Earth Science Education: Rationales and Current State

This section outlines the aspects of Earth we will explore in this book, emphasizing appreciation for the earth, its scale and location, and its importance as a functioning system to all those living as part of it. It situates the earth in space, then situates life on it, existing at the interface between the solid (and very hot) interior of the earth and the emptiness of outer space. As we come to grips with the fact that humans are having an indelible (and in many cases, harmful) impact on the earth, and we look to other places, like Mars, to inhabit, we need to grapple with the possibility that we will never be able to fully disconnect from the earth (Wilson, 2002a). Since humans are the product of over four billion years of evolutionary “tweaking,” trying to engineer a new environment in which we may thrive may appear to be a daunting challenge. If we can afford to make another planet habitable, surely, we can afford to make the earth habitable again.