Posted on 08/04/2005 8:07:09 AM PDT by goarmy
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that greater care was needed to protect natural resources.
Her comments came as NASA pondered whether to send astronauts out on an extra spacewalk to repair additional heat-protection damage on the first shuttle mission since the 2003 Columbia disaster.
Discovery is linked with the International Space Station and orbiting 220 miles above the Earth.
"Sometimes you can see how there is erosion, and you can see how there is deforestation. It's very widespread in some parts of the world," Collins said in a conversation from space with Japanese officials in Tokyo, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
"We would like to see, from the astronauts' point of view, people take good care of the Earth and replace the resources that have been used," said Collins, who was standing with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi in front of a Japanese flag and holding a colorful fan.
Collins, flying her fourth shuttle mission, said the view from space made clear that Earth's atmosphere must be protected, too.
"The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it's so very thin," she said. "We know that we don't have much air, we need to protect what we have."
"...featuring the Prime Minister Koizumi is meant to be fodder for the "It's America's fault for not signing Kyoto" crowd. Do you disagree?"
Not at all.
I thought astronauts wer supposed to be smart...
She should keep her politics out of her interviews.
And I was feeling so much better about nasa this week after that spacewalk. What PC BS!
How very true!
Very dumb comment. How are we supposed to do that? If we could simply make resources, we wouldn't need to take them.
What a stupid ditz.
About the only thing she could observe from the shuttle would be the deforestation in South America and perhaps Southeast Asia. The trees get cut, the area burned, crops grown for a few years until the soil wears out, and then on to the next section of forest. I doubt that the mile- square patches in the northwest would be obvious seeing as they are fairly small and get replanted. However, the rainforest doesn't get replanted. I imagine after the crops have used up the soil, new trees wouldn't grow too well anyway.
ROTFLMAO!!!!
Thank you for pointing this out. Some posters obviously do not understand.
Judging by the usual comments on threads like these, I'd say "yes". You would think conserving nature would be a conservative principle, also. Sure, I'm as skeptical about global warming and some of the other environmentalist bugaboos as anyone here, but I haven't totally dimissed the possibility that it might be true. Similarly with deforestation - when you see for yourself thousands of square miles of clear cut you can't help but think that it's not a real good idea, although the areas that have been replanted with a single tree species and then sprayed with herbicides to prevent any competition may be even worse. I saw a huge area of this this summer while riding across northern New Brunswick. It was weird - when you stopped you didn't even hear birds, because most birds and other animals can't make a living in these monoculture forests of fir trees.
and, therefore, we must ban ant killer.
bad logic makes me sick.
I can't believe the number of Freepers who still, after all we have seen of the totally biased media, believe what they read is actually reflective of reality and what was said, done, seen, heard, etc.
I have also noticed over and over that the liberal-spew talking heads like to constantly quote another "reporter" or article and want someone to explain the quote, as if the article was actually the truth. We have seen that most of the time, no MSM article/quote can be trusted. (see Rather, Dan, et.al.)
So before everyone tests their knee jerk reflexes and tries to spew some idiotic neo-con talking points, it would be best to take a deep breath and consider the source, which in this case is totally untrustworthy, based on past history.
I think you two are right. The intelligence level of this place has drastically been lowered with the influx of what I can only describe as "new neo-cons"- who are just as bad as the liberals regarding discussions, comments and open forums. That is, ignorant, bigoted, hypocritical.
Thanks for your sane and tempered comments. To all the rest, please look at the source of the articles before you instantly leap to conclusions and start condemning.
This used to be a good forum with enlightening discussions and brilliant comments. Now, it's turning more and more into a radical, right wing DU- and you know how bad that can be.
Just my $2x10-2
It is for me. Thanks for your post.
Since most astronauts are ex-military, most of them should be conservative. How did so many get infected with the Liberal disease?
Bump to another good post...
See not everyone here is a knee jerk shallow neocon that just spews whatever is equal and opposite to whatever they think the left is about: "Leftists like the Environment? Well, then let me piss on it!" -Just as wrong, different direction.
I'd rather be ~right~ than just anti-left. And I don't have a real problem with what the lady said. I'm certainly more mature than to just post pictures of the Grand Canyon or to tell her she has no qualification to speak on what she sees from up there. She's a remarkable woman with a remarkable job. Only in America :~D
What's liberal about her comments?
Obviously you haven't listened to Rush or read any of his books. Environmentalism is a hoax. The earth is in better shape than it's ever been. Don't believe the MSM.
Does he advocate widespread deforestation with no replenishing? I doubt it!
Regardless... Rush is a talk show host with some good conservative opinion. But particularly educated in science, he isn't. Trust truth over correct political affiliation.... that would be better advice.
The Pavlov dogs could save some bandwidth by forming a SIG and submitting a multiparty post as an inverted ping list. This thread could be reduced from 200 posts to twenty without loss of information.
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