Ryan Ackles 1

Ryan Ackles

Biology

Mr. Leader

November 28, 2016

Response Essay: Lucky Planet

Lucky Planet by David Waltham, helps uncover the story behind Earths history, present

state, and surrounding Universe, all in relation to the essential question of, Why is Earth so

lucky? While this question might seem general or basic to many, answers to this simple inquiry

can be identified throughout the entire book. From a scientific perspective, so many factors play

into why we as human beings are so to how lucky to live on this unique, jaw-dropping, and

sensational planet. And these words are not to be exaggerated or taken lightly. Over the course

of this incredible reading, Waltham manages to touch on greenhouse gases in Earths warming

atmosphere, ice ages, the geological evolution of our planet, our similarities and differences to

other planetary bodies and objects in space, and much more. Rather than bringing up a few of

these equally-important points, I have decided to go section by section to review and analyze

several of Walthams most significant ideas. In my opinion, it would be an injustice to Waltham

to only highlight certain aspects of Earths past, present, and future while leaving out other key

topics. The direction of the book allows the reader to see that all of these areas are the same in

value and that each plays a vital and individualized role in shaping the planet we are all a part of

today. Through temperature changes, conditioning of the atmosphere, and a little bit of luck,

Earth has become a stable and balanced environment for humans, animals, and other life forms

to inhabit currently and hopefully for many years to come.

Following a chapter in which Waltham states that Earth is perhaps the only highly

habitable planet we will ever find (5). he discusses the chance of humans living on Mars in the

future and the impact meteorite ALH84001 on this pressing issue. While the author

optimistically reveals that Mars, the farthest of the terrestrial (inner) planets from the Sun, has

canyons, volcanoes, and ice caps, the average temperature on Mars is approximately -60 degrees

Celsius1 and the atmosphere is not layered enough. This makes it easier for oncoming asteroids

and comets to collide with Mars surface, a dangerous trait for land that is a worthy candidate to

possess human life. According to Waltham, when a meteorite composed of Martian rock,

ALH84001, emerged onto Antarcticas surface in late 1984, U.S. scientists studying it noticed

that it held fossil microorganisms as well as biochemicals, two hopeful signs that there was once

life on Mars. Furthermore, ALH84001 is made up of some carbon, the basic unit of life, as well

as light amounts of minerals containing iron. These are two characteristics that, at least on Earth,

pinpoint bacteria. But even with that in mind, is this truly the closest evidence we have to life

elsewhere? Is the purpose of finding life on Mars simply to quench curiosity (which is

somewhat acceptable in my opinion) or rather to see if humans on Earth are suitable to live on

the Red Planet. Because of the latter option is the case, I dont see how that is beneficial from a

time or financial standpoint. And while I am certainly not trying to discredit or end all space

travel and exploration, I believe that more should be invested in helping our own environment

than trying to investigate a back-up location for the future of humanity to branch out and thrive

in. Instead, we should protect our natural life, which supports Earths oxygen-heavy atmosphere,

oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams, which all carry pure, liquid water, and the atmosphere itself,

1
Celsius is the form of temperature expressed in Lucky Planet, therefore it will be used in this
essay whenever necessary.
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which still maintains a temperature that results in the predominant survival of humans, animals,

insects, plants, bacteria, and other organisms. While other planets or moons might check the box

on either ideal temperature, liquid water, or an oxygenated atmosphere among other categories,

Earth has all of these qualities and so much more. Lets not sacrifice one of these essential

elements in an attempt to jump on a spacecraft heading to Mars. Give Earth more of a chance

because in my opinion, its the only world that weve got.

The next couple chapters discuss additional conditions on both planets and moons as well

as the evolution of Earths surface. While Jupiter is not livable due to its swings in weather and

ferocious storm brewing within the Great Red Spot, famous astronomer Galileo Galilei identified

that its over sixty moons could house life and are extremely different from Earths moon.

