We Are One Planet with Carl Sagan

Click here to watch a brief heart-gripping talk with Carl Sagan (1934-1996) from his epic PBS series "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage" which aired in 1980. This clip came at the end of the 13 part series and encapsulates Sagan's frustrations and hopes for a planet gripped in the arms of the Cold War. 

Sagan was an extraordinary scientist, astronomer and astrochemist who marveled at the beauty and wonder of the cosmos. Exploding stars, black holes, colliding galaxies left him in awe of our insignificantly small place in an incredibly vast universe. From this appreciation of the wonder of our universe came a strong frustration with how humans willfully and purposelessly destroy our precious planet as well as each other. He strongly believed, with a passion impossible to ignore, that there is a pressing need for humans to realize that we are all one species on a small, modest planet floating in an infinite and expanding universe. If we place ourselves in that context wars, weapons, arguments, stress and everything else that we waste our energy on can be seen for what they really are: destructive and futile. He was an astronomer as well as a humanist and hopefully his love for other human beings as well as for our overwhelming and awe-inspiring universe will continue to be passed on to future generations.

hu·man·ism        (hyōō'mə-nĭz'əm)    
n.  

1. A system of thought that rejects religious beliefs and centers on humans and their values, capacities, and worth.
2. Concern with the interests, needs, and welfare of humans: "the newest flower on the vine of corporate humanism" (Savvy).
3. Medicine The concept that concern for human interests, values, and dignity is of the utmost importance to the care of the sick.
4. The study of the humanities; learning in the liberal arts.
5. Humanism A cultural and intellectual movement of the Renaissance that emphasized secular concerns as a result of the rediscovery and study of the literature, art, and civilization of ancient Greece and Rome.

"humanism." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 14 Oct. 2008.