To Infinity & Beyond

#FridaysForFuture, the incessant burning of the Amazon rainforest, and the United Nations report. All of these events have been in increasing circulation on social media. Although everyone seems to know this is happening and posting all of the information on their feeds, very few individuals are actually changing their lifestyles. According to the UN, if our current lifestyle isn’t changed dramatically within the next 11 years, we will reach an irreversible point-of-no-return in terms of damage to our planet. I find it extremely hard to change human behavior; our greed and our want will only ravage the Earth further. 

In the movie Kingsman: Secret Service, Samuel L. Jackson’s character gives an exciting way of looking at this problem. He uses an analogy, where he compares humans to a virus and explains how the planet Earth is the host of the virus. There are only two ways it could end. Either the virus kills the host, killing itself along with it, or the host creates countermeasures to kill the virus and survives. In either case, the virus dies. In this case, humans go extinct. The villain then goes to kill the majority of the population in order to benefit the wealthy minority who survive. For obvious reasons, this is not the way to go; however, there is still a practical solution to help the human race survive and keep the planet still alive. In order to survive, the virus must spread to other hosts before destroying their original host or being destroyed by it. Thus, the only natural solution is for humans to expand to other planets. 

Since our appearance on Earth, humans have been explorers, whether its exploring mountains, the sea or new continents, it has always been a part of our DNA. Nonetheless, we currently live in a time that as a species, we are not traveling to new places. While we were previously exploring our planet, all of Earth's surface has been thoroughly mapped since. The next logical step would be to explore our solar system and eventually our galaxy. Although we are still missing large amounts of technology to be researched to begin exploring space, it is crucial that we focus as a planet with this goal in mind. We will soon be able to explore the new horizon, the endless ocean of space. So, more than reducing waste and pollution, or changing our DNA, or mapping the ocean, we must become an interplanetary species and go to infinity and beyond!