Modern telescopes allow us to have stunning impressions of the universe in which billions of galaxies, even more suns and numerous planets exist. Planet Earth has become quite ordinary. Do we need to feel small and irrelevant, though, in the face of such grandeur? And is it not a misunderstanding of the progress made in cosmology, if this progress makes us lose respect for nature without which life is inconceivable? It cannot be wrong to view our planet in the context of cosmic dimensions, even less so if our new understanding of the universe motivates us to understand more of Planet Earth itself.
Planet and Nature
