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An article was published recently in the Journal of Cosmology by scientist Dirk Schulze-Makuch of Washington State University. It was a very detailed, extremely fascinating article on Planet Mars exploration and with a definite tone of pro-human colonolization of the foreign planet, as a lifeboat in the event Earth becomes uninhabitable.
“We are on a vulnerable planet,” he wrote, “If we want to survive as a species, we have to expand into the Solar system and likely beyond.”
I sit at my window, remembering the article, and I see a beggar on the street below, wearing tattered clothing, lacerations emblazoning his skin, a small child tottering in his wake. I pick up the newspaper and read about 2G scams, and terrorist attacks and of Iraq invasions. I open the window wide, and breathe in dust-filled air, a smoky residue decidedly hanging heavy in the cloudy sky.
With such firm reminders of what we as a species are, and what we have achieved in our short stay of about a few million years on Earth, are we really worth saving? People kill people here! Forget kill, at least that is an easy way to go… People cheat people, use power to oppress those without, cheat entire nations of the tax-money of hard working citizens!
We, as a species, are collectively responsible for the over-use of CFCs, leading to a hole in the Ozone Layer, which will, while undoubtedly cause a lot of harm to not only our own species, also hurt so many other! We have caused the extinction of the Dodo Bird, the Szaferi Birch, the Sarawak Mango; the endangerment to the existence of pandas, of frogs, of tigers; caused vast reductions in the area of jungles and forests causing extensive harm to beautiful natural habitats of so many creatures.
Who gave us the right to decide that the luxury of Homo Sapiens was more important than the Sea Minx? Who gave us the right to decide that the male of our species are superior to females, and so allow mass genocides over multiple parts of our mother planet? Who gave us the right to fill our atmosphere with so many toxin fumes in the endeavor to manufacture gadgets and cosmetics to ease the Human life? Who have us the right to dig up the eggs of the Dodo bird to be served as a delicacy centuries ago, when the bird itself ceased to exist?
Yes, Dr. Schulze-Makoch has stated in his article the reason that we need a lifeboat planet is in the event of a Supernova explosion causing the destruction of Earth, or in case a fatal Asteroid attack occurs. But at the rate at which Humanity is progressing, it would be more suitable to assume that Humans will watch a Supernova destroying a much-disfigured Earth from their homes built on a slowly-disintegrating Mars.
2012 as a movie was beautifully choreographed. The message the film pushed home was that in the event of a catastrophe, it wouldn’t be you and I who would be shifted to a lifeboat planet, but the snobby rich and corrupt politicians.
And yet as I walk home from the supermarket, I see a young school-going girl waiting to cross a busy, traffic-flooded road, and I see a business executive break free from his group of colleagues and escort the child across the road. I see a bunch of pimple-faced teenagers rescue a fledgling from a gushing drain and return it to its nest. I see an old man stop his car to offer a lift to an even older lady carrying a large bag of groceries.
More importantly, I see a silent strike protesting the CWG scam, I see a news hoarding of a new Iraq government, I see the municipal persons rounding up beggars to be sent for rehabilitation. I see persons who may not be in the seat of power intent on converting the sad state of affairs our planet is in into a friendlier, more habitable planet.
A funny species we are. A species which will not tolerate crime, but only when we have support of like-minded people. A species which will set up medical centers and research centers to eradicate diseases our ancestors have faced so that our future generations may not have to suffer as they did. A species which will cross over all boundaries to try and help the 1411 remaining tigers survive and hopefully increase in number.
Are we a species worth saving? Hey, who am I to say, when I cannot deliver a guilty or non-guilty judgment on that dog which just tore my best dress?
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