The Future for Earth?

[cee-dee]

The Salisbury affair and all the idiotic terrorism and fighting gave me cause to think of the future. Will humankind survive? Is the following too far fetched to ever come true? If you like a read, carry on, if you don't, look away NOW?

The Fleet Commander adressed the crews and populations of the one hundred Starships which had been wandering Space for a hundred years:-

"Good Star-rise everyone. I've called you all to now hear this. As you know, we have investigated many, many stars and their Planetary systems and I'm overjoyed to be able to tell you that we have located a small Star towards the edge of the Galaxy with a system of Planets which contain a beautiful Planet comprised of both solid and liquid. Our distant probes initially identified it's possible suitability for us and our more powerful probes have entered the planetary system and returned wonderful data which has confirmed our initial findings.

We now have ten probes in orbit around this Planet and have for landers on the surface. We have confirmed that the liquid is plentiful and the solid masses are extensive. We have video to show you soon and you we see that there is extensive vegetation. Our detectors have found that life exists there but as for intelligent life, we have not detected any yet.

However, we have detected the extensive remains of extensive constructions, buildings and trackways which all seem completely abandoned. These trackways are huge in some areas and from that we assume that some form of intelligent life existed there at one time and they must have used some form of transport as they're far too big for simple foot traffic as we know it. Our probes are continually identifying more constructions, all covered by extensive vegetation.

We have chosen landing sites on four of the largest land masses and I'm pleased to tell you that we have successfully landed there. Our landers are currently clearing vegetation from the area after completing analysis of the land and it's close atmosphere which we have found suitable for us to sustain life.

We will be landing occupied vehicles there before long and in the meantime, all our craft have set course for what we're sure will be our new home.

We have determined that the Planet is rotating and takes an odd number of our time segments to rotate and an odd number of complete rotations to complete one orbit around the star. Accordingly, we are re-setting all our time recorders to the time period of what will be our new Planet. We will now have a new setting for light and dark which will have to accord with the orbit of the Planet around the Star which it seems will cause different seasons as we move towards it's Poles.

As yet, we don't have a name for the new Planet so for now we will just refer to it as Home. Suggestions for a name are welcome.

If you look to your new screens now, you will see some video taken from orbit and that is followed by that of our landing. Initial video of the situation there shows the vegetation at the landing site and the taller vegetation further away. Now we have zoomed in on some huge constructions which can clearly be seen as having been constructed by intelligent life of some sort.

Now, the Planet has one Moon which is devoid of any life or vegetation and that has a very thin atmosphere and low gravity. The other Planets in that Star system are not suitable for our life but Home is most welcoming. When we first observed it, we were overwhelmed by its beauty, the first observers called it the Blue Planet.

We have decided to call one orbit a year and one revolution a day. The light time we will call day and the dark time we will call night. The length of day and night will depend on seasons. As we have been trying to find a new home for so long, no-one will have memory of seasons or light and dark times so for the rest of our journey we will have an equal light and dark time to get used to it. We will take what is a year on our new home to get there and it will be some time before we start the process of slowing to enter the orbit of Home.

Once we are in a stable and slow, low orbit we will begin the process of transporting everyone to land. We have decided that our Starships will remain in orbit for some time. As the Starships are far too large to land, eventually, once we are settled at Home, the Starships will be stripped of all useful materials before we set them on course for destruction in the Star.

The Star appears to have a useful life of at least 4 billion years, that is, using the time calculations based on that of Home. That being so, we don't have to concern ourselves with another move for a considerable time.

One main thing we will have to determine is what happened to the intelligent form of life which must have existed there at one time and how long ago it was that they disappeared. Initial observations based on vegetation growth seem to put that at around a hundred Home years.

You may all now resume your duties and look forward to preparing for our arrival at Home. May the Luck of the Stars be with you."

[astrologica]

Hmmm..interesting CeeDee. But it beats me why anyone would want to come and live on our little planet. We are doomed ourselves. Overpopulation, choking the planet with our rubbish, and climate change will do for us. And that's without even mentioning the fact that various members of the human race are unable to live peacefully together and are continually fighting (mainly over religion.) If I were an alien I would steer very clear. But if, at some future stage, all of humankind has died out, and the Earth has healed herself, then this beautiful little world might seem very attractive to a passing alien.

