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The Mars alternative

October 7, 2016   ·   0 Comments

It is wonderful news that Mayor Jeremy Williams will not be charged by Peel Regional Police for wrongdoing regarding his expenses. I am sure this is a welcome relief to him and his family. I imagine the burden of his legal woes h

I imagine the last year has been a difficult time for him, Ed’s perseverance and dedication to his craft is certainly noteworthy. Orangeville is fortunate to have such a strong Chief Administrative Officer.

I would be remiss if I did not mention Deputy Mayor Maycock. Warren is a long-time leader within our community. H Did you ever tell your kids that they had to clean up their mess before they could come down to dinner which was going to be ready in less than half an hour?!!! Or something like that? Messy bedroom, play room, living room – parent fed up with it in spite of probable personal history with untidiness and frustrated parents….

So, here we are, living on a planet that is so wonderfully planned – by evolution, the magic of Nature, happenstance – does not matter – the beauty, wisdom, joy – on and on, which is being rapidly destroyed by a apparently insane, unstoppable species, determined and set on destruction. No helping it, so it seems. Meetings – check; press conference – check; new proposed policies – check; negotiations agreed for peace in war-torn zone – check.

Something actually accomplished – nope.

Okay, no problem – abandon planet – go live some planet else.

Go outside at night and look around overhead – what’s that sparkly red one – that one  over there – oh, Mars.  Great. Let’s go live there. We’re done here, I think.

Like some religions, not everyone can go. But those with their brains in pickle juice and lots of money, they can go.

Some time ago, there was a really strange interview on the Current, CBC Radio 1, with Anna Maria Tremonte and a scientist who talked about genetic altering of humans – very academic, and he said the science was already there to alter people so that they would be more comfortable living on Mars than on earth with their shapes and metabolism having been changed.

Well, he had been already been discussing, in a serious way, how settlements could be built underground on Mars – he did admit it wouldn’t be easy to start – along with, you know, places to grow food – schools for the little ones – everything a person needs. Of course, they’re the new definition of refugees, so, mustn’t be too fussy about the conditions under which one must now live.

And, his point was, once we get things under and running on Mars, we simply breed people that suit the place better than we originals do. Just picture the history lessons in a hundred years on Mars … the kids will never believe any of those stories – myths – rubbish.

Oh no, this is serious stuff. The much admired (especially by me) Stephen Hawkins has said many times, and the first time was quite some time ago: “Man must find another planet on which to live or the species will disappear as earth comes to an end, either as a result of human influence on the earth’s condition or because of nuclear explosions.”

He doesn’t hold back, what’s he got to lose?

A couple of years ago, there was started a list of people willing to go on the one way trip to Mars and to what, I was never sure, although it seemed pretty clear to me that when they arrived there, the pool bar would not yet be up and running, that’s for sure.

They were in for unimaginable difficulties for which they could never be prepared. Hence, they would die in the effort of settling Mars but it was a one-way ticket anyway, so, no surprise about the end. It impressed me how many folk are ready and eager to take the chance on Mars.

Frankly, when the Europeans were antsy about how crowded and dreadful things were becoming there, they took off across the ocean, as daunting to them as this stretch of space is to us, no doubt. People died in the effort for lots of reasons. Still, here we all are, settled in pretty well, on this side of the ocean, more or less as planned.

The latest in the follow-up, then, to Mr. Hawkins’ advice comes from Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, the marvellous electric automobile, for which there are charging stations across the USA, as well as some in Canada.

Along comes Mr. Musk with his space company and a plan to build several space cruisers, I guess you could say, that will transport maybe hundreds of people to Mars to get things going there and, of course, to transport the very great load of goods needed for the work.

The joke, of course, the laugh ’til you weep joke, is that we are still the worst, most destructive slobs in the universe – at least, I hope there are none worst than us.

Be it Mars or any other port in the storm we carry with us, we will mess it up, ruin it, have meetings, blame each other and fight to somebody else’s death over it.


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