Earthlings Letter #8 – Spaceship Earth

Jeff & Susan • December 4, 2015

Greetings Earthlings! I was just thinking about two of my favorite things, maple trees in the fall and wild cherry blossom in the spring… Do you remember how in the early spring we saw some of the ‘true color’ of leaves as they came out of their buds and had not yet blushed green with chlorophyll for photosynthesis? Well now the summer is over and Fall is begun where I am on Earth. The leaves are stopping their photosynthesis. The vail of green is being drawn away and every leaf is revealing its hidden color. The maple trees are among the first to change and glow orange, red and yellow. It is like each leaf has a light inside.

A drawing of a tree with sprinkles falling from it

This change is happening because plants and trees are sensitive to the amount of time the sun shines on them. And you are too! If you live in the northern hemisphere (the half of the earth north of the equator), (the equator is an imaginary line drawn around the Earth equally distant from both poles).

A drawing of a compass with the letter n on it

Haven’t the days of midsummer, felt wonderfully long? You were outside playing and it would be daylight as late as 8:30 in the evening. In some far northern places it is day till 12:00 pm, or even later! That must be neat… The lengthening of the daylight time continues until the summer solstice (the time of the longest day, around June 21st in the northern hemisphere and December 22 in the southern half of the Earth).

Why is change in daylight hours happening? In order to answer that question lets step back, way back. I am going to give your imaginations a work out in this Earthlings Letter. Let’s draw so far back that we are looking at our Earth from space. First thing, we see that Earth is shockingly beautiful. A ball of bluest blue water with bright white webs of clouds drifting over it and completely surrounded by the black space.

A blue and white sphere with a swirl in the middle on a dark blue background.

Then, we realize that Earth is almost all water. Maybe we should have named it Ocean! You have to look carefully to observe here and there through the clouds the small broken brown bits of land islands where we live. Keep watching and you will notice that Earth spins slowly on its axis (an imaginary line about which Earth rotates, and the north and south poles are the ends of this axis of rotation).

A blue circle with a white circle inside of it

At the same time Earth orbits (circles around) the sun. Way out in space, in our imaginations, we can see this.

A diagram of the solar system with the sun in the middle

As we approach the winter solstice (time of the shortest day around December 22 in the northern hemisphere and June 21st in the southern hemisphere), we notice that the passage of the sun across the sky is becoming a lower and lower arc. Another way to recognize this is the longer shadows cast around noontime. The lower arc of the sun is happening because the tilt of our earths axis is changing the angle that sunlight shines on Earth. This tilt is just enough to change everything. In some parts of Earth it stops the growth of plants, dramatically changes the air temperature and causes animals, people and plants to hibernate or migrate (to move from one place to another where they can find food and shelter so they can live). Our sun is that important… and the tilt of Earth is that important.

We are one of nine planets that orbit our sun. But hold on, some people are saying, recently, that Pluto is not a planet…(a solid form in space that orbits a star). We can let scientist debate that. They like to have stuff like that to argue about. Pluto is so far away and I’m sure it doesn’t really care if we think it is a planet!

A cartoon character with a star on his head is sitting in a blue circle.

Something we do know is that our planet Earth is just the right distance from the sun to sustain life. Which is incredibly lucky for us and plants and creatures that live! As far as we know life does not exist on the other planets that are in our solar system, (the collection of 8 planets (minus Pluto, for now) and their moons in orbit around our Sun. Asteroids, meteoroids and comets are also included. I am going to let you look up what they are…). Probably there is life somewhere else in the Universe. The Universe is beyond our ability to imagine in size. It is so hugemongus! So the odds are good that life is out there somewhere. What we call life here on Earth is something we have but we do not know why or really what it is… we know when it is not, but we don’t know why it happens or why it happened on our planet. We are very fortunate to be alive, and to experience the life around us. It is our greatest adventure and at the same time a great mystery. Sometimes I think to myself, maybe all the planets in our solar system had life at one time in the very far distant past… what happened? Could our Earth ever have no life?

You can think about living on earth as a fantastic ride. Like one you might experience at a carnival. We are spinning and orbiting at the same time, all the time! Our speed as we orbit the sun is an average of 18.5 miles per second. And, one complete spin on our axis which is 24 hours – is what we call a day. We are riding together on “Spaceship Earth” as Bucky Fuller said. We spin and orbit within the cluster of stars called the milky way galaxy that is one of countless galaxies moving in the endless largeness we refer to as Universe. Earth is our very own space ship with our food supply and shelter, air to breath, gravity to hold us down and an energy system that is the Sun. We must take good care of our Spaceship Earth, this amazing planet we live on, and protect its life and its systems like you would protect and take care of your parents or friends or pets or favorite toys or anything you depend on and love very much.

