Have you noticed that, of late, the literati and public celebrity know alls have starting using the expression “on the planet” rather than the much loved and traditional term “in the World”.
E.g.. The Blue Whale is the largest animal on the planet.
As a by-line this is probably logically incorrect as the only Blue Whale on the planet is a dead one, a deceased one and so not one at all.
Mass movements like this are usually driven by fashion and initiated by, yes you guessed it, political correctness. But I am puzzled as to why “in the World” would be politically incorrect.
Our Earth is but one of the planets in the Solar System so to say “on the planet” is not only imprecise but suggests that the matter relates to the Earth as a planet where it is at best primus inter pares in relation to the rest of the Solar System. Using the term suggests we are but one amongst many and so not really all that important (maybe that’s the political incorrectness; thinking that we are important).
When I last looked I don’t recall that there was actually proper evidence that life exists anywhere else in the entire Universe. Admittedly there is much speculation and wishing and hoping it might be true by many, and solemn declarations by people who should know better that life must exist elsewhere because there are billions of bits of elsewhere. But no evidence.
Only Earth is “the World” so we should celebrate its, and our, uniqueness by getting rid of the vacuous phrase “on the planet” by summarily executing all television presents who mouth it without thought (pour encourager les autres).
And by doing so restore the Blue Whale to its rightful place as the biggest animal in the World.
So if you want to save the World tell everyone you know, including politicians and media types that up with this we shall not put.
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