Message from the Stars – the CO2 Challenge

Being too close to a problem can be a distraction, if you can’t see the forest beyond the trees. Stepping outside the problem and looking at it from above can help bring perspective and reveal connections that are not immediately apparent from within the forest. Imagine if an ambassador from the stars were to visit the Solar System, one who has seen many worlds and how they dealt with the kind of challenge that we face now. Our gathering crisis is in part caused by unbridled progress beyond the boundary of sustainability, which we crossed in the 1980s, now needing 1.4 Earths to meet our demands. We don’t have access to 1.4 Earths at present and this means that we must take more from the Earth than the Earth can sustainably provide. If nothing else, this is an act of thieving from future generations, who will be left impoverished by our excess and facing a monster environmental repair bill.

A second account is now growing in size with the carbon dioxide (CO2) that has been released into the atmosphere through burning fossil fuels over the past few centuries of industrial progress. Being a greenhouse gas, CO2 traps heat in the atmosphere that would otherwise escape into space and the higher the CO2 level rises, the more heat is trapped, steadily warming the Earth and leading to climate change. Professor James Hansen, head of NASA’s Goddard Space Institute who began his career studying Venus and is viewed as the grandfather of climate science, has concluded that we have now entered the danger zone and CO2 must be reduced from the current 390 parts per million, to 350. This is not about to happen and as a consequence many scientists fear that we are entering the era of dangerous climate change, with stronger storms and a sea level rise of many metres.

Most of the warming has gone into the oceans, which are now heating up and causing corals to bleach, as well as sea levels to rise through thermal expansion. Warmer ocean water is also melting polar ice, where a predicted ice-free Arctic Ocean will have a dramatic effect on global weather and rainfall patterns. A warmer Arctic region is also causing permafrost on land and in the floor of the Arctic Ocean to begin to melt and release methane into the air, which is a greenhouse gas 20 times more effective than CO2. This warming is leading to climate change tipping points that will be irreversible.

Most of the CO2 released into the atmosphere has entered the oceans, which are now becoming acidic as a consequence and this is affecting the ability of corals and other sea life, including plankton, the very foundation of the ocean food chain, to form shells. As the CO2 level rises, this impact will intensify and could lead to the worst possible consequence: killing life in the oceans, which could then produce algal blooms that lead to the release of toxic hydrogen sulphide, a gas that is deadly to life on land. In the worst case scenario, the Earth could die and become a second Venus in what James Hansen calls the Venus Syndrome. This would not happen overnight, but it is not the legacy that we should be loading onto future generations.

At the core of our problem and challenge is our geopolitical dynamic that pushes on with progress as the World falls to pieces around us, progress that is sucking the life from the living Earth and oceans. Mark Lynus, the author of ‘Six Degrees’, the book that inspired the documentary drama ‘The Age of Stupid’ writes, “The warning is clear – but do we have the collective will to hear it?”

If the Earth were to be visited by an ambassador from the stars, who was not permitted to intervene because of long-established protocols, but could offer a message, what would be said? We can put ourselves in the celestial ambassador’s sandals and imagine what that message may contain.

The Star-Farer’s Message:

Citizens of Earth, ever since we were alerted to your presence with the explosion of nuclear weapons on Earth in 1945, we have kept watch over your planet to see how your civilization would progress. You cannot detect our ship, as it remains cloaked from view by our advanced technology, which pre-dates the birth of your star, as we are from the second generation of stars since the beginning of time. After billions of years of experience with the emergence of conscious life in the cosmos, we do not interfere with your progress, which to use an Earthly analogy, we liken to the emergence of a butterfly from the chrysalis. If we interfere, the butterfly will be weakened and will not survive. If you break free, you will find yourselves, your strength and realise your destiny as a star-faring civilization.

We deliver a message at this time because you have reached a critical stage in your progress and are at risk of dying in the chrysalis of your Earthly nest and never knowing the wonders that lie ahead. What you are going through is a natural process, wired into the laws of the cosmos from the beginning of time. Just as you have observed with the evolution of life, expansion is a natural aspect of life’s progress, which has also been revealed in the progress of your civilization. Unfortunately, the process of developing your technology incurs immense damage on the living fabric of your planet’s life-support systems. This is unavoidable as you pass through the juvenile stage of development, but if you successfully break free of the chrysalis, you will make the transition to maturity and gain the awareness to care for your Earth and heal the damage.

As many of your scientists are now telling you, the release of fossil carbon dioxide has now reached a critical phase that can lead to a dangerous climate in a hotter world with dying oceans that could swiftly result in your collapse as a society and could lead to the extinction of your species. We know that the survivors of this catastrophe may never regain the cutting edge of space technology and so your species may forever become prisoners on a desert rock in space. This is not our wish for your future.

We wondered if you would make the “giant leap” after Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon in 1969 and when Gerard O’Neill worked out how to build human settlements in space in the 1970s, all with an Earth gravity. It saddened us to see you turn away from this golden opportunity for your future, when you could have secured your survival in what is frankly quite a dangerous old Universe. As a consequence the intensity of your industrial progress, resource harvesting and lifestyle demands has caused immense damage to your Earth and now your survival is at risk, because you have clung to the Earth for too long.

