Consider this: The modern nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine is without a doubt the single most destructive machine man has ever created. Capable of remaining submersed and invisible for up to six months (only needs to come up to accommodate the sailors' needs. If it was autonomous, it could remain under the ocean for years). Then within minutes able to shower any landmass on the planet with multiple independently targetable warheads that reenter the atmosphere at over 12,000mph. Each submarine can destroy an entire continent.
It will always amaze and terrify me how far humans are willing to push the envelope of existence over minor, trivial, and frivolous things like war, when the real war we are fighting is against time. Imagine if we used all the resources we use for war, for a way to sustain our species. This world will not be habitable for us much longer, and the majority of the world is talking about and dealing with politicians and people who "rule" the planet and who (generally) don't think about the long run. So who will? Who will begin to think LONG TERM. Not just a 4 year term. It's terrifying and unfair to the other generations who will die here, on an uninhabitable wasteland planet; Earth, because of our ignorance and disregard for the future. At the rate we're going the person who will see the end of humanity as we know it is already a toddler. We need a world-wide space organization to help us escape the blue planet and inhabit somewhere else to ensure survival of our species instead of killing each other in a miniscule sliver of astronomical time.
A lot of people are looking for "the answer" or some "reason" for living. Well, I'll tell you this, if we stay on Earth, human's existence will go unnoticed and unmissed in the astronomical sense. We flourished on a planet that we evolved to use perfectly, then we destroyed it with our own disregard for the future. Earth will be destroyed, whether it be in 50 years due to global warming/climate change, massive pollution due to fossil fuels, a cosmic event such as a solar flare engulfing the planet in radiation an stripping it of the atmosphere (which keeps us alive) or and number of endless scenarios that could destroy the very unstable balance of life on this planet. If you're looking for a reason to live, then do what's best for the human race. Contribute to positive, long-term survival of humans. That could even be as simple as working at a grocery store, keeping society going (hopefully in a healthier, more sustainable direction). Our planet is dying... yet no one seems to care. Why is this?
Although, I'm sure there are many of you out there who are outraged at the way the planet is going and our lack of a "survival plan" (and I mean, for the entire species), but there aren't enough people pissed off. Most people think short term, and unfortunately it takes a catastrophe for people to actually change their way of thinking and unfortunate for us, that catastrophe might be the end of the planet.
Unfortunately, there are many people who think the space program is a waste of money, and that is the biggest, most destructive thought to human existence that could ever be conceived. Earth will not be here forever, even if we somehow reversed all the irreversible damage we've already done to the planet to prevent it from dying, the sun will expand and bun the planet before completely consuming it, and there is sure as hell nothing we can do to keep a star from going through its stages of life and death (at least not conceivably.. but nothing is impossible) .
So what can we do to get us the hell off this rock we're all inevitably going to die on eventually? Support space travel, sustaining life in space, space exploration, advanced propulsion systems, trying again and again and never giving up on new ways to travel, explore, and learn. Anything that helps us survive somewhere other than here. We must escape this planet before it become uninhabitable. We must learn and work together to sustain life in space until we reach another habitable planet or be able to survive indefinitely in space if we have to. Whether it be in sustained life in space, or on another celestial body... we need to get there.
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