Burrows: “By God! Yes!”
The concept is not new, but there is some fresh momentum. Burrows’ new book, The Survival Imperative: Using Space to Protect Earth, is due out this month. And the physicist Stephen Hawking, who is not part of the group, began arguing this summer that human survival depends on leaving Earth.
The mission of the Alliance to Rescue Civilization has also attracted the support of Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, who now devotes much of his time to the idea of Martian colonization.
“It takes a big reason to go to the Moon, because, frankly, it’s a lousy place to be,” Aldrin said in a telephone interview. “But this is exactly the kind of planning as a human race we need to secure our future.
“But the ARC idea isn’t ahead of its time because it’s needed right now. It’s a reasonable thing to do with our space technology, sending valuable stuff to a reliable off-site location. NASA is certainly not bending backwards to do it. It’s the private people like ARC.”
Born and raised within walking distance of
the Bronx Zoo — and he walked that distance often — Shapiro developed an early interest in biodiversity. He frets over the frailty of civilization and the planet, but he is not a pessimist. He compares the Moon-base idea to a safe-deposit box.
“It makes sense to protect the things you value,” he said. “But we, as a civilization, we don’t have anything like that.” The trouble with doomsday, Shapiro argues, is that it is almost always rendered in popular culture as grandiose, though in reality, many minor incidents present substantial everyday threats.
In 1918, an influenza strain killed some 30 million people; a possible new bird flu strain spurs contemporary panic. In January 2003, a computer virus shut down airlines, banks and governments. That same year, a tree fell on power lines outside Cleveland, resulting in a blackout for much of the Northeast. Doomsday can be understated.
But I’m not here to predict doomsday; I’m here for sanity,” Shapiro said. “When we’ve gained what we’ve gained, we should fight to keep it.
“And, worst-case scenario, if it’s all for nothing, we’ll have a nice museum.”
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