This will be difficult to accept, but Nature only allows a narrow window for your transition to space. This is in part because your Earth must suffer so much damage for you to reach this point. It would be a shame to see you lose this opportunity to survive and flourish on your Earth and among the stars, because you have displayed so much creativity in your arts and science.

We will depart the Solar System shortly, as we cannot bear to watch the folly of your passing and the death of your Earth. We are a long-lived species and it delivers too much pain into our hearts to watch it happen. We will take with us the memory of your species and your Earth and we dearly hope that your story will not be an entry among the conscious species that failed, as there is still a chance that you can pull through, if you awaken to what is happening and what you must do.

We are leaving a beacon to monitor events and should you successfully make the transition to become a mature star-faring civilization, we will be alerted and in time you will be welcomed into the stellar community to participate in our great adventures. You must realise that no star-faring civilization would approach you now in your juvenile phase, as you are too dangerous, bristling with so many nuclear weapons and other methods of destruction. We wield great power among the stars, but we have no need to destroy each other. If you can find your maturity beyond Earth, you will come to see this.

For now we leave you with a list of possibilities to consider, which we hope will help you to overcome this gathering crisis and find your future.

1. Consider carbon as a resource that can be used in production, building and engineering. The life of your Earth is built on carbon.

2. Confronting the need to remove excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to secure a safe climate and environment for life on Earth, large facilities can be established around the Earth that take in air, extract carbon dioxide and split out the carbon as a resource for industry and building. In effect the carbon dioxide problem could be turned around, with carbon becoming a resource that is mined from the air.

3. The energy required to run air mines could be accessed directly from the Sun, with the Sun’s energy collected by solar power stations in space and transmitted to Earth via microwave or laser beam.

4. Air mines could be established in key locations around the Earth, with excess energy supply from the Sun fanning out through power grids across continents. Space solar power receivers on Earth can also double as ground based solar energy collection stations.

5. With unlimited energy available from the Sun, collected in space 24 hours a day 7 days a week year round, there will be the ability to desalinate water in large volume and pump it to any location on Earth.

6. Oasis environments could be built that create cooler spaces in hotter environments for living and food production, where even deserts can bloom. Built oasis environments can be sealed off from toxic air, should conditions on Earth become too severe.

7. With unlimited energy from the Sun to meet power needs on Earth, the use of fossil fuels can be phased out of the energy economy, allowing the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to begin to fall.

8. Where electric cars and trains can be used on roads and rails, jet liners can be replaced with fleets of inflatable airships for cargo and commuters.

9. With unlimited energy from the Sun, it will be possible to live sustainably on Earth and make poverty history. By having the ability to create a fairer world, the root causes of conflict and terrorism can be diminished toward a more peaceful future. Gaining the ability to expand Earth’s civilization into space will also release the pressure on many geopolitical quagmires, such as the Middle East powder keg.

10. The splitting of carbon from CO2 can also happen with a space facility, using the Sun’s energy directly. This can happen by dropping a long tube made from carbon into the atmosphere to draw the air into space, mine the air and return the de-carbonated air to Earth. Though this may seem impractical at first glance, there is more to consider. The full weight of the tube would not need to be carried in space or by the tube’s length, as with unlimited access to solar energy, air jets could be installed along the length of the tube to lessen its weight load, using the air that is being drawn up the tube to power the air jets. A high altitude inflated platform could also carry the weight from that point down.

11. An air tube could also double as a power supply cable for the Sun’s energy collected directly in space. There should not be a problem with using microwave or laser beams to transmit power to Earth, but the power cord from the stars will offer a third way to deliver solar power collected in space to the Earth’s surface.

12. As much of the fossil carbon dioxide released during the industrial era is now in the oceans and as this will be released back into the air as the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere is reduced, mining the oceans for carbon and any other elements of value can also be pursued. The Sun’s energy collected in space and transmitted to the Earth’s surface would provide the power.

13. The ocean mine can be a large artificial island over the deep ocean, which would allow another function in addition to ocean mining. To accelerate progress toward a cooler and safer climate on Earth, power collected in space could also be used to cool the oceans, using cooling units that can run to any depth, in a long steady process lasting a century or longer. As with land operations, the receiving station for space based energy collection could also double for Earth based solar power generation, increasing the energy supply. A third major energy source can be the temperature difference between the deep ocean and the surface of the sea. Wind and wave power could also be utilised, along with generating power from ocean currents.

14. Looking to the future, the time will come when enough carbon dioxide will have been removed from Earth’s atmosphere, so will that be the end of air mining? A glance toward the Sun reveals another planet with a heavy load of carbon dioxide that could be accessed, with the planet Venus.

