Jesper has a lot of green on his mind. No not money, you capitalists. Nature. The environment. Basil and chives. With the recent advent of billionaires finding new ways to caress their egos, and in a totally-not-aiming-to-start-mining-other-celestial-bodies kinda way, Jesper has some troubled thoughts:
Should we really colonize other planets? We are already destroying this one…
Dear Jesper,
Sure. Why not? What’s the worst that could happen? We’ll just move some people off of the planet (Phew…that solves the overpopulation problem), and we likely get some of those Rare Earth Elements (aka REE) from other planets. Maybe they will be Just Effectively Rife On Mars Elements (aka JEROME), you know, so rife that you have to go through a lot of the good elements just to be able to survive there. We’ll dig around some, pull up a nice little cabin overseeing the sandy dunes and drink some May Thais (with the little umbrellas) enjoying the sunshine under the comfort of an industrial-sized patio heater. I mean, sounds good to me. Right? What is it? You don’t like May Thais? If you ask really nicely they’ll probably mix you up a fresh Tom Collins. You’ll have a lot of acres to develop, all on your own. No nosey neighbours. No council nonsense. No pesky environmental inspectors. Just you and a couple of true patriots to ensure humanity will prevail in this universe. Might even turn a profit. Well, your kids got to eat too. There’s nothing wrong with that.
By the way, you know that we’re not really destroying this little planet we call home. Right? … RIGHT? There’s a little more carbon dioxide than 70 years ago. It’s just getting a bit warmer. And we helped accellerate that process. A bit. OK, a good, chunky bit. That’s alright though. The climate 70 years ago was not the same climate 370 years ago, which was not the same climate 3070 years ago. Global temperatures, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels have wiggled up and down quite a bit throughout geological times. Still life continued. Still the Earth didn’t die. Still this history got us to where we are now. Why has the global community suddenly turned Amish? No, I don’t mean in terms of their religion, but in their persistence in believing that everything was A-OK in the first half of the 19th century. As if that moment in time, or 70 years ago for that matter, is the golden age of global climate zone distribution. Should it really stay the same?
We’re not destroying our planet. We’re part of a continuously changing world (no pun intended). In the process, we’re getting ourselves ready for progress: colonization of other celestial bodies is inevitable as soon as we can reach the warp speed needed to actually get there within our life spans. This is not borne out of necessity. It’s our destiny.
Yours truly,
The Sassy Scientist
PS: This post was etched on a piece of slate and carrier-ravened to the editor-in-chief, so as not to strain the environment too much.