Why can’t we feel the Earths movement? Because we are all moving with it at the same constant speed… ? Or, here’s another thought, maybe we are so adapted to it that we can’t feel it? We are born into it and it feels as natural as living in our bodies. As familiar as being alive. Nobody knows. Another mystery we can live with.

Well, I don’t know about you but I’m starting to get dizzy and homesick imagining myself way out into space. I want to go home. See you back on our Spaceship Earth!

By the way, I would love to see your drawings of Spaceship Earth. If you want to send them to me by email use the address susancaumont@renew-the-earth.org , and I will post them on this website, thanks!

A painting of a field of red flowers with a blue sky in the background.

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Chapter 11: Japan Part 3

September 15, 2025

Japan Log, Part 3 General impressions, Japan and Jeju South Korea

Japan, special Nagasaki log

September 9, 2025

I went to the Nagasaki Museum of Art. There was a special exhibit there called War in the Eyes of Artists; from Goya to several Nagasaki artists. Though I had deliberately avoided visiting the epicenters of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for reasons I have already expressed, seeing this exhibit at the museum was just as intense. For this log I am going to highlight a display I found most moving. I am including the youtube address where it can be seen and heard. Place address here The display starts with a poem and an illustration. Both commemorate the bombing of Nagasaki. After viewing the illustration and reading the poem you enter a small theater to sit down and watch an animation of the illustration set to music. All the children, adults, animals and Shinto like creatures that are in the illustration (in a huge tree) come to life and move to the rhythm of the music. A male voice sings overall, lyrics that may have to do with the poem, written by singer/songwriter Masaharu Fujiyama and entitled, “Kusunoki; Blown by the 500-year Wind.” The illustration is the work of an artist named Junaida. The lyrics were inspired by the Kusunoki (camphor trees), which survived the atomic bomb.

Chapter 11: Japan Part 2

September 2, 2025

Shizuoka

Chapter 11: Japan Part 1

August 25, 2025

We dock at Hakodate, Japan on the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That stands as a singular horror among the many horrors humans commit on each other and Nature and continue to commit to this day. There is no apology possible and unfortunately nothing may have been learned. We still threaten each other with nuclear weapons. No treaty has stopped the building of nuclear bombs. I wonder how the Japanese people keep the memory of this tragedy so that living can continue with some normalcy. Maybe it can be equated to a typhoon or earthquake, like a natural disaster having no morality or intention. It has influenced their imaginations ever since though, revealed in movies like Godzilla and in their Manga. Threatening creatures, imagined power that cannot be controlled or resisted. People can be like a natural disaster to each other. People can also be wonderful. We saw this as we left the city. A small group of dancers appeared on the dock to say goodbye. The dancing they did was so charming and touching. It was a traditional dance, maybe 15 dancers. About 8 people played instruments to accompany them, flutes, drums and other unique percussion. Watching from the top deck of the ship the dancers appear like exotical dolls. Three warriors pantomime their strength, emphasized with elegant gestures of their fans and their golden, brightly tasselled headdresses that bow and flash in opposition. Then the little children emerge, five of them. Their elders position them precisely and they wait for the music to begin. Their tiny movements are sweetly in time as they step then extend their fans to tap the air with it lightly, creating a feeling of certainty and control. Moving to one side with a gliding motion they unfurl their fan, flourish and close it, then glide to the other side and do the same. The dance continues with variations of these movements and some new ones punctuate occasionally. So intent and serious, each tiny performer dressed in elaborate traditional clothing, a magical, miniature display. The dance becomes hypnotic as it continues to the simple rhythms of the drums and flutes repeating and repeating an ancient significance remembered by a few. After they finish, our ship pulls away with several blasts from the horn. The tiny dancers wave goodbye, with their hands crossing again and again in front of their faces, for so long it seems as if they might continue until we are out of sight. Finally we are too far away to hear the children cry out. This experience was fleeting and very moving. A dancing gesture of dignity and friendship. People are not their military, they are not their government. They have to participate in their society but they are first of all human. They want to create understanding beyond language and country.

