Do We Really Need The Moon?

"Do we really need the moon?" - Documentary on BBC Four, presented by a space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin Pocock, who investigates the relationship between the moon and our planet and how it effects the tides, the length of day, the changing of season and even the stability of the planet.

Written up notes:

The earth is tilted at a 23 degree angle, which means we have a change in seasons. If the planet were straight, then we would have no seasons at all, it would be the same temperature all the year around. 

The moon is moving further away, just 10% more and we would be like the planet Mars, wobbling all over the place. The moon used to be a lot closer to the planet a long time ago, but slowly over time the moon has begun moving further and further away from the planet. This is monitored by sending billions upon billions of lasers up to the moon, and reading what is bouncing back, normally one out of the billions laser lights are sent back. This technique can show you down to the millimetre how far away it is moving, and documents/ history shows that it is getting further away from our planet. 

The moon moving further away is effecting our climate - so does this mean it is not all down to the human race and global warming?

As the moon is moving further away, seasons are changing, which means one day - evolution won't be able to keep up with the speed of season change, if the earth tips any further.

This documentary came as a surprise to me as to how much it had to with what I was studying. It opened my eyes to a lot more. Thinking that it was not just what WE were doing to our planet (which of course IS a major factor in global warming) but also nature. The fact that we do not really have any control over what happens to the moon or the sun, that is what nature is doing. Which will have a significant impact on our planet.

Something angered me in this documentary though, toward the end of the program they interviewed a gentleman who thought we had forgotten about the moon - as we hadn't sent anyone up there is such a long time, and even wandered why we had not started using it for our own gain...he wanted to go up to moon and cover it in solar panels, which would then generate energy and power to our planet, he also wanted to start using the rock surface to ground down into other materials like fibre glass. This really annoyed me as I felt like, us humans, find a planet and want to take it over and use it for ourselves. I do not understand why we would want to start effectively destroying another planet as we continue ours. The fact that he wanted to put solar panels onto another planet for our gain, when we haven't even tried it on our own. If we started here, we would have the resources on our planet to save ourselves, why can't we just start fixing it ourselves with our own resources, instead of always look else where. I think if everyone else started believing in our planets and its capabilities, with help from each other than this could all have a positive impact on global warming.

You can check out this documentary HERE