I have been mesmerized by space travel since its beginning and copies of the famous photo, Earthrise, taken by Astronaut William (Bill) Anders on December 24, 1968, has been hanging on the walls of my office and home since it was distributed.

I have never tired looking at it.  It continually leaves me in awe.  The beauty!

Thus, I could feel my heartbeat increase as I watched Artemis II take off for its 10-mission around the moon.  And I wished the four astronauts on board Godspeed.

But, at the same time, I have been distressed by a contradiction and irony.

Here we are working to make the unhabitable (the moon, Mars) habitable for humans while we making the habitable (Earth) uninhabitable.

While the first objective is decades away, the latter is approaching quickly; it is a fait accompli; there is no avoiding the disaster for the planet.

The actor, William Shatner, who, at age 90, was on a sub-orbital space flight — Blue Origin NS-18 — in 2021, was interviewed as Artemis took off, and he explained how much he was moved by the beauty of the Earth.

Then, he added quickly, how depressed and dismayed he was at the speed with which are destroying it.

Here is a short list of what we face:

—First,........

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