The Metaphor of the Apple

The Member of the UK Parliament rose and was recognized by the Speaker of the House.  He was holding an apple. He began to speak. 

“Madam Speaker, I am holding an apple. If this apple were the earth, then the skin of this apple is all the thickness of the atmosphere of the earth.  Everything that lives on the earth or has EVER lived on the earth lives or lived in the thickness, or should I say, in the thinness of this apple skin. That is how small and fragile earth’s atmosphere is.  We need to care for this fragile skin.  We endanger it at our peril.”

That’s really something to think about as we throw our atmosphere out of balance with climate warming gasses and other pollutants from transportation, heating, air conditioning, cooking, and industrial processes as well as  wildfires caused by climate change.