There has been much talk about mankind starting a settlement on another planet. Mars seems to be the chosen one as I write, but before that we will need to set up a settlement on the moon first so we can prepare people to live out of earth’s gravity and survive on a planet that has none of the benefits every living thing on the planet earth depends on.
Can it be done? Many people say it can, but they know there will be a lot of work involved in building shelter, growing food, and finding water.
If that is easy, let’s get to the hard things. What kind of person will be chosen to go there? Under what rules and regulations will they live? Will they become serfs and spend their whole-time planting, building and dredging for water? How will they survive the climate, which can be colder than our planet and also hotter? Then there is the oxygen problem. Where and how will they make that? Will their protective clothing wear out, and if it does, will they be able to repair and make new ones?
Surely all these questions will have to be answered before those who seem to think it a good idea, will be able to find the money, choose the personnel and work out the mathematics to send them all off to this new life.
Every time people say it will be good, I keep asking why? What are we getting out of it? Is it that people want to use the other planet for all the waste we have generated? To make Mars a disposable dump? Is it so they can mine the planets, like they have here to get the minerals? Great but how will they mine the planet, where will the machines and the trucks come from? And, the really big question, how will they get the refuse to the planet and the minerals and people back to earth?
These questions seem to me to insurmountable. Yet they never pop up when those supporters are talking about getting there. It reminds me of a group of people several years ago who wanted to go to Antarctica. They couldn’t afford it so they set up a system where they would carry out experiments on themselves to see how the cold weather affects people.
What were the experiments. Well one specific one I remember was everyone had to submerge and sit in ice cold water, several days in a row to see if their bodies could adjust to that process. Everyone hated it but did follow the process diligently each day. Then off they went to Antarctica and stayed there for a couple of months. When they came back, they were supposed to go through the same experiments of submerging in the ice-cold water to see if their body had changed in anyway by going down South. Ah but this time they had got out of the trip what they wanted and there was no way they were going to go through the cold-water experiment again. And they didn’t. From memory I don’t think any of them completed that experiment, so we have no idea whether a body can acclimatise to being submerged in cold water, and adjust accordingly having spent time down in the Antarctic.
These people who want to travel to Mars give me the impression it is something they would like to do, but not at their expense. At least people who currently want the experience of being sent into space, provided the money for it. They aren’t using the trip as a means to an end for them. People actually pay thousands to join the space trip. It is a journey of a lifetime and it is costly.
But I guess all this desire to go to another planet brings up the question, Why do we want to leave this Earth? Have we really sat down and analysed what we have here?
Now I will agree that mankind has upset this planet rather badly. We have dug things out of the ground, we have polluted the air and the oceans, we have been selfish and fought wars over land, and power, and we have not helped our fellow neighbours nor anything else that provides us with life.
I do believe people haven’t realised the dangers of what we are doing to this planet. Removing all the minerals and oil, cutting down all the trees and the habitat for wild animals, contributing to a large whirlpool of plastic in the ocean, says a lot for mankind. Where are we going with this?
I think I have mentioned this before, but everyone on this planet is now our neighbour. Every country is accessible within 24 hours so we can no longer claim our neighbours as enemies. I sometimes think our planet is crying. We have ruined so much of it, nature is fighting back. In the long run, who do you think will win? If you believe it will be mankind, you will be wrong. How long has mankind been on this planet? How old is the planet? Billions of years older than when humans developed here.
If Mother Nature is fighting back with the changes in climate, then we have no one else to blame but ourselves. We might think we are clever, and we are because we can send things and humans to the moon, but when it comes to the planet we live on, and the planet on which we rely for our livelihood, maybe we are not being so clever. We are letting some humans get rich at the planet and the population’s expense.
Is this what we as an inhabitant of this planet Earth, want? I don’t believe so. Maybe it is time we helped the planet and fought against those that think this planet was made for them to exploit, whereas it should be the other way around.
Going to live on Mars? Why don’t we spend the money on improving this planet instead of trying to change a planet millions of miles away.
Our home here on this planet earth has given us our life and kept us alive. Surely more people should be putting their efforts into changing the way we allow people to plunder and ruin our home. I f we don’t do something about it soon, I fear it will be too late.
Julie Finch-Scally ©
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