Let’s blow up the moon
Filed Under (Culture War) by Don C on 30-10-2007
Can we mine the moon? Should we mine the moon if we could? Are the Chinese going to mine the moon first? I don’t know the answers to these questions but I do find them to be very interesting. Even more interesting in a funny ha-ha kinda way are some the comments to this Guardian story by Andrew Smith entitled Plundering the moon.
To wit:
If i had a way i would destroy all of mankind’s ventures outside of the Earth, at least until he learns to appreciate and protect - this world. We should stay here until we prove ourselves worthy of existence by learning to live here peacefully with each other - in harmony with our environment. If we were by chance to find another biosphere, protecting this planet would become even less of a priority. I only wish that our wisdom could make the leaps and bounds that our technological ability is capable of.
And to whom do we “prove ourselves worthy of existence”, I wonder? Al Gore? The UN? This poster?
Here’s another good one. I did not know this:
The solar system is chock full of minerals and free energy; I doubt HE3 mining is on the Chinese minds. All space programmes are military in nature. That’s why the space shuttle has wings - it is the precursor to a space bomber.
Another:
Wouldn’t it be funny if the Chinese took close-up photos of the Sea of Tranquility and other US lunar landing areas and found absolutely zero evidence to prove that any Americans had ever “landed” on the moon?
And how exactly could one be sure the Chinese close-up photos were real?
This “greed” is not confined to humans. Any organism presented with an abundant food source will multply until the food source is gone. Then, most or all of them will die. For detritivores likes us the hope is that we can then find another big heap of food like the oil we are half way through eating.
That we could find it off-planet seems highly unlikely.
As nomadic creatures we’ve got used to believing that we can always move on to greener pastures.
We can’t. Our “brief opportunity” has passed.
If our “brief opportunity” has passed, why so much concern? Hmmmm? Why not just chuck it in and enjoy the party?
I look at the moon nearly every day.
It’s bad enough knowing there’s a load of human junk up there already.
Like what kind of human junk? An American flag? Typical leftist liberal who loathes the thought of any evidence of any human existence but wont go ahead and take himself out for the good of the planet. Too important to the cause, I’m sure. This is kinda like the Teddy “where’s my pants” Kennedy position on the windmills that would spoil his view of the bay.
I think this one might have been being a bit facetious:
IMHO the Moon should be an international park, open to research but not exploitation, and administered by the UN. It’s a very special and delicate place, and should be treated as such. If we want somewhere to dig up, there’s Mars.
In fairness there are some decent comments rebutting these twits but the crazies are more entertaining for the sheer asshattery of their world view:
Just another unreachable or [im]practical dream, when man on this earth has not even learned to clean his ass properly, keep this environment safe, clean and most likely to wind up like the Venus environment of sulphuric acid.
Babayaba is a committed luddite and has several entries in the sage. here’s one of his better efforts:
The Moon may be “dead as a doornail” but it is still a fragile environment. How long will the marks of even just the US Moon missions persist?
It’s a terrible indictment of our culture that it produces people who have no feeling that the Moon could be anything other than another handy lump of exploitable rock.
The moon is an inseparable part of the Earth and has been sacred to humans for thousands of years.
Why do we think we, homo oily, in our tiny blip of civilisation, have the right to despoil her?
That’s right Baba, we don’t just pillage, we rape and pillage. Finally I’ll end with one or two comments that I liked:
[The moon] is one of a squillion chunks of lifeless rock floating about the universe. The really unique things are the clever monkeys on the planet which it orbits. They are the ones who went from shit-throwing, berry-eating primates to really smart creatures with broadband and electric guitars in the blinking of a cosmic eye. They’re the ones who deserve all the benefits which can be derived from strip mining the moon. Pass me my spacesuit and pickaxe - I’m off to fulfil the destiny of my species: more things and more power!
and:
I am genuinely puzzled here. I looked at this article title and thought ‘What possible argument is there against exploiting the moon’s resources?’ I was actually fascinated to see what was put forward. As far as I can see there is absolutely no argument put forward, just a few sentimental phrases.
And as for the posts, they just seem to demonstrate a self-loathing for humanity.
I am puzzled that this article was published at all. It has nothing to say.
Since I just blogged about the comments I guess I would agree.
