Wars, wars, wars — all wars are all turf wars. The Russians grab Crimea, they have a toehold in Syria (right next to Turkey), and both are picking for a fight. Silently, the Russians are positioning to control the Arctic as well. China is creating new islands, as they destroy valuable coral reefs and daring anyone to challenge them.
Taiwan for sure is in the Chinese gunsights, and maybe the Philippines, too. The Chinese have been very busy making friends, building dams and influencing people in Africa. Expansionism, call it what you will, the big powers are looking for “lebensraum,” or more accurately access to resources and trade routes.
As if something more were needed to fight over, interplanetary space is not viewed as being empty. New frontiers? Is it adventure that awaits us, or new sources of mineral wealth, water and dominance. It is all too easy to predict that conflict in space will be among earthlings, not inhabitants of other planets, or galaxies; human societies are totally predictable in preaching cooperation, while preparing for conflict.
In mid-December, three new astronauts travelled to Uzbeckistan in order to catch a ride on a Russian rocket to the International Space Station. One of them was British, one was Russian and the third was American. The first two will remain in orbit for six months, but the American will be staying for a year. In their coverage of the event, the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) speculated as to why the American was taking an extended stay:
Even though the Americans deny it, it looks as though they are preparing for a voyage to Mars.
Exactly, that is what the Americans are up to — Mars.
All the excitement that is fostered over reports from the Voyager, the Philadus comet probe and the Mars Curiosity rover, these all center around the prospects for water and the ability for some extraterrestrial body to support life. For a real eye opener, read the descriptions of Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, which Voyager was sent off course to take a closer look at. It is just as though certain individuals have an agenda they would like to obscure: they are looking for an escape hatch, theultimate, as well as the fabled, “deus ex machina” we learned about in English lit.
Could it be that some people are hedging their bets on Old Mother Earth, planning for deadly water shortages and the exhaustion of precious minerals required for the next generations of cell phones, computers, lasers, optics, batteries, etc.? Ultimately, is it truly considered feasible to colonize planets, moons and other distant heavenly bodies? What kinds of conflict will be engendered then?
Perhaps we will leave Earth to the likes of ISIS, al Qaeda, Boku Harem, el Shebab and what have you, while a select colony of other humans goes to live among the stars. But wouldn’t it be so much better if we could only fix Earth first?
Oh, and enjoy the “Star Wars” movie.