Because while our crater-filled moon has been frigid and inactive for hundreds of centuries, one

of Jupiters moons, Io, is home to the most volcanic activity. Europa, another moon belonging to

Jupiter, contains warm water-based minerals in addition to a literal ocean of liquid water beneath

a mostly icy surface. Venus desertous atmosphere and non-existent magnetic field make it

nearly impossible to prevent solar winds from entering the planet, causing the elimination of

precious hydrogen and oxygen atoms. None of these bodies carry the full package that our world

clearly has, making Earth one lucky planet. As Waltham puts it, Taking six components (metal

mass, rock mass, volatile mass, gas mass, illumination, and internal heat), and crudely splitting

worlds into small, medium, or large in each of these categories, gives two hundred and sixteen

different possible types of world. Of course, some combinations will be more common than

others, but our experience with the variety seen in the solar system and beyond suggests that

examples of many of these categories could be found eventually. It seems to me almost

inevitable, therefore, that we will eventually end up with hundreds of types of worlds as our

knowledge of their variety continues to expand (37). Waltham constantly reiterates the fact that

there are hundreds of planetary combinations, even more galaxies, and an infinite amount of stars

in our Universe. Based on this fact, there is bound to be another planet that is shockingly similar

to Earth though billions of miles away, but we just havent found it as of yet.

The Earth-Moon relationship, as David Waltham goes into within chapter four, got off to

a rocky, bumpy start literally. The remains of a crash involving Earth and another planet

resulted in the formation of our moon. Collisions that followed caused increased heat intensity,

meaning that for hundreds of centuries, our surface was much too hot for liquid water to exist

and the atmosphere consisted of not air but rather steam. But millions of years of rain soon

replaced this fiery state and brought with it our oceans. Continental drift began to and still does

occur, leading to an increased amount of dry land with the reusing of Earths elements. The first

sources of bacteria formed in addition to small microbes, which really jumpstarted the

predator-prey relationship. Over two hundred million years ago, mammals began to walk our

planet. Earths geographical history is a never-ending cycle that cannot even be summarized in

several paragraphs let alone one. It is the continuation of continental shifts, ever-so-slight

temperature changes, not to mention the constant effects that space has on our world. Tsunamis,

earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornados shape the hallowed surface we stand on every single day.

While there is no definite way to determine which one of these environmental trends had the

most profound impact on Earth, I personally believe that the aforementioned collisions affected

Earth the greatest. Based on my knowledge from the reading and beyond, the perfect balance

had to transpire between these heat-inducing crashes and Earths frosty ice age periods in order
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for the average temperature of Earth to be at 16 degrees Celsius. This drastically differs from the

temperature of the next closest planet to the Sun, Venus, which boils at 400 degrees Celsius. As

I addressed earlier, we must not take our world for granted and instead do our absolute best to

preserve our planet and its one in a billion conditions while we have them.

In another area of the book, David Waltham looks at greenhouse gases and more closely

at the idea that while fossil fuel burning, cutting down forests, other human-caused issues are

harmful for the atmosphere and lead to an increase in greenhouse gases, these gases are not as

detrimental to the environment have always been thought out to be. Waltham writes, Oxygen

and nitrogen produce almost no greenhouse effect, and these two gases form most of Earths

atmosphere (60). He goes on to admit that while water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane are

the biggest contributors to the greenhouse gas epidemic, water vapor actually emits the most of

these three substances. Carbon dioxide levels have especially risen since the beginning of the

Industrial Revolution though Waltham found that even in the past few centuries, the average

global temperature has only heightened by a third of a degree Celsius. Temperatures in the

twenty-second century are only expected to rise by one degree Celsius.

