Renowned scientist Stephen Hawking has said that within the next 100 years humans have to find a new planet and colonize it. Earth will become uninhabitable due to either the effects of drastic climate change, destruction from nuclear war or genetically engineered viruses. Time is running out. The only option is to accelerate space exploration and hope to find a planet to inhabit.
Earlier the reason for space exploration was to see if we could find intelligent life beyond earth. This was purely to satisfy the theory of evolution. If there are earth like planets in the universe, life would have evolved elsewhere as well. We have the means of tracing intelligence through some signatures of technology. The so-called sightings of UFOs has further increased the curiosity of outer space.
There is no doubt that we are on a mission to destroy earth, pretty fast. The signs of this destruction are for all to see. Glaciers disappearing at a rapid rate, global temperatures rising rapidly, water sources drying up or increasingly polluted, manifold increase in cancer rates, conflicts leading to death and starvation, and many more reasons are staring in our face for sometime now. The world has not woken up to the challenges of environmental destruction; many leaders like Trump don't want to acknowledge the issue in the first place.
One should take Hawking's advice seriously but there is so much more that can be done to stem or reverse the trend of global destruction. Even if half the amount earmarked for space exploration is channeled to protecting and rejuvenating our ecosystem, earth can survive for the next thousand years. Scientifically it may make sense to find water on Mars by spending billions; it would be in our common interest to preserve the water that is already available on planet earth. Even a developing country like India is increasing its spending on space exploration. Unless there is tangible benefits for ordinary Indians, technological demonstrators would be a drain on our resources.
Earlier the reason for space exploration was to see if we could find intelligent life beyond earth. This was purely to satisfy the theory of evolution. If there are earth like planets in the universe, life would have evolved elsewhere as well. We have the means of tracing intelligence through some signatures of technology. The so-called sightings of UFOs has further increased the curiosity of outer space.
There is no doubt that we are on a mission to destroy earth, pretty fast. The signs of this destruction are for all to see. Glaciers disappearing at a rapid rate, global temperatures rising rapidly, water sources drying up or increasingly polluted, manifold increase in cancer rates, conflicts leading to death and starvation, and many more reasons are staring in our face for sometime now. The world has not woken up to the challenges of environmental destruction; many leaders like Trump don't want to acknowledge the issue in the first place.
One should take Hawking's advice seriously but there is so much more that can be done to stem or reverse the trend of global destruction. Even if half the amount earmarked for space exploration is channeled to protecting and rejuvenating our ecosystem, earth can survive for the next thousand years. Scientifically it may make sense to find water on Mars by spending billions; it would be in our common interest to preserve the water that is already available on planet earth. Even a developing country like India is increasing its spending on space exploration. Unless there is tangible benefits for ordinary Indians, technological demonstrators would be a drain on our resources.
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