No lifeboat: Earth is humanity's hope for the future

On April 22, 1970, a crowd of environmentalists and other activists gathers in New York City to rally for the first Earth Day. /Image via Hulton Archive

Humanity could not exist without its lush green and blue planet Earth. In comparison, the other planets in our solar system are barren wastelands. We would likely have to burrow under ground to colonize the Moon and Mars.

Earth is humanity's only hope for the future, the basis upon which all our hopes and dreams rest. Understanding and protecting Earth's atmosphere is one of the greatest collective challenges facing our species. Human civilizations thrive when the temperature is just right, ice ages and epic droughts leave their mark with the death of millions.

Humanity came to life on Earth, and life will never be better for humanity than on Earth.

And Earth is hurtling through the endlessly cold darkness of space alone. Ignoring good stewardship of the planet poses enormous risk on a global scale.

Earth viewed over a Moon horizon during NASA's Apollo 8 mission in December 1968. Apollo 8 was humanity's first visit to another world, establishing the capability to travel to the planet's nearest neighbor and gathering photos of the Moon's desolate surface. /NASA image