ABSTRACT
There is a famous photograph taken from the Apollo 17 moon-shot in 1972. The Earth hangs full in space – the green and ochre of the land-masses, the vivid blues of the inshore waters and deep oceans, the brilliant snows of Antarctica, all clearly visible under delicately etched swirls of white cloud. It is an image of beauty and grave majesty, and also of a startling vulnerability. Looking closely, you can just make out the fine margin of the atmosphere, curving a fraction above the horizon of the African land-mass; and for a moment, the whole globe seems to float with the delicacy and iridescence of a bubble. A particular awareness of the human condition begins to crystallize as one contemplates this image: we are one species among the myriad which the Earth’s green mantle of life has brought into existence – and yet the only one with the power to see and respect, or to damage and degrade, the planet as a whole.