[cee-dee]

That's the general idea of what I wrote. ie that the current crop of humankind is well on the way to oblivion and after we've all obliterated ourselves, the Planet will recover and be a welcoming World should some other beings (who've had to leave their original Planet due to the impending end of their Star) just happen upon this corner of the Galaxy.

All those views before a brave Astro replied?

[astrologica]

Not brave CeeDee! I would have replied earlier, but I've been a bit busy. And I'm always banging on about overpopulation..I can imagine everyone yawning after reading that bit! But it is a fact that overpopulation will do for us, but world leaders don't want to address it. Maybe it's too difficult a subject, as it would mean challenging the basics of the Catholic and Muslim faiths.

[fallen-archie]

I’m not yawning Astro I share your concerns about population growth and have commented several times on it! For the first time ever I did not contribute to the sports relief appeal, my reason for it was a comment by MP David Lammy and a few others that it promoted a white saviour mentality, I have to admit that I needed to google it in order to understand where he was coming from but having done so I thought damn it why should I send funds to a good cause if they think this of me? By They I mean those who constantly criticise the sins of our fathers for which I feel we have moved on!
MOAS continue to pick up poor migrants in the Mediterranean and dump them in Europe at a time when we have so many rough sleepers, how can we help them to create a better future for themselves in their own countries without also being criticised. I would love to visit Afghanistan, Somalia and Bangladesh but the chances of that happening are very remote, why because they are incapable of governing themselves and we can’t help them either. So we are doomed 😩

[jd.linklater]

If in a couple of hundred years we have obliterated ourselves and a new species arrive, they may look at the Earth as a whole and think that nature has retaken the planet. It won't take them long to start clearing away the vegetation to build houses etc and they'll realise that under all this fresh growth are millions of tons of discarded plastic. Then they'll probably move on to somewhere more hospitable.

[fallen-archie]

On the subject of plastic, I have to visit Blackpool quite frequently, driving along he M55 is like driving through a landfill site, the amount of discarded plastic and tins is a national disgrace!

[cee-dee]

Your post mentioning MOAS struck a chord with me.

What I'm about to say may well be considered highly controversial but here goes.

I'm not in favour of all these "charities" interferring abroad. For a start they're a fine place for the very highly paid "officials" setting off on jaunts abroad and really, the charities are perpetuating what's going on "out there".

OK, so I feel sorry for those caught up in all sorts of conflicts but I don't see much effort on the parts of those living there to improve things themselves. They're often living in the stone age but although they have some "modern" things around them, they've done nothing about their own water supplies, drainage or sewage disposal. They've made no effort to make any sort of roadways and when you think back, the Romans had all that 2,000 years ago. It's time those people set to and tried a bit of self-help with the basics of life.

[upthecreekyetagain]

Most of the African countries have such a low population density, (equivalent to the U.K. in the 17th century),  and the distances are so huge it is hardly surprising that there isn’t the same level of a paved road network as there is in Europe or North America.

[cee-dee]

That may well be so but are those parts suitab;e for living in anyway? Also, have a look round their settlements, what do you see? Any signs of modern facilities? = No, they're still in the stone age.

[upthecreekyetagain]

Not the Stone Age but certainly similar living conditions as Europe in the 17th century.

Talking of infrastructure I live within a mile of Gatwick Airport yet have no access to mains drainage, gas or fibre.  The reason being that there aren’t enough dwellings in the same locality to make providing those services financially viable.

Oh oh and the condition of some of the roads are definitely third world!

[cee-dee]

You're able to drive on the roads, you'll have some "modern" drainage, you have electricity and a phone line? Where does your water come from?

Do you get your drinking water from the same stream as the animals are walking and wallowing in? Do you throw your "waste products" in the bushes? Do you cook on an open fire outside? Etc, etc, etc.

[upthecreekyetagain]

Without a sewage collection tanker that only has to travel for 10 miles on existing roads we wouldn’t haven’t a disposal system.  If the tanker had to travel 1,000 miles then our only option would be to discharge into the river.

The roads we do have weren’t built by me, nor by my neighbours but were financed by tens of thousands of people living in a very small area.  If instead of more than a million people living in Surrey there were just a hundred thousand then there wouldn’t be the money available either to build nor maintain the roads.

Without the money to lay pipes, build the reservoirs and water purification plants then again we would have to rely on the river for water.

We are fortunate with our climate, so could probably grow enough to live on.  With such a small population electricity would be a no no. Couldn’t even run a generator as there wouldn’t be a garage at the end of the road that didn’t exist.

