To the editor:

On Valentine’s Day 1990, a camera on the spacecraft Voyager I was turned back toward Earth in a daring attempt to photograph our plant. The result was an amazing photograph showing a pale blue dot in an immense sea of blackness. That pale blue dot is planet Earth! Home to all the peoples of the Earth, our only sort of air, water and food!

Sadly the ability of our Earth to continue to support all of its inhabitants is rapidly decreasing. The fault lies in the greed and folly of its human inhabitants. Population has tripled since many of us were born. At the same time, our pure water supplies and our fertile croplands have decreased. Habitat for wild creatures has been destroyed. The air we breathe is often polluted. To make matters even worse, humans continue to waste and destroy precious resources carelessly and in seemingly endless wars.

It is rather clear from the photograph of the pale blue dot that there will be no relief shipments to Earth any time soon. We have to mend our destructive and wasteful practices ourselves. Since Americans have been major contributors to these problems, we must be major contributors to finding solutions.

The next election could be vital. Please vote for those who are able to understand the world situation and U.S. contributions to the many problems and who are willing to work for some of the changes we so desperately need. Remember the pale blue dot in the blackness of space!