#27: Should humanity colonize space?

Our 27th prompt comes from Brenda. She asks:

I’m excited and worried about humans becoming multi planetary. You?

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Brenda,

I have many concerns regarding human beings becoming multi-planetary. The argument for it has support from leading thinkers of our time, such as Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking.

Musk argues that we must put a million people on Mars within the next 100 years to ensure the long-term continuity of our species. He says “I think there is a strong humanitarian argument for making life multi-planetary in order to safeguard the existence of humanity in the event that something catastrophic were to happen, in which case being poor or having a disease would be irrelevant, because humanity would be extinct. It would be like, “Good news, the problems of poverty and disease have been solved, but the bad news is there aren’t any humans left.’”

His statement brings out one of my concerns. It’s curious how poverty, disease and oppression are put on the back-burner, and how colonizing space is suddenly a matter of urgency. See how he argues that: hey, you may be poor or sick, but at least you won’t be dead! How is this a good sales pitch? This is the argument that has been used to oppress different classes of people for hundreds of years. “Hey, you may be a woman earning less than a man for the same job, but at least you have a job! 50 years ago you wouldn’t have!” or “Hey, you may experience racism in Europe/the Americas, but at least you get to live here and not in a developing country!” or “Hey, I know you were colonized and all, but we brought you English, and development!” I’m not one to argue that we must focus on only one thing at a time, but I wish the elites leading the race to space colonization would show the same concern and humanity to people who are already alive on this planet, as opposed to versions of ourselves that will be around in 100 years.

My second concern is how we speak of our possible extinction as if it is not largely in our hands. We are probably going to cause our own extinction, because human activity is the leading contributor to global warming. If we’re going to go extinct, this is the likeliest way it will happen. Global warming is melting permafrost soils that contain ancient viruses that we have never been exposed to. Global warming has led to more hurricanes, tornadoes and melting ice caps. Sea levels and temperatures are rising. It’s causing heat waves and droughts, which lead to food scarcity and the death of both man, animals and crops. Because of this, there’s increased human-animal conflict for food and water. This is in addition to human conflict for these same resources. Air quality is becoming worse because of smog, and clean water is getting scarce.

Yet we hold the key to this mess. We’re the ones using fossil fuels instead of rushing to convert to green energy. We’re the ones factory farming. We’re the ones who really, really love plastic. We’re the ones who cause mass deforestation for the comforts of urbanization. However, instead of changing our habits and rolling back the harm we’ve caused this planet, we want to take these harmful behaviours and spread them across the galaxy. How’s that for a solution? What makes us think that we will suddenly change when we get to Mars? We’ll probably just destroy that planet as well.

There’s also the matter of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which says that “Outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.” Which leaves it in the hands of private corporations, such as Space X, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic and others. Now, we know private companies don’t do things out of the kindness of their hearts, they pursue profit and maximization of shareholder value. So, who will be able to pay to be relocated to space? Wealthy people. What about the rest? We will be left here on this death orb. Out of sight, out of mind.

We also mustn’t forget that space colonization is still colonization. Therefore, the dynamics of colonization will play out here. Let’s assume (which is likely) that the parties to the Outer Space Treaty void it, and it becomes a national affair. Will there be a Scramble for Mars the same way we had a Scramble for Africa? Will there be a modern day equivalent of the Berlin Conference to divide and conquer the planets human beings colonize? Are Space X and Blue Origin modern day versions of the Dutch East India Company, the Imperial British East Africa Company and others? What will happen to countries in the “developing world’? Will they have their own territories as well, or will they wait for “scraps” to be allocated by richer countries? If countries want to fight over space territories, where will they do it? On the moon, or on earth? Or will they invade each other’s planets? Will we call these wars Star Wars?

Our hubris as a species is equal parts shocking and impressive. I have no doubt that we will ultimately colonize other planets – the proponents of this movement seem unstoppable, and they have enough money and privilege to do it. I just wonder what makes us think we have the right, and whether we are approaching this all wrong.

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This post is part of a daily writing experiment that I’m running for a year. I’d love it if you took part! ?

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