Meanwhile, a handful of planetary geologists struggled to sort out what the curved lines on Europa's surface signified.
But planetary dynamicists have struggled to explain why, as in their computer models of the swirling gas, dust, and rubble of the early solar nebula, Mars tends to grow to the size of Earth or Venus.
Psychological struggles and planetary ill health are treated more effectively when done in a timely manner.
Piercy does give us some gee-whiz gadgets: computer networks deft enough to create planetary virtual realities, through which the corporations can struggle to invade Tikva, through which Tikva can struggle to defend itself, and through which people who explore them can transform themselves -- and die.
The stakes are so high (for ourselves, for humanity, for planetary survival) and yet most of us are struggling with when, what, how to make a difference.
In the period between Hipparchus and Ptolemy, Greek astronomers had struggled without great success to make geometrical planetary theory work.
And so it goes on, the two esteemed planetary scientists, circling one another like two great bodies struggling for gravitational superiority, both hoping to see the other's argument propelled out into the forgotten depths of oblivion.
And like Conrad before him, together with this sense of the contingent, provisional nature of life, there is always the shadowy awareness that the human species is an animal with an immensely violent history, one that over a couple of million years of guile and brute force has struggled its way to a position of planetary dominance.
Personal and planetary orbits are fatalistically set on collision course in Von Trier's latest, as two sisters struggle with life, the universe and each other, but despite the grimness, its strange beauty stays with you.
No single initiative or even comprehensive treaty will win the real struggle addressing root causes: the struggle to transform our economic system to one that is just and operates within planetary boundaries.
