I'm beginning to think that there is such a thing as too much money syndrome. The symptom: planning to build a permanent base on the moon for long-term human settlement off the planet. This is NASA's latest plan. Apparently they have gone so far as to make plans for recycling human and manufactured waste, regenerate the outpost's air and water and establish lunar agriculture to provide both food and oxygen for residents.
If I could meet any of the geniuses making these plans, here is what I would tell them: time to come back down to Earth. If you have time and money to come up with plans to solve problems of the world that aren't even problems yet, how about focusing on the ones that are real problems? I'm referring to Darfur, Sudan. I'm referring to HIV/AIDS, to Afghanistan that is struggling to curb it poppy production, to the melting ice caps in the Arctic, to the depleting fuel reserves and search for alternative fuels, to the millions who don't get three meals a day or ever go to school. How about focusing on those who don't have access to clean drinking water or have to walk miles to get a bucketful? How about giving houses to the survivors of the South Asian Tsunami or hurricane Katrina?
I mean really, there is no shortage of problems here on Earth that are actual problems. Ask anybody from Oprah Winfrey to Bono to Bill Gates to Wangari Mathai to Mohammed Yunus to Shirin Ebadi to Al Gore. If they aren't your kind of people, ask Brangelina. Any of them will tell you that there is a better place to put your money and focus your time than attempting to make life on the moon possible. For some, even life on Earth is still not possible.
If I could meet any of the geniuses making these plans, here is what I would tell them: time to come back down to Earth. If you have time and money to come up with plans to solve problems of the world that aren't even problems yet, how about focusing on the ones that are real problems? I'm referring to Darfur, Sudan. I'm referring to HIV/AIDS, to Afghanistan that is struggling to curb it poppy production, to the melting ice caps in the Arctic, to the depleting fuel reserves and search for alternative fuels, to the millions who don't get three meals a day or ever go to school. How about focusing on those who don't have access to clean drinking water or have to walk miles to get a bucketful? How about giving houses to the survivors of the South Asian Tsunami or hurricane Katrina?
I mean really, there is no shortage of problems here on Earth that are actual problems. Ask anybody from Oprah Winfrey to Bono to Bill Gates to Wangari Mathai to Mohammed Yunus to Shirin Ebadi to Al Gore. If they aren't your kind of people, ask Brangelina. Any of them will tell you that there is a better place to put your money and focus your time than attempting to make life on the moon possible. For some, even life on Earth is still not possible.
6 comments:
While i agree on the point that this project is Silly, but i cant help but feel cynical as to what you propose to do with the money 'saved' from this project.
will showering bucketloads of money help all of those problems you identified? or are all of these even problems? is global warming as severe problem like New York Times and Al gore will have you believe ? in fact Mr Gore in his much acclaimed documentary says he himself believes that its worth to 'over-represent' the threat of global warming. bullocks.
ok, so i just mostly wanted to just attack the ice melting frenzy of you democrats. :P
Deane.
forgot to mention : there's a good slate article on the topic.
http://www.slate.com/id/2155164/
I suggest you read this first
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/nasafact/spinoffs.htm
Might help you to understand why it is needed.
um a lunar living program? why da f? what happened to that space station?
hmm, interesting comments. Thank you Deane and anonymous. I usually would not respond to comments, but in this case, i think i should.
I beliveve they are going to dismantle the space station they have currently. I am not sure though.
I did read the website suggested by anonymous. It is a list of inventions that we now use due to NASA's research. That was an eye opener. I didnt know there were so many inventions that were a result of NASA research.
But I still dont see how this base on the moon crap is justified. The U.S military is credited with a lot of inventions too, including the internet. Is any one suggesting that America go to war more in order for mankind to have more inventions? There are somethings that cannot be justified by idealistic day dreaming.
Yes Deane, that Slate article says it all very well. It makes a factual argument, something which i have failed to do.
To address the last comment: my point is that there is such a variety of problems, you can pick one. If you are not interested in the arctic melting, then maybe the starving kids in Sub Saharan Africa will. Both, you and I agree that global warming is a problem though and that it needs attention. How much of a problem is debatable.
As for the money saved and what i propose to do with it, here is one of my favorites: producing and distributing generic drugs to people who cant afford them.
okay hear it is, you guys remember that segment towards the beiginning of an incovenient truth when gore showed that simpson's looking cartoon? well this is nothing more than a real life reenactment of such stupidity. how do these people think that having all that money and time and effort to work on something that is not on their planet seems like a wise idea when they can just use all that money power etc to work on things that affect us in the real nad very tanible present not the surreal and very far fetched future.
if you ask me, this is all just an elaborate case that justifies the saying penny-wise pound-foolish
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