We have only one Earth to live on

[Jeff7]

It always makes me shake my head at the profound belief by many that we can eventually master interstellar travel and find new worlds to exploit. Sci-Fi is rampant with that assumption. Its never going to happen. Never. The distance is too great for technology to ever compensate for. Screw this planet up to the point its uninhabitable and we're pretty much screwed as a species.

Why? It simply may not ever be cost effective.

We can make antimatter right now. It's also the most expensive substance in the world, costing somewhere north of $50 trillion per gram to produce.


At one point in time, the distance to the Moon was simply too great for technology to ever compensate for. Sure, it wasn't comfortable nor terribly cost-effective to cram a few people in a tiny box to get them there and back again, but it was possible. And it was a great PR campaign for the STEM fields.

Watch carefully

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjmtSkl53h4

Earth will be here LONG LONG LONG after humans die......and I'm sure it's much better of without us.

Well sure. Earth and various life forms on it will easily persist. A more reasonable concern would be about how comfortable and tolerable the environment will be.

We managed to survive in the African savannah without anything close to the knowledge or technology we have now.
I've also never really had to worry about dying from an abscessed tooth, from an infection in a small cut on my leg, or by being eaten by a large predator.

Earth and most of its life will easily survive. We want more than to simply survive.

Never say never

Although yeah the distances involved are immense and its a realistic view that our species may never leave this planet in any meaningful way.

Easiest way would probably be one or two androids and some eggs and sperm, and off they go, to infect colonize another planet.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

It always makes me shake my head at the profound belief by many that we can eventually master interstellar travel and find new worlds to exploit. Sci-Fi is rampant with that assumption. Its never going to happen. Never. The distance is too great for technology to every compensate for. Screw this planet up to the point its uninhabitable and we're pretty much screwed as a species.

So, you believe the majority of physics is known and therefore cannot envision a method for traveling the required distance? I'm not sure which is worse, the arrogance or, the ignorance. Given the level of technology available today, we could build a horrendously expensive generational ship. That's not going to happen. I do agree we shouldn't screw up the planet even if we had the technology to easily travel to the stars.

 

[SparkyJJO]

We're due for a large meteor or ice age soon. All signs indicate there'll be a pretty massive scaling back in the human population.

Given the recent temperatures around here maybe it already started D:

 

[Red Squirrel]

We are destroying the planet at an alarming pace. These days it's probably worse in developing countries like China. At least here in the western world there is some level of awareness, and some activism. Not much is being done, but awareness is the first step I suppose.

Go to places like Shanghai and you can barely see across the street because the air is so polluted.

 

[Scotteq]

Just do the Noah's Ark thing.

Take a few thousand of humanity's best and brightest, and hole them up in a protected location with the necessary food, medical supplies, and protective armaments. Then turn loose the stockpiles of weaponized Smallpox on everyone who didn't make the grade.

Beats the hell out of a global flood! No need to shovel the endless piles of sh*t out of the hold of the Ark.

 

[Jodell88]

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

If only those Damn shareholders hadn't been so greedy and "forced " the kindly corporations to destroy the planet.

 

[KlokWyze]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_JPcBwYGmo

:'(

 

[_Rick_]

We're never going to screw this planet up to the point that it becomes unlivable. Unlivable for humans, maybe, but we aren't capable of eradicating all life everywhere. Still, probably best if we don't make Earth unlivable for humans any time soon; it would put a serious damper on my Superbowl plans.

With a sufficient dose of gamma rays, you can sterilize anything.
We are capable of fusing and fissioning atoms. This pretty much makes us very, very good at releasing enough energy to at least temporarily eliminate all life.

New life might be created some time later, but I don't doubt that if we really tried, we would be able to sterilize earth.

 

[dighn]

With a sufficient dose of gamma rays, you can sterilize anything.
We are capable of fusing and fissioning atoms. This pretty much makes us very, very good at releasing enough energy to at least temporarily eliminate all life.

New life might be created some time later, but I don't doubt that if we really tried, we would be able to sterilize earth.

i don't doubt that we can sterilize the surface, but there is a lot of life (microorganisms) that exist below it. given time they'll spread outward and restart the whole process again.

 

[skimple]

Damn hippies.

 

[Jeff7]

With a sufficient dose of gamma rays, you can sterilize anything.
We are capable of fusing and fissioning atoms. This pretty much makes us very, very good at releasing enough energy to at least temporarily eliminate all life.

