Mars on Earth – is the red planet an indicator of things to come?
There’s a lot to like about Mars. For centuries the name given to the Roman God of War (in honour of its blood stained hue) it has given us an opportunity and point of focus to think beyond our own planet. There’s been some vast mythologies about the deep channels (interpreted as canals meant signs of alien built water infrastructure) faces in the soil (signs of alien intelligence) and the home of a warring life force destined to wipe us out, only to die due to bacterial infection (thanks HG and later Orson).
In the meantime we’ve been doing an initial dump of electronic waste on the Martian surface as can be seen in this chart which is perhaps good news given the build up of e-waste in other parts of our planet we may have another place to store it all.
From what we know of Mars so far, it appears that it used to have a fair bit of water on it, likely had a much denser atmosphere than it does now (around 10% of Earth’s); had significant geological actvity, and may have (if it doesn’t now) sustained life. Over time the atmosphere has thinned, temperatures on the planet fluctuate wildly, there are significant winds and lots of barren dust.
So taking a stretch of imagination here looking at our own planet’s development, if the Ozone hole continues to be damaged, if weather events, warming and whatever else cause ongoing detriment to many species on the planet; if we use the resources we hve poorly, do we also create the kind of environment that sees our own atmosphere change significantly? I’m not the scientist here so ‘a grain of salt’ if you please. I’m merely wondering out aloud.
So the lesson or warning if you like, is that maybe, we don’t need to go to Mars because we’re making it right here on our own blue speck?
Futurists often get asked things like ‘Okay then – who’s going to win the ‘flag’ this year’. In Melbourne Cup time most of my friends ring me asking for a hot tip. Given my consistent poor form at selecting a winner, why they would ask me is anyone’s guess (unless they are working out who…
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Read More >Looking Up Feeling Good’s advanced signals reporting service ‘Future Alerts’ is now available as a monthly subscription offering. Designed to provide your organisation with signals indicating potential change, each report comes with analysis of the signals and how they might impact your business. Applying some advanced Environmental Scanning process, including the ‘VSTEEP’ model, you can…
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