Okay it's time for me to whinge again and loudly. I may only amount to one small voice on this planet but I can't hold back solely for that reason. It's amazing how celebrities are heard and quoted even though some have brains smaller than those of pet guinea pigs. In fact it's truly quite terrifying as, for instance, when Kanye West decided he was smart and informed enough to run for President of the USA.
Money and fame seem to make your opinion matter. Well I have neither but I've know that I've had a quite substantial brain since I was around seven, although not an egocentric one because no one bothered to build up my sense of self worth. In fact it wasn't until my mother was in a nursing home that she said to me, "I think that you're one of the smartest people I've ever known." That meant a great deal to me even though she had dementia by then. Nevertheless she was undoubtedly the cleverest person I have ever known and so I took her compliment to my heart.
Enough prattle, here is what I'm a tad bothered about. Firstly, we're wrecking our planet, we know that. Secondly, it seems that any billionaire who has run out of ways to amuse him(usually)self decides to go into space exploration. Not just any type of space exploration but the kind designed to generate tourist dollars. Last week (in March, 2021) SpaceX, Elon Musk's space venture company, sent an unmanned rocket a certain distance into the atmosphere and then managed to land it successfully. A few seconds later it exploded but his ground team said the launch had been a success. They now just had to figure out how to stop it exploding on landing at the next attempt. Apparently by 2023 Musk wants some wealthy tourists to accompany him on an expedition in space but I'd be damned if I'd put my hand up at this stage. In fact I wouldn't put my hand up at all for reasons I'll get to later.
Richard Branson of Virgin fame has been working on his own space exploration business even prior to Musk. It seems it's the must do thing for billionaires who have run out of ways to amuse themselves. Just over a year ago Branson's last attempt went stunningly awry. The quote below is from the December 13, 2020 edition of the Washington Post:
"Virgin Galactic aborted its third attempt to reach the edge of space on Saturday after the engine of its space plane ignited for about a second and then went out. The vehicle then glided back safely to the runway, and the pilots were reported to be in good health.
A successful flight would have brought the company, founded by Richard Branson in an effort to open space to the masses, a step closer to flying Branson himself to the edge of space, followed by the line of people who have paid as much as $250,000 for the chance to fly on a suborbital mission, see the Earth from space and experience a few minutes of weightlessness."
I doubt, frankly, if the $250,000 (US dollars I presume) the potential tourists would pay would be enough to cover the fuel required for these little forays into space for no purpose other than a thrill.
Below is another quote from NASA's Shuttle Trivia online web page:
"At liftoff, the two Solid Rocket Boosters consume 11,000 pounds of fuel per second. That's two million times the rate at which fuel is burned by the average family car. The twin Solid Rocket Boosters generate a combined thrust of 5.3 million pounds."
Musk and Branson's rockets may, or may not, be smaller than their NASA counterparts but note the amount of fuel used in a shuttle launch and then imagine the number of experimental launches the two tourist companies undertake to refine their rockets.
Is the thrill of a joyride in space by a tiny number of well heeled persons enough to justify the extreme amount of fuel, and thus carbon dioxide, belched into our already sick atmosphere? I don't think so. I hate telling people how to live and what to or not to say, but in the case of using up this planet's oxygen, I feel justified in suggesting that Musk and Branson's companies should stop their tourist space programs.
We have rockets launching, frequently I'm sure, to maintain communication, weather satellites and the space station. We did survive without these but they have been useful. Space tourism, however, is no reason to belch more crap into the atmosphere.
I love those people who are all for colonizing other planets when we can't maintain our own. When I think of humans in space I just imagine them as slightly evolved apes. You know, apes in space and, instead of swinging from vines, they're making their way from planet to planet to wreak destruction elsewhere in nifty little, fuel consuming rockets.
I can also imagine colonies of humans in a hundred years or so with children who long to see mother Earth but simply won't be allowed on it. Earth will be for the privileged humans who survived and re-greened the planet against all odds. While I still dream of seeing Italy and Greece, imagine what it would be like to grow up on an arid planet, sustained by artificially produced oxygen, dreaming of a green landscape with beautiful blue waters.
That's what we are destroying. All the talk of reducing carbon emissions is valid but not enough. What no one dares to address is the population. It has to be stabilized before people are delegated to having no more than two children, but does anyone really address this issue? No, they don't. I think those people, such as David Attenborough, who are really trying to get the mass of humanity to think about the damage to the planet are afraid they will lose their audience and any chance to influence it if they address the sensitive area of child breeding.
Isn't it better to deal with it now? No one is suggesting anyone be culled, just that we think for the future about how much arable land and living space there is and how many people the Earth can sustain without us having to give up the conveniences, such as power and communications, that civilization has given us.
I once spoke to a fellow who said, "Who cares how many people are on the planet, scientists will figure out a way to feed us." I wonder if he thought how much space we would be allotted and if there would be enough plants to recycle the carbon dioxide back into oxygen. The trouble with a lot of people is that they are just not far sighted and only think of the now.
I am fortunate. I was born into physically beautiful and natural surroundings and fell in love with this planet from the moment I could perceive. I feel a need for trees, clean air and enough room to move. I don't need to pay $250,000 to orbit the earth to look at it, while it's still blue from above. I live here. It is my father and my father and I respect it. I can only pray it survives us intact. I have a very real fear it will not and it is disgusting to look for an alternative place to inhabit if we can't care for the one we have.
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