Humans: In or Out of Touch?

With the recent solar eclipse mania, which here in the NY/NJ area was preceded by a small earthquake, I began to wonder if we are all collectively losing touch with reality. Perhaps it's just the opposite. Maybe we are too much in touch.

That all being said, the media hype and social media hysteria leading up to this eclipse was unprecedented. Much more than any I have experienced in my life. I question, is that really because of the nature and rarity of the eclipse, or is it because we live in a much different world of creating over reactive responses to things occurring around us.

Some were saying it was a sign of the end of the world. Others wanted us all to repent, so God would save us. I even heard one broadcaster, who will remain nameless, but is a host on a very popular talk show, proclaim that this too is probably an effect from global warming. Hmmmmm. Astronomy and climatology are two very different things. This is just the beginning to what I mean by, "Humans: In or Out of Touch?"

I suppose I need to explain my point further. Yes, the solar eclipse was a really cool and relatively rare phenomenon for us to see here in a good portion of the United States. However, they do happen across the planet fairly often. This eclipse for parts of the US was a total solar eclipse, the most rare. Partial eclipses do occur across the globe more than 2 times a year on average. Most however are only visible across the poles or over the ocean. Keep in mind, the planet is covered by 71% ocean. Obviously leading to a better chance of seeing an eclipse on a ship somewhere, than on land.

Let me focus on the eclipse first. I get the idea of the rarity of the event. It was something astronomically special. There are many rare, once in a lifetime and then some, astronomical events that occur in our sky. These do not get anywhere near the attention of this eclipse. It could be a rare planetary alignment or their positioning to the moon and sun in the sky etc. Nobody seems to make much of a fuss about these events other than astronomers.

For example, on June 24th this year, for the first time in 20 years, 5 planets will be in alignment and visible to the naked eye. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will all be visible in their proximity to the sun, best viewed about 45 minutes before sunrise. Will millions of people be flocking to see this? You don't even need special glasses or have to worry about eye damage. Will the media be hyping it with special stories and coverage? I think you know the answer. I hope you get the point.

There are amazing and beautiful things happening in our sky and in nature everyday. Some are rare, some are more typical, but nonetheless worth stopping to let your senses take them in. Question is, how many of us do that?

Apparently we need to be told what's important to stop and pay attention. We can't figure that out for ourselves. If I stop to look at an exceptional sunset because I find the changing colors moving and inspiring, but no-one else does, am I in touch or out of touch?

Amazing and inspiring things worth stopping for and noting occur almost daily. It seems without the hype and direction from social media etc. we don't value them worthy of our time until told.

I do have to say one of the best things to come from the eclipse mania was that for a short moment in time it brought many people together to experience something in common. Nobody cared about race, religion, sexuality, political views etc. of the people around them. They were all experiencing this bigger than life event together. I saw some folks sharing protective glasses with those around them who didn't have any. Many people were moved by being part of the experience.

On the other hand I saw something interesting in some of the TV coverage. In one of the locations of totality they were performing marriages or vow renewals with couples. Just at the point of totality of the eclipse, which would last for about a mere three minutes, they were interviewing couples on camera. I found it odd that these couples came all this distance to create this very special moment and experience this sudden darkness in the middle of the day to stand in front of a bright light attached to a TV camera. Again, is this being in touch or out of touch?

My own experience had a bit of reinforcing of my point. I was in the weather center at WPIX. I had been gifted a pair of special viewing glasses from a fellow meteorologist and astronomer, Joe Rao, several months prior in a Christmas card. I cannot lie, I was not as hyped up over the eclipse as so many around me. In fact, I tend to get turned off by things that too many around me get excited. Must be the rebel in me. That's me..... a rebel without a cause.

In any event, at a little after 3PM I looked out the window and noticed some people gathered on the corner of 42nd street and 2nd Avenue. I had until 4PM before having to go on air. Our 90% eclipse would occur at 3:25 PM, so it was now or never. I figured I would rather go and take a look than not, and have regrets later. Hmmmm. Am I in touch now?

I went down to view. I grabbed a spot dangerously close to the left lane of traffic on 2nd avenue, but I had nobody standing in front of me. I threw on the glasses and took a gander skyward. There it was. The moon blocking more than two thirds of the sun from my vision at this point. Cool, but again, not life changing for me. As the eclipse reached close to the 90% point you could detect some change in lighting. What is interesting is that with only 10% of the sunlight available, it was still quite light. I couldn't detect it, but the temperature did apparently drop about 3-4 degrees. Again I ask.....am I out of touch?

The side note to this experience, is that the entire time I was viewing, I was listening to a conversation between three people behind me. They apparently came out to see the eclipse because they were told everyone was doing it. They did have glasses thankfully, but the guy in the group kept proclaiming his machismo by threatening to take the glasses off and look at the eclipse unprotected. His quote, " I bet nothing will happen". Uh-Huh. In touch or out of touch? What's that? Stupid? Oh I can't be that judgemental. I won't quote the several minutes of misinformed gibberish the three of them were tossing back and forth, but I was getting that tingling feeling on the back of my neck.

The final straw did come however, when at 3:25PM the young lady was amazed that the eclipse did reach its maximum as predicted. She then said how it was "amazing how accurate astronomers are...... if only meteorologists could be that accurate". That's it!!! I couldn't bite my tongue anymore without drawing blood. I took my glasses off and turned to her and simply said, " those are two very different sciences with different variables, said the meteorologist". She looked at me and shrugged. I watched for another minute or two listening to them lamenting what a waste of time this was and so overhyped. I suppose they won't be joining me next time I stop to watch a sunset with the changing colors caused by cirrus and stratocumulus clouds. That's a shame.

I was going to write a little something about the over the top response to the minor earthquake experienced in NJ/NY, but this exhausted me. Let me just say the more advanced we become technologically, our often ignorant reaction to understanding this planet and its natural volatility amazes me.

I don't consider myself a particularly smart guy. I do however observe and explore and try to educate myself. This has hopefully allowed me to have a less knee jerk or over reactive response to things that have, do, and will likely continue to occur on this planet.

We are not the end all in my opinion. As a friend of mine once said, "humans are so pompous thinking they are the cause and effect for everything on this planet". He went on to say humans are to this planet what fleas are on a dog, both the dog and the planet can shake them off anytime they want.

In closing, to put the earthquake in perspective. Yes, it was rare for the region. Not unprecedented. Here are some earthquake yearly stats. The 4.8 earthquake in NJ occurs approximately 15,000 times a year across the planet. In fact magnitude 1 or higher earthquakes occur 290,000 times a year or about 789 quakes a day.

We have volcanoes that occasional become active and go dormant over the millions of years. Ice caps formed, ice caps melted. If you want to go way back, at the beginning of the age of dinosaurs, the continents were arranged together as a single supercontinent called Pangea. During the 165 million years of dinosaur existence this super continent slowly broke apart. Imagine the breaking news coverage on that! This just in......"South America has been formed and is racing west across the Atlantic"!

I'm being a bit cheeky, but think about that the next time we get excited from earthquakes and volcanoes or tsunamis. It is not likely to be the end of the world. This is a constantly changing planet. Respect that. We will never be the landlord, so we should stop thinking that way. We are just renters, so respect what you have, because it really isn't ours. If we don't get more in touch with the reality of this idea, we might just end up like the dinosaurs.

Sunshine Always!