25 for 25, “Earth in Human Hands: Shaping Our Planet’s Future” by David Grinspoon.

This post is part of the Kluge Center’s 25 for 25, in honor of the Kluge Center’s 25^th anniversary, celebrating 25 books that were written thanks to the Kluge Center’s support. Read the introductory post to the series here.

Imagine waking up behind the wheel of a truck hurtling down a winding road. You have no idea how to drive, and everything you love is inside. You start to learn how some of the controls work, but you’ve never had a real lesson. Well, you better learn how to drive the truck—and quickly. This is how astrobiologist David Grinspoon explains humanity’s current challenge. Though we are just beginning to understand the significant impact humans have had and will continue to have on Earth, he says, we must rapidly learn how to steer our future in order to survive.

In Earth in Human Hands: Shaping our Planet’s Future (Grand Central Publishing, 2016), Grinspoon explores the idea that Earth has entered the Anthropocene, the term many scientists now use to describe the era in which humans are a dominant force of ecological change. While other species have created geological change throughout Earth’s history, humans are the only ones with an awareness of their impact. This awareness, contends Grinspoon, is the good news, because if we know what we are doing, there is at least a chance we can become wiser and make better choices.

There have been examples of humans learning from their mistakes and correcting course to help the planet. For instance, Grinspoon recalls that in the 1970s, spacecraft investigations of the planet Venus helped scientists realize that chlorine destroys ozone. This led to the discovery that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in refrigerators and aerosols were releasing chlorine into the stratosphere, thus forming a hole in the Earth’s ozone layer, which protects us from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation. Without the ozone layer, life on Earth would not survive. Governments around the globe took stock of the urgency and cooperated to ban CFCs. Today, the ozone layer is healing, a rare and inspiring example of successful global cooperation to fix a pressing environmental issue.

Grinspoon hopes that humans can learn to use technological skills in global cooperation to enhance the possibility of survival for all lifeforms on Earth. He refers to this vision as “Terra Sapiens,” or “wise Earth.” To work toward a wise Earth, he suggests, leaders must avoid getting bogged down by regret for past actions, or fear that change is impossible. Rather, embracing hope and using a growing knowledge of the Earth and other planets is imperative in order to shape a future we wish for.

Grinspoon researched and wrote this book while in residence at the Kluge Center as the first Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology. He drew on the Library’s rich science collections, including Carl Sagan’s personal papers. With help from librarian Margaret “Peg” Clifton, whom Grinspoon called a librarian with “special powers,” he was able to find some rare materials, including, unexpectedly, the English translations of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a Russian space engineer who also wrote philosophical reflections.

You can listen to Grinspoon discuss his research here.

You can read more about Grinspoon’s experience at the Kluge Center in these blogs:

While Chair, Grinspoon hosted several talks and panels with distinguished scholars including the following:

This post, and others in this series, does not constitute the Library’s endorsement of the views of the individual scholar or an endorsement of the publisher.

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