Chapter 10: Alaska Part 2

August 12, 2025

Alaska feels like a different country; not like one of the United States. Maybe its vastness and extreme climate have created this unique presence. People who adapt themselves to living half the year in darkness and half in light, in a lot of cold and rain with magnificent beauty all around, this has an impact. The unique environment of Alaska transforms people. The Tlingit were one of the aboriginal Alaskan groups. They crossed the Bering Strait from Asia, approximately 9,000 years ago. There are also some theories about individuals island-hopping from Polynesia. Both scenarios may be true. Nonetheless, they formed a highly complex social, legal and political structure along with extraordinary creative arts and oral culture. Before European contact their population reached approximately 20,000. Status was based on birth and wealth, creating a hierarchical social structure. There was a noble class (determined through hereditary) followed by medicine men and women, warriors, traders, commoners and slaves. The Clan House was home to three resident classes; nobles, commoners and slaves. The construction of the Clan House was a sacred event involving rituals for the dead. The two ritual groups (moiety) were Raven or Eagle/Wolf, and they were expected to marry outside their group (exogamous). Tlingit followed a matrilineal clan system. Children inherited the clan side of the mother. All rights were through the mother; these include fishing, hunting and gathering places, the use of certain clan symbols, totem designs, house decoration and ceremonial clothing designs. The Clan had spiritual, psychological and medical protection from a medicine man or woman. They were also known to control weather, bring luck, predict the future, expose witches and speak to the dead. They did not cut their hair in order to keep their power strong. Their power would pass to a younger relative when they died.

Chapter 10: Alaska Part 1

August 4, 2025

Some context for this trip and log. The ship we are traveling on is the Villa Vie Odyssey. It is a small cruise ship with about 300 passengers and 300 crew. We have bought a cabin aboard. My plan is to document one circumnavigation. This will take about 3 and ½ years. So far this has been a record from when we boarded in Barbados, going through the Panama Canal, up the western coast of Mexico over to Hawaii then up the western coast of the United States to Alaska.The following is an account of Alaska. After this we will travel to Japan. Thank you for your interest. I was unprepared for the profound beauty of Alaska. The more you see, the more it astounds. How is it possible that people could hunt seals, foxes, wolves and beavers to extinction, log evergreen trees to bare brown ground - as if a massive electric shaver was used to mow the mountains- that grow back in patches and trails made for giants? Vastness is not endless. The harsh environment, remoteness and beauty did not protect them. Still, how was it possible? Only people caught in a frenzy of commerce could do this. The same frenzy that brought thousands of men with dreams of making fortunes in gold to remote outlands of Alaska. They became insane devourers. Luminous white water rushes from a cleft at the top of the mountain sliding in and out of evergreens to the river below, pinched along the way by grey rocks. This was the land of the Tlingit for at least 10,000 years. Theirs was a highly developed social structure equal to those found in Europe. Spanish contact in 1775 dropped their population by about 80 percent, with typhoid fever, scarlet fever, and measles. The Russian fur trade changed their lives even more. It began after Vitus Bering’s 1747 expedition and “discovery” of the Bering strait. Sea otter pelts were the incentive. Other fur was also sought but sea otter pelts were the most coveted. It is the warmest fur. It has the most hairs per square inch of any animal fur. An adaptation that allows it to live in the extreme environments of Alaska. Unfortunately for the otters its fur can be made into the warmest of coats. By 1799 the fur trade was thriving. It involved the forced labor of the indigenous people. Their local knowledge of the animals and their hunting expertise were essential. This industry brought significant change to the native communities, disease, dependence on trade goods and inter-tribal conflict. Russia traded furs to China and Europe. When competition for pelts and political factors involving Russia affected their ability to continue the trade, Russia sold Alaska to the United States. The US had been pressing westward and getting involved with trapping, fishing, mining, logging and homesteading. In 1867 the US bought Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million dollars. In 1788 the US entered the maritime fur trade; sea otter furs for Oriental goods. By 1801 the US controlled the fur trade at its height and Boston was at its center. When a major discovery of gold was made in 1896, Alaska became the gateway to the Klondike gold fields. Purple mountains are passing by my window as we glide to our next port. I can watch this ‘movie’ before I go to sleep. It stays light till around midnight and never becomes completely dark. The sun is up at 5:00. Locals describe the endless darkness of the winter months as depressing. “What do you do?” “Watch movies, watch TV.” Native people used the long dark Winters to create. The memories of summer beauty and important events, documented in beadwork, carved figures of animals from walrus bone, charms for hats and masks, hand made fur garments beautifully beaded with flowers, leaves and animals, scrimshaw pipes of bone, a crown for a baby beaded and decorated with carvings, two white pom poms hanging from thin leather strips on either side. The intensive summer hunting over, food dried and stored. Time for handwork, music, story telling and conversation. While the mountains and sky silently hover near in all their variety and beauty.

Earthlings Letter #8 – Spaceship Earth

Chapter 11: Japan Part 3

Japan, special Nagasaki log

Chapter 11: Japan Part 2

Chapter 11: Japan Part 1

Chapter 10: Alaska Part 2

Chapter 10: Alaska Part 1

Chapter 9: Cruising Around the World

Chapter 8: Cruising Around the World

Chapter 7: Cruising Around the World Part 2

Chapter 7: Cruising Around the World Part 1