Friday, February 16, 2018

Planet B?

I was fortunate to be able to take a small break from this year’s bitter cold upstate New York weather and go to sunny Florida to visit some old friends.  I  took leisurely morning beach walks with the sea gulls, took bike rides along a jetty with pelicans, went to see manatees (my friend’s granddaughter calls them chubby mermaids), and marvelled at all the different flora and fauna one thousand miles in distance can make.






I also had the opportunity to sit on the beach to witness the Elon Musk space launch. It was incredible to watch the rocket go up and even more amazing to watch the rockets come back slowly and return to their launch pads. And then the sonic booms. The whole experience was goose bump producing.











Before going on this trip I had no idea what this launch was all about or that it was such a big deal. Literally over a hundred thousand people came to watch, we saw license plates from all over the country and many folks from other countries. And because of all the media attention I learned that it is Elon Musk’s dream to establish a human colony of Mars of one million people by 2040. This launch was just a precursor to the soon-to-come BFR (big fucking rocket) that he hopes will carry as many as 200 people at a time to their new home on Mars.





Then I read blogger Tim Urban’s Wait But Why blog comment that “all our eggs are currently on one planet. If we can build a self-sustaining civilization on Mars, it’s much harder for humanity to go extinct.” WTF? Personally I feel that we deserve to go extinct and I imagine all the remaining plants and animals standing up and cheering when we do.





I recently read that over 20,000 species have gone extinct directly attributable to human impacts on the planet. Why shouldn’t we be next? In fact, we deserve to be next. Americans generate about 4 and a half pounds of trash per person, per day, or 254.1 million tons total per year. Where does it all go?











Even dogs know not to shit their own beds.


This is our home. Why aren’t we talking about the necessary changes we have to make in order to continue the human project here? Personally I think we are just too greedy, too lazy, too selfish to make any of the sacrifices needed because they might inconvenience us or impact our pocketbook.












So rather than clean up our act here we will look to migrate to another planet?!











Based on our performance on this big blue marble, we will only infect and pollute other parts of the solar system. And then where do we go? Until we learn to clean up our act, there really is no Planet B. Just more places to ruin.







9 comments:

  1. First, I'm glad you enjoyed your trip. Sounds so relaxing. And second, we humans are idiots.

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    1. Unfortunately we are very dangerous idiots.

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  2. 'There is no away' - I read that some years ago in a book about ocean pollution and it really struck a chord with me. I am a champion recycler, but that isn't nearly enough. One thing that drives me nuts is the fact that we don't see our 'trash' as raw materials. We (and by we I mean all humans) should never make another new piece of plastic. There is so much already made we just need to transform it into new things. In the future, dumps will be seen as resources.

    When people talk about the world ending they are talking about human life ending. The planet will go on, and yes, the rest of the existing species will be much better off without the hairless apes.

    ps: love the chubby mermaids! And, so glad that you had time to warm up down south.
    xoxoxo

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    1. I couldn't agree with you more. What really scares me is I am now seeing suggestions that we can launch all our garbage into space. We will never learn.

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  3. I'm glad you got away, but agreed that we are inflicting terrible, irreparable damage on our planet. I've been in the "it's way too overwhelming to even think about or contemplate" camp for way too long...my 2018 resolution is to not use another plastic straw. Which means basically no straws at all. It's a small step, but one that could have a huge impact if we all did it.

    I was just thinking over the weekend, while I was also in FL, about how quickly mother nature takes over if we don't keep beating her back. Look at abandoned houses or lots - it takes merely a few months before the flora and fauna reestablishes itself and starts growing.

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    1. Small steps turn into giant leaps. No straws is a good start.

      I too love the way the earth reclaims itself. But we will never get back all those extinct species. It is truly criminal.

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  4. I agree. Imagine how much good could be done in the world if the money spent on space exploration was redirected to dig wells for clean water, improve farming methods, etc. We could all eat, there is enough in the world we just have to learn how to share it.

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  5. I don't disagree with your argument about the allocation of resources and the cost of space exploration, although I do think that it can teach us more about our lives here. I just don't want space to be used to as the next landfill. It is beginning to feel like instead of exploration and discovery we are looking to space as an escape hatch for when we have totally ruined Earth.

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  6. Glad you got away and enjoyed so tranquil moments.

    We have cultivated monsters.

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