StockTrek/Getty Images
READ MORE ABOUT:
Last weekend, visitors to the Kings Dominion amusement park in Virginia noticed a strange black ring in the sky. The tight, solidly defined, ring remained stationary throughout the day. One family, believing the ring to be a sign from God, filmed the event and posted their video to YouTube.
Kings Dominion officials claim that the ring was smoke from the park's volcano. Some viewers, however, have suggested that the ring was a UFO. Cameron Pack, a professional UFO investigator, told a local television station that he did not believe the King's Dominion ring could be smoke from a volcano because a similar event occurred at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, 50 years ago.
The idea that we could be contacted by visitors from another planet may be fantastic but it makes us wonder: Could the human race move to another planet? The question is not, it turns out, as unreasonable as it first seems.
Could We Become Extraterrestrials?
World-famous physicist, Stephen Hawking, has suggested that humans must move to another planet to guarantee our future survival. Living on a single planet, he explained, is like putting all of our eggs in a fragile basket, one that is threatened by nuclear explosions, meteor strikes, and, increasingly, environmental degradation.
NASA too has started to look into the cosmos for sites of potential extraterrestrial human colonies. On June 19, NASA launched two probes designed to search for water on the moon. The agency hopes that the discovery of such a resource will pave the way for human's return to the lunar surface.
Obviously, the moon could never replace the earth as the home of mankind. Still, colonies there could help researchers develop a plan for moves further afield, possibly to an earth-like planet in a near-by solar system. Establishing such a colony would allow us to reduce our population on this planet, slow the depletion of resources here on earth, and, hopefully, provide us with a second chance to develop a society that protects the environment from the beginning.
No Place Like Home?
Of course, such a move would not be as simple as loading up a U-Haul and driving across town. The first challenge is simply finding another planet that could support human life. Once this planet is found, a means of getting there must be developed. Theoretical propulsion systems might allow a spacecraft to attain near-light speeds but these systems are a long way off. The consequences of climate change, population growth, resource depletion, and pollution, however, are not.
Vincent van Gogh once said, "I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream." The problem is that soon, thanks to light and air pollution, the stars might not be visible. When it comes to our planet, the time for dreaming is over. There will not be an Unidentified Flying Savior that will swoop down to cool the climate. Our ability to innovate will not propel us to a distant pristine world.
In the end, in a practical sense, we are alone with the problems we have created. We have no other choice but to fix our planet: it's the only one we are going to get.
Read more about taking action:
Do You Know Your Green World?
How to Go Green: Why to Go Green
How to Cure Green Apathy in Friends and Family
Why I'm Writing Obama a Letter About His New Ocean Policy
Why Building Community is the Greenest Thing You Can Do
Got a tip or a post idea for us to write about on Planet Green? Email pgtips (at) treehugger (dot) com.
-
- {}
