The Divine Mr. M

July 6th, 2022

The Human Race is riding a runaway train to hell [aka Accelerating Climate Change] while we argue about Profits and Pronouns, about when Life legally begins, about Borders and National Identity, most of us willfully ignoring the looming doom of our species.

I'll be seventy years old in a month and a half. My goal is to outlive our cats and my wife. Then I'll be free to punch my ticket if so moved. *shrugs* Not much else I can do really...

...and so it is.

“Earth is the only planet in the solar system with an atmosphere that can sustain life. The blanket of gases not only contains the air that we breathe but also protects us from the blasts of heat and radiation emanating from the sun. It warms the planet by day and cools it at night.

Earth's atmosphere is about 300 miles (480 kilometers) thick, but most of it is within 10 miles (16 km) of the surface. Air pressure decreases with altitude. At sea level, air pressure is about 14.7 pounds per square inch (1 kilogram per square centimeter). At 10,000 feet (3 km), the air pressure is 10 pounds per square inch (0.7 kg per square cm). There is also less oxygen to breathe.” From Space.com

“The sky begins at your feet.” I don’t remember where I first heard that or when, but it was at least thirty years ago, if not more. It always struck me. I’d go stand outside and instead of looking up, I’d look down at my feet. “The sky begins at your feet.”

Go outside now. Look down at your feet, say “The sky begins at my feet,” and then look up, up at the warm sky. And then remember how far that ‘sky’ goes, on and on for millions of light years through the dead cold and hard radiation of space where you would die in an instant without serious protection.

“…but most of it is within 10 miles (16 km) of the surface.” 10 miles is not very far. If you’re in good shape you could walk that in a couple of hours. Inside that very thin envelope is all of human life and all that sustains us.

And yet..and yet...well, you know where I'm going with this one: nearly all humans either ignore or are ignorant of all this. We fight over bullshit and vomit all over this one single planet for fucking money as if we had a few dozen worlds out there to settle on once we've wrecked this world.

For all we know, there are 'a few dozen worlds out there to settle on' though I would not bet on that. And even if, how the fuck do we plan to get there? We can't even get back to the fucking moon!!

Beyond that, even if we were perfect stewards of this planet, shit happens. The Universe is a seriously fucking dangerous place and that includes this world. Earthquakes, super volcanoes, pandemics, etc etc. Add asteroids and insane shit like solar flares, which could crisp half the globe in a matter of seconds.

Scientists and philosophers ask 'where are the other civilizations out there?' Maybe they are/were as fucking stupid and self absorbed as we are and one of those Extinction Events totally cleaned their dumb fucking clocks.

Seriously, we collectively as a species should be devoting the majority of our energy and resources to becoming a spacefaring race. We have a lot of technology to start with. It is merely a matter of application.

/sigh

Of course, I despair. Look at the venal greedy morons we allow to lead us. Look at how stupid and willfully ignorant most of our fellow humans are, not just here in The West, but world wide. The West most certainly does not have a corner on that particular market. A brief glance at the various wars and atrocities around the world will dispel that notion.

So, what to do? Start small I suppose, a hashtag maybe: #theskybeginsatyourfeet TBH, I don't know what else to do at this point...