Additionally, David Waltham argues that by magnifying what is known as ice albedo

feedback, the ice caps could either decrease or increase in size, allowing more heat to build up

within the atmosphere or reflecting it back into space, respectively. Therefore, it can be said that

global warming and human pollution may actually be limiting Earths temperature from reaching

and extreme and this issue might not be as big as humans often perceive it to be. As evidence for

this hypothesis, Waltham adds, The likely reason for this discrepancy is that, in addition to

raising carbon dioxide levels, human pollution has slightly increased Earths reflectivity, thus
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bouncing some of the Suns heat back into space. If it hadnt been for this unintended bun

benign consequence of pollution, the temperature rise would have been greater than the 0.7

degrees Celsius observed, and my calculated climate sensitivity would have been larger (64,

65). Taking all of this into consideration, while I believe that we should not abandon our

consciousness for protecting the environment, I think we should take a different, more practical

approach. Rather than unrealistically attempting to cut off all greenhouse gas emissions, I

believe that we should refocus our attention to helping our environment on a local level. Pick up

trash in urban, residential, and beach communities. Reduce water and electricity usage whenever

possible. Protect nature reserves, plant life, and animal species. While these techniques are

sometimes overstated in todays society, they can not be repeated enough. In my opinion, fair

climate conditions above all other aspects discussed in Lucky Planet prove to be the first reason

as to why all living organisms are able to survive on this planet. In conclusion, we must do our

best to maintain what we have without doing too much or too little to affect Earths climate.

Finally, the Earth-Moon system completely impacts the state of our world on an

everyday basis. As the Moon continues to move further away from our atmosphere, days are

expected to increase by twenty seconds every million years. But in the early days of this

Earth/Moon relationship, far before oceans came to exist, tidal drag affected the path of molten

lava as well as solid ground on our planet. When the Earth collided with that mystery planet to

form our Moon, it created the perfect balance of tidal drag to enable our planet to rotate at a

speed that is not too fast or slow. As the author explains, The planet that hit our world might

have had a different size, or the collision could have been closer to head-on or more of a

glancing blow. The impact could have happened with a different closing velocity, too,
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depending on whether or not the two planets were orbiting the Sun at nearly the same speed and

in nearly the same direction when they met. Any such differences between these hypothetical

collisions and the one that actually occurred would have produced a Moon with a different size

and left Earth spinning at a slower or faster rate (Waltham 168). Of all of the examples I have

identified so far, I view this as the luckiest historical event Earth has ever experienced in its

grand lifetime. The incredible number of worlds in our Universe makes Waltham as well as

myself believe that there are currently planets that are almost identical to Earth, with few but

significant differences due to external planetary blows. According to research from Cornell

University, humans and animals would have to significantly adapt to global changes if the world

rotated twice as fast. Humans would sleep an average of four hours a night rather than the

recommended eight, animals would have less time to catch prey with a decrease in dark hours,

and plants could potentially have less time to capture the sunlight necessary for survival. If these

changes existed, who knows if Homo sapiens could have survived up until this point?

Through reading Lucky Planet, I have not only gained an increased amount of scientific

knowledge about the Earth and its fortunate outcomes that make it what it is today, but I have

also received a greater appreciation for this planet and life that exists on its surface. Reflecting

back to a time when I began to learn about the solar system, I remember being pummeled with

facts about the climate and overall environment of planets such as Venus, Mars, and Uranus.

But only now am I beginning to realize the extremely low probability of a planet existing with

the ability to hold thousands of life forms, while catering to all of them. This rare planet is Earth.

It is our home. And it is the planet we have no choice but to preserve for future generations.
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Works Cited

1. Sharp, Timothy A. "What Is the Temperature of Mars?" Space.com. Purch, 3 Aug. 2012.

Web. 26 Nov. 2016.

2. Sharp, Timothy A. "What Is the Temperature on Earth?" Space.com. Purch, 28 Sept.

2012. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.

3. Stierwalt, Sabrina. "What If the Earth Rotated Twice as Fast? (Beginner)." Curious About

Astronomy? Ask an Astronomer. The Curious Team, 2016. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.

4. Waltham, David. Lucky Planet: Why Earth Is Exceptional-- and What That Means for

Life in the Universe. New York: Basic, 2014. Print.