Now imagine such a low population density and multiply distances by a hundred and you get an idea of the problems faced by individuals in rural areas of Africa.  They are not just sat around all day doing nothing - they work all the hours of the day just to grow the crops, rear the animals and collect the water to survive.  

The biggest danger is that more and more leave the rural areas to move to cities where the infrastructure does exist but without the work to provide employment for all.  If you want to get the infrastructure into these places then you will also have to accept that employment will move from the first world countries to the developing ones, as is being demonstrated by China and India.  Of course the cry then goes up that the competition isn’t fair because these countries are using cheap labour.

[upthecreekyetagain]

Ironically it is those living in the remotest areas of the Earth, living the simplest of lives, who are the very ones most likely to survive if/when society breaks down.

[cee-dee]

You're looking at it from the point of view of your existing situation.

Firstly, your roads. I owned a cottage which had a half-mile muddy track to it. I improved the road and it's still there and still in use. OK, so I used a farmers tractor and trailer to take stone to it but before that I filled the ruts with broken bricks.

In times past, without vehicles would you need a metalled road? You'd only need a passable trackway. People out in the back of beyond got together and improved their trackways which over time became roads. Those abroad could do the same if they pulled together.

I presume you have either a cesspit or a septic tank? So how do you reckon people there went on in times past? There were a couple of ways they went on. One way was to have an "outhouse" which was literally a bit of a shed over a hole in the ground. When the "hole" underneath was "full", they simply moved the shed and covered the "hole" with debris removed from the new hole.

A more permanent set up was also an outhouse but that was a permanent structure, purpose-built. Before the building was built, the ground was prepared with a slightly sloping brick floor. The slope led to a door and what happened was after time, the waste gradually made its way down the slope and after a considerable time when it was well-rotted (!!!!!) it was scraped out and "disposed of". Either they simply dug a hole and buried it or they (wait for it) spread it on a fallow field!

I agree that those living "the simple life" are those most likely to survive a major catastrophe as they'd probably have all they needed to carry on life.

[upthecreekyetagain]

With regards to roads what you are forgetting is that in Britain in the Middle Ages there were relatively small distances between settlements and villages, certainly only in the tens of miles rather than hundreds of miles.  Whilst the majority of people in Britain never left their village there were traders and large land owners who did and for whom communications were important.  It was the feudal system which set the routes for many of today’s roads.  These roads weren’t built for the villagers’ benefit but for the land owner’s and were mostly constructed by virtually forced and unpaid labour. 

As for your driveway, likewise we have one that connects to the main road.  This is only about a quarter mile long and as you did with yours we are able to maintain it.  If however the nearest ‘main’ road was 50 miles away then that wouldn’t be possible.

Sewage systems weren’t introduced to much of Britain until the Victorian age when population densities made them necessary - sewage is not a problem in rural Africa and systems such as you describe are in common usage.

Many of the problems in rural Africa come about because people are living on the edge - small changes in climate, such as droughts or floods can dry up water sources, divert rivers and ruin arable land.  Small communities don’t have the resources to bring in outside expertise to help in times of emergency as modern society has killed the barter system without providing a monetary replacement for communities that are generally self sufficient.

All they can do when things go wrong is to trek huge distances in the hope of finding help - to suggest that these appeals should be ignored is on a par with suggesting that food banks and benefits etc. should be abolished as people should learn to stand on their own two feet.

[fallen-archie]

As you may be aware I was a frequent visitor to Africa and understand what you are saying creeky, there is little doubt that they live a hard life and this is made worse by the distances involved as you have suggested and in the level of education available to its young people. Like many third world countries there is an insatiable desire on the part of the young to learn and progress and for years there have been missions throughout the continent helping with basic needs! Many of the young are not able to pursue meaningful careers without moving away to cities which can be very intimidating. I believe that we ought to be prepared to Channel foreign aid towards desalination schemes which could pump fresh water to a series of new reservoirs and enable crops to be grown not only to feed themselves but also for export, also we could invest in their educational needs and encourage practical family planning! Solar farms could provide essential energy needs and things can then really improve for all Africans!

[suzieseaside]

True, but it's not easy in areas where thare are conflicts going on

[cee-dee]

All self-inflicted traumas?

[upthecreekyetagain]

Only in so far as you could blame the Welsh shepherd, the Scottish crofter or the English farmer for the two World Wars last century.