15. Carbon mined from Earth’s air, and even the atmosphere of Venus, can be matched with resources from the Moon and asteroids and using power from the Sun, offers the opportunity to establish manufacturing in space to produce products for Earth and space, build spacecraft and construct human settlements. A space factory, being automated and with the use of robots, would not rely on a human presence and an atmosphere would not be required, unless the industrial process demands it. Food might be grown in space in hydroponic farms, which could prove to be helpful if land is lost on Earth to global heating and sea level rise. Products made in space can be sent to Earth on one-way trips in shuttle craft that glide to the surface and are made of materials that can be recycled and used on Earth. Much heavy industry in the future can be located in space, allowing a more sustainable human presence on Earth to be achieved.

16. An adjustable sunshade can be constructed in space at Earth’s La Grange 1 point, which is between the Earth and the Sun, to help cool the Earth, a facility that will be invaluable in the future as the Sun becomes steadily hotter with age. Installing a sunshade in space will allow life to continue for much longer on Earth than would otherwise be possible, until the Sun expands too much in size toward 5 billion years in the future and the Earth must be abandoned.

17. Once a sustainable presence is established in space, where no further resources are needed from Earth, there will be no looking back for human civilization and the future survival of humanity will be assured for the immediate future. This is a Liberty Line in space development to aim for, as it will be the point in human history when survival in the Solar System and among the stars is assured. To make a “giant leap” to the Liberty Line would therefore be the most prudent step for humanity to take at this time, where the future of humanity will become an open book toward the stars.

18. Once a commitment is made to make a “giant leap” to the Liberty Line and human efforts begin rolling in this direction, this will inspire participation in a vision for the future, connecting now to the benefits of space which will be shortly realised. This “giant leap” into the future will inspire new vigour in the Earthly economy and society as the terrestrial vision expands toward the unlimited potential of a Solar System-wide economy and society.

19. With space open for development and with the necessity of expansion beyond Earth accepted, cities and islands can be built in space that provide an Earth gravity by rotation. With unlimited production potential in space and with no cost to Earth beyond the Liberty Line, any number of star cities can be built throughout the Solar System in the coming centuries. Providing protection from solar and cosmic radiation is a concern, but this should not be seen as a problem, simply a challenge that will be solved.

20. Rockets, the only way to leave Earth at present, may be replaced by a mass driver that uses electromagnetism to deliver cargo from Earth to space. A mass driver could be powered by solar energy collected in space and transmitted to Earth. Inflatable ships can also be used that take a spaceship on a long glide-path out of the atmosphere and into space.

21. An inflatable air ship may be the mother craft to take a space plane to the edge of space, from where passengers can be taken on a smooth and safe journey into space.

22. Should the nations of Earth see the danger now looming with climate change, global heating and ocean acidification, a war-like footing will be needed to win the victory of saving the Earth and ensuring human survival, as a viable plan will need to be on the table within five years and mobilised within ten years. Delays now are steps closer to disasters that can remove the opportunities for effective action.

23. Financing human survival can be as simple as a tax on global financial transactions, which will grow as the “giant leap” space initiative generates a growing level of opportunities and rewards. It would be a tax that fuels progress toward a much wealthier human society in the Solar System, that will lead to ending poverty and an unsustainable human presence on Earth, as well as opening the way to a wondrous creative future for all Earth’s children.

24. Successfully expanding from Earth will see humanity establish a new civilization in the Solar System and lay the foundation for journeys to the stars, initially by robot explorers and later by human expeditions across the vast ocean of space.

Our mission will be leaving the Solar System now, to monitor other planets orbiting distant stars where consciousness is emerging. We hope you will join us one day, but this is now entirely in your hands to save yourselves, or fall by the way.

End of message.

Though the above item is set in a science fictional context as a device, the 24 points are offered as a plan that can be worked on and refined. We would be delighted to hear from anyone who would like to work with us on this vision, as a whole, or any detail. All who agree with this approach to saving our hides before global heating tans us raw, are invited to actively participate in promoting this vision for our future. As a vision it may only happen when a large enough number of individuals around the Earth speak up and convince communities, nations and the World to act on building a safe and sustainable future, on Earth and beyond. Though many items are extremely expensive, the concept of the Liberty Line opens a different view to the future, as beyond the Liberty Line the wealth of the Solar System is essentially free and can be used to save our planet and ourselves as we make a “giant leap” into the future.

At present we have no evidence of life existing elsewhere in the Universe, so we must assume that we could be alone. Scientists like Paul Davies puzzle at the silence from the stars, but perhaps ET is out there, but keeping quiet, because we are too dangerous to approach in our juvenile stage. There is always a chance that there is life around many stars, but we are the first to become conscious and if we manage to survive the dangerous years, we may in time become the star-farers who observe the emergence of intelligent life on many planets and welcome their successful emergence from their planetary nests. It would be a shameful act on our part to deny our children and future generations an exciting and amazing life among the stars, because we are too blind to see the risk we face and too timid to act.

It is time for the fearless on spaceship Earth to rise up and speak from their heart for our future among the stars, while we still have the choice to act on it. Timidity is now a threat to our future. We must be brutally honest about the danger we face, check the evidence a hundred times, check the facts and be deadly serious about what the plan needs to be to save the Earth and save ourselves.

Though most people live busy lives to provide a better future for their families, if we do not ensure our survival, no one gets paid.

The future is now in our hands.