Science is your friend, your knowledge. Protect it to live well

As I scrolled through the news a few weeks back, I randomly clicked on a story about NASA, a telescope, and the universe, I was transfixed by an image in the story, of something called SMACS 0723. Described as a cluster of galaxies, 4.6 billion light years away.

It was the first of three jaw-dropping images released by NASA, on July 12. Pictures captured by the infrared-eye of its new U$10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The most powerful telescope ever, sent up in space, 1.5 million kilometres up. It’s super-power? The ability to catch light’s longer wavelengths. Put simply, it can see the light, we can’t see, from much further away. So far away, that by the time the telescope catches it, it happened millions of years ago.

Welcome to the “unseen universe”. A mind-boggling astronomical journey across space and time. To the farthest edges of the universe, and back 13.6 billon years ago, when the first stars and galaxies were formed.

Spellbound, captivated, entranced! Some of the words that describe how JWST’s discoveries captivated me and inspired me to rediscover the wonderment, importance, and vulnerability of “science”, as we tackle two of the biggest crises we face on planet earth.. The pandemic and climate change.

Onwards. From space to medical to climate science

Space Science’s Rockstar Moment: “to solve mysteries that connect us all”

From SMAC 0723, we warp through a dust and gas spectacle in the Southern Ring Nebula, 2,000 light-years away. Behold, two dying stars. Next, Stephan’s Quintet. A tightly packed group of five dueling and swirling galaxies, four interacting, birthing new stars. Sorry about the turbulence. We’re approaching the mountains and valleys of the Carina Nebula. Quiet please. This is a stellar nursery. Mind the gap. Those Cosmic cliffs are 7 light-years-high. Buckle-up we’re 7,500 light-years from earth.

Astronomy is considered the oldest science. No surprise, given that for thousands of years us humans have gazed up in awe at the celestial skies above, with a quest for knowledge, much as we do today. NASA captured this quest perfectly:

“to solve the (cosmic) mysteries that connect us all …… and inspire us to dream big”.

SMAC 0723. Cluster of galaxies. NASA JWST

Medical Science to the rescue: A global wake-up call for society

Scientific discoveries and breakthroughs often occur in response to major events. As was the case with COVID-19, the first disease event since 1918’s Spanish Flu pandemic that required a global healthcare response. At the outset, infectious, deadly and with no-known treatment, governments turned to the medical and biological science community to urgently find a solution. The science community rallied under a united goal: to avert the spread of the pandemic by developing life-saving vaccines.

A global crisis managed. When the medical science and its community came to the rescue with vaccines that saved an estimated 20 million lives and changed the future of vaccine science. Ushering a period, of new-found inspiration for business investment in “building science capability and innovation” (Accenture, Global CEO’s study)

Yet, this pandemic served as a wake-up call, exposing the political and institutional fractures that exists in our present-day society. Divisive partisan politics and misinformation in media directly attacked scientists and public health institutions, eroding the public’s trust in scientific and expert knowledge and advice. Populist agendas and economic competitiveness hindered international cooperation and global vaccine availability, driving a wider chasm of inequality between the richer developed nations and the world’s developing ones. A warning that without improved global governance and inclusive international cooperation and leadership, managing future global crises will be a challenge, even with the help of science.

The Climate Science is clear: “The time for action is now”

Our heating planet and the dire consequences of climate-change are a clear and present danger. On February 28, 2022, the UN’s “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” (IPCC), sixth assessment report was released. A comprehensive scientifically researched report card of the state of climate change. UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres described the findings as

“an atlas of human suffering …. how people and the planet are getting clobbered by climate change”

A further IPCC update in April, flagged that the inaction, and lack of political will by world’s governments, business and finance was undermining the small window of time available to implement the critical carbon reducing initiatives required to minimize the irreversible damage of climate change.

A week later, approximately 1,000 international scientists, a profession not known for its overt activism, joined global climate-action demonstrations around the world demanding faster and stronger climate action from world governments. The “Scientist Rebellion” - a group of lab-coat climate-scientist-activists wrote in an open letter that they will continue to

“expose the severity of the climate emergency by engaging in non-violent civil disobedience. Unless those best placed to understand behave as if this is an emergency”

“Collective Action or Collective Suicide”?

In a year rocked by the war in Ukraine, oil price hikes, global inflation and food and energy resource scarcity, getting the political will back onto tackling climate is challenging but essential.

Instead of progress, we are going backwards, accelerating the use of fossil fuels. A situation the UN Secretary General called it “a damning indictment of failed climate leadership’, calling on global leaders to course correct on three things: work together to reduce burning fossil fuels; invest in adaption and renewables; and make good on the funding promised to climate impacted lower-income nations.

“We have a choice. It is in our hands”

The science is clear. The inaction is evident. Action starts by being part of the solution. As individuals we must change our awareness, conviction, and consumption behaviors: Many of us can take meaningful action. To conserve and use renewable power, use green transport solutions, buy sustainably farmed food, minimize earth-damaging livestock and meat consumption. Buy less, Buy sustainable and circular products, minimize waste.

We need to hold accountability to those who represent us – our employers, community boards, and governments to move faster and more decisively to a low carbon world.

Many resources exist to get you underway.

https://www.unep.org/interactives/things-you-can-do-climate-emergency/

https://www.un.org/en/actnow/ten-actions

https://www.unep.org/interactive/six-sector-solution-climate-change/

https://www.wwf.org.uk/fight-climate-change

https://www.nature.org/content/dam/tnc/nature/en/documents/TNC_PlaybookClimateAction.pdf

A love letter from the universe

As we grapple with the climatic challenges we face to maintain a healthy planet earth, I look back up at the heavens, to the early universe just unveiled by the JWST. I wonder, what advice would a wise and 13.5+ billion year-old experienced universe give earth. – what would the universe say?

Dear humanity,

C/O NASA

Re: The Cycles of Rebirth & Growth

New stars are born when different galaxies swirl and work together. A greater force that draws its combined energy from the other. It’s messy. One feeds the other. With such galactic interactions, new stars are born. When isolated and apart, with no common will, stars diminish and eventually die.

You have a choice. It’s in your hands.

PS: Science is your friend, your knowledge. Protect it to live well

U

A Love Letter from the Universe