Back to SearchPress Release – Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists
The Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists (MVFN) were treated to a captivating talk featuring special guest speaker Bob McDonald and his “Perspectives on a Planet.” MVFN’s Annual Spring Gathering featured a short video, a dessert and coffee social, information stations, a silent auction and culminated with Bob’s fascinating presentation.
The evening was emceed by Mississippi Mills’ gardening guru, Ed Lawrence. It began with a video presentation, “O’Canada,” by photographer extraordinaire, Bill Pratt. We saw gorgeous scenes from across our beautiful country, set to the stirring music of Frank Mills’ version of “Oh Canada.” Following that, the sold-out crowd enjoyed dessert and tea/coffee prepared by the Almonte Civitan Club, while mingling and viewing the various displays.
Bob McDonald joined us on the large screen via Zoom and the main event began with Bob’s introduction by entomology expert Rob Longair. He noted that Bob McDonald’s voice is familiar to anyone who has listened to CBC or to radio stations around the world which broadcast Quirks & Quarks. Many have grown up with his children's programs Wonderstruck or Heads Up!
Bob’s accolades include the Michael Smith Award for Science Promotion from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Sandford Fleming Medal from the Royal Canadian Institute, and the McNeill medal for Public Awareness of Science from the Royal Society of Canada. He has a list of honourary degrees/doctorates from across the country, he is an honourary lifetime member of Sigma Xi, the science honour society, and he is an Officer of the Order of Canada. Plus he has an asteroid named after him.
Bob’s message is that here on earth we are living in an oasis of light in a very hostile universe. He noted that earth is moving through space in a number of different and extraordinary ways; we are moving east as the earth rotates at a rate of 800 kilometres (km) per hour, we’re travelling around the sun at 30 km per second and around the galaxy at 300 km per second. When we go to different worlds, we will experience moving in an entirely different way due to differing gravitational fields. Bob illustrated this with a video of him experiencing what it’s like to walk on the moon and on Mars.
Bob talked of Buzz Aldrin describing the moon to him as “magnificent desolation,” and an interesting place, but not nice. Bob noted that a photo taken during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968 showed the moon as dark, dry and desolate compared to the blue oasis of earth. He found it no surprise that the contrast between the two provided us with a wake-up call. The Environmental Protection Agency, Environment Canada and Earth Day were created not long after that. Since then, robots have been sent to every planet in the solar system, with Mars being the only one we can visit. We now know the other planets and their moons are also interesting, but dangerous and inhospitable places.
To date over 5,000 planets have been found orbiting around other stars, some containing water. As we look into space we see the ingredients of life but haven’t yet found life. The odds are good that there are planets with life given that the Milky Way has 200-300 billion stars and there are estimated to be 100 billion other galaxies in our expanding universe. However, another planet that supports life will be very far away and hard to reach with current technologies. Bob provided us with analogies to show how small the earth is, how relatively little water it contains and how thin the layer of our atmosphere is. He noted that our planet is unique and it is quite remarkable that we are here. He stressed that “this is it," so we must preserve and care for the earth and its air and water. Bob’s final message was to get young people out in nature to appreciate this beautiful and precious planet we live on.
In addition to those noted above, we would also like to thank Louise Beckinsale, Brenda Boyd, Sandy Duncan and Sylvia Miller for organizing another exceptional Spring Gathering, and to Ron Williamson, who initially approached Bob McDonald to be our special guest presenter.
To become a member go to https://mvfn.ca/membership/.
