As many of us watch the superstorm play out its wild energies across the country it’s a good time to remember what, exactly, the Earth we live on is. In this Forbes article I posted yesterday, I connect our modern understanding of planetary science to an ancient understanding of the forces at work around us.

Many people claim our work is to “Save the Earth” as if it was a cute furry bunny. But, as I show in the article, the planet is not a helpless timid creature. Instead it literally channels cosmic energy: the titanic power of nuclear fusion generated solar energy. There are vast powers moving through the Earth Systems that manifest as climate. We don’t need to save the Earth, we need to be in awe of it. We need to be more than a little scared (in a healthy way) of what happens when those energies get unbalanced.

So, it’s not the Earth we need to save but this complex, interconnected global civilization we’ve so recently built and on which most of our lives depend. The Earth is like a god of old and the storm gives us just a tiny hint of the powers it can marshal.

— Adam Frank 🚀