Our human footprint
In 1969, those who watched the “one giant leap for mankind” witnessed the end product of America’s determination to outsmart the Russians. Exactly how did “mankind” benefit from making that eternal shoe print on the moon? It was a huge engineering undertaking, but as Peter Sainsbury points out, nothing like the feat we must pull off to keep Earth habitable.
With no adversary to compete against except our greed, Rupert Murdoch suggests those living in areas of coastal erosion and rising seas simply retreat. Musk has given up on Earth and is going to live on Mars. Trump promises to deliver the “cleanest air and water”.
These fantasists think themselves immune, to hell with the rest. But we are all on the same collision course. Our human footprint on the planet was already a problem in 1969. It seems the rapacious nature of capitalism will not be curbed even to save itself. We could use our collective brain power and enormous physical resources to make the necessary giant leap for (wo)mankind. But the world’s political and corporate leaders are, as Sainsbury suggests, “too ignorant of the science or too selfish to care”.
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