Toward A Safe Future

The solution to climate change is political and political solutions are built on what a critical number of people will support. To gain this level of support, the vision proposed needs to be able to inspire such support, or it risks failing. I wonder if we need to consider a much bolder approach that will inspire enough people and nations to participate in making it happen. For instance, a vision that includes building an adjustable sunshade in space to cool the Earth, that will be needed in the future as the Sun slowing gets hotter (now 25% hotter than at the dawn of life 3.5 billion years ago), which would avoid the response of attempting to cool the Earth by pumping sulphur particles into the atmosphere; and build solar power stations in space with the power beamed to Earth by microwave, supplying all Earth’s energy needs indefinitely from the Sun, which would avoid the need to go nuclear and keep fossil fuels as fossils.

With those two initiatives, we would kick-start development in space and secure a sustainable presence beyond the Earth, which would ensure our survival and a safe future. From a sustainable presence in space, we would be in a confident position to work toward a sustainable human presence on Earth and a healthier Earthly environment, eliminating poverty in the Solar System by using the unlimited wealth of the Solar System to deliver a healthy life with creative opportunities for all Earth’s children. This is a project that can begin now, by building toward a future that we have decided to achieve. There is no point going down squealing like a stampede of panicking piglets, when we can use our creative intelligence to build our way to survival, sustainability and unlimited creative opportunities.
It is hard to imagine that anyone would turn away from the path to a safe future, but as Jared Diamond has described in ‘Collapse’ and other writers have graphically illustrated, societies have often chosen a path to disaster. I wonder if this is a mystery we may need to solve before we can find our own way to a safe future. I am also interested in the call by Charles Birch and others for an ecologically-environmentally sustainable society living a globally equitable lifestyle.

My investigation began in 1987, at the tail end of our sustainable presence on the planet, when confronted with the reality of Battery Hens and wondering why we tolerate cruelty to animals for profit in industrial farming. This led to forest concerns, the global environment and why so many fellow humans are delivered into poverty and starvation (there are now one billion people in the World starving).

In searching for working solutions, I looked to community culture as the guide to behaviour and searched indigenous wisdom for answers, which led me to the words of the Papuan, William Takaku, when he said
on Radio National in 1993, “Nature is culture; we must learn from Nature; when man sees himself as separate from Nature, he is doomed.”

William’s words led me to wonder more about the roots of the evolution of life and what the unfolding of natural law in Nature is leading to, the powerful drive in life for survival and expansion and
the role of human society in the continuing flow of natural law from the Big Bang to the present and beyond.

The sum of this investigation came together in 2006 when I wrote an extended article, ‘Creating A Solar Civilization’, which can be found on an Italian web site via Google. I am now working on a revised and
improved version of this article, including more recent research, observations and insights, such as the dramatic change in the nature of warfare and the shift in behaviour, with leading nations obliged to be more considerate of each other after the dawn of nuclear weapons in 1945 (Mutually Assured Destruction).

Now the quest for sustainability and equity has fallen under the shadow of climate change driven by global heating and the risk that this could pose to the survival of our civilization.

I am concerned that we also appear to be facing a crisis of confidence in the World at present, where a great many people do not know what to think and are surrendering to the prospect of a gloomy doom laden future, even willingly looking toward collective suicide as all falls down. I hear this so much and it was poignantly included in ‘The Age of Stupid’ where the archivist comments, “Why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance? We could argue, because on some level we weren’t sure if we were worth saving.”

In the light of all this, I wonder if our path ahead to a safe future needs to include a giant leap forward with space development, to secure a sustainable presence in space and therefore secure a confident position from where to work toward a healthier Earthly environment. Should such a future be embraced as the place we are heading to, it would create work now, as the support of the whole Human family would be needed in achieving it and we would all benefit from it.

In this giant leap forward, I see how peace could be secured on Earth and poverty delivered into history. With a view to the resources of the Solar System, we have an opportunity to build a whole new society
where the focus is on the health and creative opportunities of all Earth’s children.

I am deeply concerned that if we attempt to focus on Earth alone, we will not deliver solutions to the problems that we now face with climate change and any proposed solutions will not gain sufficient support, because they do not offer a certainty of success. We need a vision of hope that will succeed and that will inspire the level of support that will deliver a safe future. We need a vision of hope
that people can actually work toward, not simply gamble on.

Following is a short description of the vision that I suggest, crafted into a nutshell:

The solution to climate change is political and political solutions are built on what a critical number of people will support. To gain this level of support, the vision proposed needs to be able to inspire such support, or it risks failing. I wonder if we need to consider a much bolder approach that will inspire enough people and nations to participate in making it happen. For instance, a vision that includes building an adjustable sunshade in space to cool the Earth, that will be needed in the future as the Sun slowing gets hotter (now 25% hotter than at the dawn of life 3.5 billion years ago), which would avoid the response of attempting to cool the Earth by pumping sulphur particles into the atmosphere; and build solar power stations in space with the power beamed to Earth by microwave, supplying all Earth’s energy needs indefinitely from the Sun, which would avoid the need to go nuclear and keep fossil fuels as fossils.

With those two initiatives, we would kick-start development in space and secure a sustainable presence beyond the Earth, which would ensure our survival and a safe future. From a sustainable presence in space, we would be in a confident position to work toward a sustainable human presence on Earth and a healthier Earthly environment, eliminating poverty in the Solar System by using the
unlimited wealth of the Solar System to deliver a healthy life with creative opportunities for all Earth’s children. This is a project that can begin now, by building toward a future that we have decided to achieve. There is no point going down squealing like a stampede of panicking piglets, when we can use our creative intelligence to build our way to survival, sustainability and unlimited creative opportunities.

It is important to note that a large human presence will not be needed in space in the first instance, because of our highly advanced abilities with remote control systems, automation and robotics. People will want to go into space as well, for exploration, science (especially astronomy), education, tourism, employment opportunities or simply to live in cities among the stars.

The initial investment to secure a sustainable presence in space is huge, but this is entirely off-set once the Liberty Line is secured (a sustainable presence in space when space development no longer requires support from Earth and the return benefit to Earth is unlimited – explored in ‘Creating A Solar Civilization’).

If you go to the search box at the top right and type in my name, you can find all my entries, including my review of the documentary-drama film ‘The Age of Stupid’ and James Lovelock’s latest book ‘The
Vanishing Face of Gaia – A Final Warning’.

I would welcome discussion on this approach to a safe future, as we may remain very unsafe on Earth as long as we keep all our eggs in the Earthly nest. Australia could be a leader in delivering a safe future that includes space and Earth, because at present we do have human and industrial muscle, as well as the resources, that we could use to help make a powerful contribution toward a giant leap forward
in space development. In the larger picture, we are at present literally frittering our opportunities away and this could become a great tragedy, for us and for the Earth.

If we were to detect a meteor heading for Earth that would strike in 15 years and would wipe out human civilization, it is totally predictable that the whole Human family would unite to deal with the problem and deliver a solution. This is the way we are. So what is different about global heating? Right now it will depend on the story that is told and the certainty of hope that is offered.

I hope that there is a discussion here that we can work with.

Kim Peart
kimpeart@iinet.net.au