New life might be created some time later, but I don't doubt that if we really tried, we would be able to sterilize earth.

All life? Everywhere? Every last waterbear? Every last bacterium?


Maybe if our species devoted every last bit of effort to the project, over the course of a century or two. Maybe.
>90% of all life, sure.
All of it though?

 

[Jaskalas]

But progress means different things to different people. For this argument, progress would mean modernizing and industrializing.

Only way to stop others from modernizing is by force. Violence, War.

Nuclear winter doesn't sound environmentally friendly.

 

[BladeVenom]

 

[Red Squirrel]

The Bagger 288 will save the universe!

 

[bradly1101]

Oh, go hug a tree!!

Be careful trees can hug back!

 

[JulesMaximus]

There is no evidence that man has any effect whatsoever on this planet... I mean, we've wiped out entire species, made entire cities uninhabitable for centuries, polluted the air and water in countless cities throughout the world.

Besides, we've made progress, my new Ford F-950 gets 18mpg highway WOOT!!!

 

[Markbnj]

Earth worship. Bah. The earth doesn't care about you. It's not some nurturing mother with green hair. It's an impersonal biochemical system that would as soon see you in the jaws of a predator as anywhere. If we left it to "nature" we would still die of infections from minor cuts and scrapes; we would huddle under overhanging rocks to keep the rain off; we would still be cold when the weather was cold, and hot when the weather was hot. We would still be food. Everything we have we owe to humans defying Mother Nature and all her limitations. If we survive we will master the planet, engineer every aspect of it to our whim, warp the orbits of the planets if it suits us. We're humans, and who is there to tell us not to?

 

[_Rick_]

All life? Everywhere? Every last waterbear? Every last bacterium?


Maybe if our species devoted every last bit of effort to the project, over the course of a century or two. Maybe.
>90% of all life, sure.
All of it though?

Yup, we just need to figure out how to create a massive gamma ray event. DNA deteriorates quite rapidly under any length gamma ray bombardment.
And though we may not currently be reliably capable of doing that, it's probably the most likely way to destroy all life.
All we'd need to do is to figure out how to turn the energy of thermonuclear reactions primarily to high energy gamma rays, as opposed to just a bunch of heat, and to keep the bombardment up for a few minutes.
Even a bit of hard UV kills those Waterbears, gamma rays sterilize that much more efficiently.

 

[JManInPhoenix]

All life? Everywhere? Every last waterbear?

Looks like a cross between a shar-pei and a lobster

 

[Newell Steamer]

Damn commie liberals,...

It is my GOD given right, to dig deep into the Earth, take whatever I want, kill whatever I want, enslave whatever/whomever I want and make as much money as possible. Anything less, or otherwise, is a sin.

Ok, sorry. I had to get that out of the way.

This mud ball will ultimately be OK,.. up until the Sun goes super nova in about 6 billion years. The environment will shift and change easily 1,000 times over until then. And, humanity will suffer from it. Either be wiped out, or change, or evolve (gasp!).

Life, in some form, should continue. Which kind of life,... I don't know. We'll have to see what ends up happening from all the abuse we've wrecked on the environment.

 

[Maximilian]

The Bagger 288 will save the universe!

Ah memories, used to sit and watch rathergood.com in highschool. No wonder my grades were mediocre

 

[monkeydelmagico]

We're a destructive force that probably needs to leave this planet for our own good. Treat the earth like a great big greenhouse. Station most of the people off planet.

Otherwise mother earth will stike back with fury and vengence unleashing disaster and plauge. Doomed.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Damn commie liberals,...

It is my GOD given right, to dig deep into the Earth, take whatever I want, kill whatever I want, enslave whatever/whomever I want and make as much money as possible. Anything less, or otherwise, is a sin.

Ok, sorry. I had to get that out of the way.

This mud ball will ultimately be OK,.. up until the Sun goes super nova in about 6 billion years. The environment will shift and change easily 1,000 times over until then. And, humanity will suffer from it. Either be wiped out, or change, or evolve (gasp!).

Life, in some form, should continue. Which kind of life,... I don't know. We'll have to see what ends up happening from all the abuse we've wrecked on the environment.

I dump used motor oil in the ocean just to piss off the hippies.

 

[Mai72]

I dump used motor oil in the ocean just to piss off the hippies.

You do?