Somewhere on Mars a machine will collect together some dead, barren rocks
Meanwhile here on earth, life flourishes in abundance but is being exterminated by human activity
How can people get excited about the first but ignore the second?
This blows my mind
Me too.
We don't need to explore what's happening light years away, however enticing it may be.
If there's any cash to spare, I can think of just a few ways it could quite easily be used to the benefit of all rather than so few.
@Jon6705 @Molly honestly I think we need to do both - it's the capitalistic scarcity mindset that tells us there's only cash to do one, and not fully, and that eventually leads to the idea that if we can't look after everyone we need to prioritise and exclude the undeserving. There is obviously a huge problem that our news and social media focusses on sharing what gets most clicks and hence most revenue, which is Mars not the ongoing crises on this planet, and I'm not defending the
@Jon6705 @Molly vanity space travel of billionaires sending cars or celebrities of themselves into space. But proper space science isn't just useful to us - by comparing the geological composition of Mars to Earth we learn more about the formation of both and how rocks may weather differently under atmospheric conditions for example, and it led us to develop satellites that can monitor ozone and atmospheric and water temperature and model future weather patterns. But I also strongly believe
@Jon6705 @Molly that science shouldn't just be a utilitarian thing, that learning more about and wondering at the incredible universe we find ourselves in is one of the noblest things we little squabbling apes do. There a lovely thought exercise about visualising what the world would look like if we won, how we would live if we managed to build an equitable world where everyone's needs were met while respecting the planet, and for me studying the cosmos would make up a big part of that world.