For those of you who have read my book, Question Everything – Overcoming Passivity in a Perilous World, or if you have been reading my blog, you will know that I have had trouble wrapping my mind around our incessant exploration of outer space. I have recently learned that European scientists are planning to send a robot into outer space next year; to clean up the junk we have left lying around our galaxy. The messes that human beings have made have not been confined to only our planet and our atmosphere. According to the article that I read, more than 3,000 failed satellites, discarded rockets, and paint chips – and 2,000 live ones are floating around in space! Personally, I find this a little embarrassing. If there was to be visiting life from another planet or solar system, I doubt we would be invited guests of theirs, due to our lack of manners and etiquette.
Of course, their reasons for wanting to clean up this terrestrial graveyard are not out of a sense of remorse or selflessness. Their fear is that all of that debris flying around at high speeds could collide with new spacecraft being launched into our orbit. Oh, the messes we have made – on our planet, in our oceans, in our atmosphere – and beyond! When will we ever learn? When will we stop trying to manipulate life and learn to live in harmony with it?
Our tax payer dollars are going into the production of all this spacecraft, including the cleanup. Our planet’s fossil fuels are going into the expulsion of them, and the noxious fumes left behind are polluting our air. So much money is financing space exploration and the creation of weapons and the strengthening of our military, yet millions of people in our country are struggling to survive and even going hungry. Our priorities are all wrong. It is time to re-evaluate what is truly important in life.
