BATTLE LINES

While students learn about space flight, orbital paths, mapping and weather by participating in the Earthkam program, perhaps it is these snapshots that teach the greatest lesson. From space, differences between nations and groups are rarely discernable. But other fractures are starkly drawn. We see nature’s organic forms subjugated to the geometric lines of human industry. The conquest is a graphic reminder. “This planet is not terra firma,” as Mercury 7 astronaut Scott Carpenter once said. “It is a delicate flower and it must be cared for.“Pictured: Australia 33.38° S, 138.90° E