Look at this white light, that pale spot similar to a pearl of white light. That is us. Here we are all you have known, those who have lived, all the human beings that have existed. The sum of all the stories, our joys, our sufferings, thousands of gods with the possession of the truth, all the myths and heroes, every king and every peasant, every citizen and every president, every city and every town, every genius, each human figure, in short, each one of the history of our species lived there, in a pale pearl of white light in a sea of stars seen from the Sun. The Earth is a very small place in the infinite cosmic sea. Think that now, at the dawn of the 21st century, 20% of the world population consumes 80% of its resources, think of the fortunes created in economic crisis and endless wars instead of fighting the war against hunger and poverty. Think that a billion people are hungry or need access to clean water. Think of the millions of hectares of forest that disappear every year. The animals at risk of extinction. Marine areas in dangerous decline. The ocean of plastic in the seas. The climate refugees of the future. Think of the light on the screen on which you look at life. Would we know how to live without electric light? Could we live without the Internet? Could we live without money? I imagine you have the answer. Maybe, we are a point of light in a sea of cosmic darkness. The sum of all the stories, from the cave to the stars. Everything, is challenged by this pixel of pale white light. We are the result of thousands of years of evolutionary success. Now, we are just over 7000 million human beings on our planet. But we are fragile. Our planet is a solitary light in the cosmic darkness of the firmament studded with stars. In our darkness, in all that infinity, there is no sign of help coming from somewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only Paradise that houses life. There is no other place, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Travel, yes. Explore, yes. Colonize, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is the only place where we can live. It has been said that science is the experience of humility, the maker of knowledge and truth. Perhaps there is no greater demonstration of the madness of human pride, than this distant image of our little place in the cosmos. For me it is about our responsibility to take care of our environment, to treat each other more kindly and compassionately, and to protect that pale white light. Maybe we are not alone, but that pale pearl of white light is the only home we have always known. From cave paintings to space explorations. Humanity has a path that leads to the stars. goo.gl/rKGfGR

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