forest covers
and Thorsten Markus will examine the key
ice sheets of the Antarctic and Arctic and their role in sea level
rise and finally Piers Sellers will
wrap up with all the tasks that still lie before us.
Gail!