Learning from The Solar System

 We need to cherish our planet, as it is the only place that we can live.

    I want to dedicate this post to a point that MacAskill made that I briefly touched up on in my presentation, and that point being the fact that if we do become a space-faring civilization, we will eventually cease communications with each other entirely. Where we stand right now, we have politicians who believe that going to Mars will be the next best thing in our evolution as a species. Make no mistake, despite Mars being seen as the next frontier for humanity to explore, Mars is a harsh world. It is a dead planet that is barraged by cosmic radiation on the daily. The atmosphere of Mars contains 95% carbon dioxide and only trace amounts of oxygen. This isn't to mention that the temperature of Mars often goes down to unlivable levels, at points where any life would freeze solid. 

We Throw Earth Under the Bus

    The idea that we should be a space-faring civilization and colonize the stars completely undermines the rich diversity and importance of Earth. Earth is a living organism that is in its prime, but that delicate balance is on the verge of collapse due to humanity's hubris. The ecosystems that we hold on this planet are being destroyed by the minute due to greed and corruption from the higher-ups. Mars was once expected to be a much more lively world. These same politicians believe that we have the power to restore this dead planet into a planet similar to Earth once again, but this is simply all just speculation based on science we really cannot test.

    The true narrative of moving to Mars, at least to me, seems to be a way to distract us from the problems we create on Earth. We throw Earth under the bus by setting our sights on another world to destroy, rather than trying to ameliorate the issues that exist on our home. When we think of Mars, we think of another world we can exploit for its resources.

The Very Real Possibility of the Death of Earth's Life

    Whatever you picture when you think of the word "hell" could very well be the future of our planet if we continue to allow greenhouse gases to go unrestrained. We have a planet in our solar system exactly like this. It lies in the habitable zone, is nearly the exact same size as Earth, and is considered our "sister planet". This planet is Venus.

Venus - Our Potential Future Hell

Image Credit: NASA

    While this planet may seem quite dull and serene, this world is a living blast furnace. This is due to a phenomena that is brought up a lot in climate talks. I am of course referring to runaway greenhouse effect. This effect is a byproduct of greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide) trapping heat within the atmosphere. This creates a positive feedback loop, which leads to more and more heating until you create conditions that are entirely unlivable. 

    Let's break down Venus a little bit more...

Image Credit: Space.com

    Venus's temperature sits at a staggering 870 degrees Fahrenheit and the air pressure is so strong that is would crush you like a tin can. There is speculation that Venus used to be similar to Earth in the way that it may have contained liquid water oceans.

    The greenhouse effect is a huge part of climate change on Earth, which, just like Venus, could lead to a major positive feedback loop creating more and more harsh conditions and strong storms. Strong greenhouse gases on Earth are gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, which can lead to chemical reactions creating stronger greenhouse gases. We already see some of this in the form of acid rain when volcanoes erupt. This creates sulfuric acid which can lead to a lot of health issues in life.

Back to MacAskill's Point

    Macaskill made the point that the farther we travel, the less our ability to communicate becomes. This is a point that we can see demonstrated in some of the furthest probes we've launched today. Radio waves travel at the speed of light, which is relatively slow on a cosmic perspective. Light takes around 5.5 hours to reach Pluto. The nearest stars to our solar system are around a few light years away, which means that it takes multiple years for light to travel to and from those stars to our solar system. This means that no communication can occur for at least that amount of time between solar systems. 

 

 

 

 Image Credit: Star-facts.com

 Humanity, too, cannot even reach 1% of the speed of light. The fastest probe we've ever made only reached 0.000589% of the speed of light. Realistically, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. This isolates us to our solar system for the foreseeable future.

Relating This to Environmental Ethics

    The reason I bring up how distant we are to everything around us on a cosmic scale is because of how much hubris we've gained as a species. We've had big dreams, and we will continue to have big dreams. That is not a bad thing, but when it comes to the point that we have politicians who have their heads so far into the clouds that they think they have the right to destroy the Earth, then we reach a problem. Several companies set goals that they are so ambitious about so that they have a "better reason" to destroy and exploit the environment all in the sake of science. Meanwhile, we have scientists doing research into the issues we face on Earth and presenting viable solutions that large corporations refuse to listen to out of fear that they will lose money.

    There are valid solutions to things that have win-win motivations for everyone, but because large corporations keep such a narrow worldview and set their goals and views higher than our species, efforts to keep our environment safe are put to shame.

    In order to truly pursue the stars, we first need to remediate the issues on our planet and work towards creating a better more sustainable world. Only then can we truly start to shift our eyes to colonizing extraterrestrial planets and coming up with ideas to utilize space for our benefit.

I know that we went over this video before, but for the sake of this post, I feel that it is the most relevant and important speech to the conservation of our world. It is not meant to make us feel small and invalidated, but rather to make us realize we have a small special world in a vast, nearly infinite, universe. We need to conserve this world.

The Pale Blue Dot

Thank you for a wonderful class, and I hope to see you all again soon.