Jan Hardin, aged 12, of Phoenix, Arizona
How will the world come to an end?
Almost everyone wonders about this e.t some time or other. Nobody wants our beautiful world to come to an end. Some people get upset even thinking about it, They imagine all kinds of disasters that could end the world. Those people can save themselves a lot of headaches. Our old world is very well put together. We shall certain certainly never see the end of it,
Not so long ago, the atom bomb was invented. It was new and only a few people understood it. It made a lot of noise and caused a lot of destruction. Some people got over‑excited. Atom bombs, they said, will destroy the world. Those people ,~,4et didn't know enough of the facts.
They were the people who never bothered to find out how well our world is put together, What's more, this world of ours was not created by people. It works by laws and rules which we cannot imagine. We can use the laws of fire to cook and to warm ourselves, We can use the laws of electricity to make power.
But we did not make those laws. Nor can we destroy them. The world was two billion years old before mankind came to live in it. It had been safely running all that time without our help. We can enjoy and use it. But we cannot create a single leaf. We cannot control the weather or do much about curing a cold in the head.
True, we can do lots of things. Many of them destructive. But the volcanic explosion at Krakatoa is still the biggest explosion in history. And all it did was to blow the top off one small island. Twenty years later that island was alive again with plants and animals. Even when the earth destroys a little bit of herself she seta it right again. There is no need at all to worry about a violent end to our world.
The experts have some ideas as to how the earth eras created, These ideas are not proven, So they are only theories ‑ no one is sure. The experts also have some ideas about the life span of our world. Certain rocks give the age of the earth to be at least two billions years already, And the world is still a baby.
Some say our sun may someday fade. This might make our world too cool for life as we know it. Hut all the experts agree that this is not likely to happen for at least another ten or fifteen billions years. Chances are by that time mankind will be visiting other planets around other suns. Fifteen billion years gives us plenty of time to plan. We have been here less than one million years.
Andy says it is all right to wonder if the world will come to an end. But to worry about it is not sensible at all. The sensible thing is to enjoy all the wonderful things that our world has to give.