Getting to the Moon

Forty years ago yesterday, two men set foot on the moon.

It was the culmination of a long fought battle between the United States and Russia, answering the question “who would get there first?”

I have spent parts of the day listening to the radio commemorating the historic event.  I will be the first to admit that if this happened a year ago, I would not have given the coverage the time nor day.  Like many Americans, this day would hold absolutely no significance.

I am completely unqualified to go into details, but I have had the privilege of conversations, with someone who knows, that has led me to understand the magnanimous feat it was to get to the moon.  This truly was no small thing.  Just to give you a starting point, we went to the moon using a slide rule as a calculator.  The margin for error was more probable than it would be today using one of our mega-computers.  But we did it!

Sadly, as is with many things for America, that is where the story ends.

During the aforementioned conversation, there was also a discussion of how disheartening it was that we have so much knowledge and ability, but instead of using it to do things to advance the human species, we use it to engineer mini-malls and super highways.  For all of the potential that landing on the moon could have advanced us, we abandoned it like it were a lost cause.

What I realized today, though, is that this is the American psychology.  The only reason we even entered the space race was because we were in competition with Russia during the Cold War.  I contend that is why we Americans do anything; to win.  The question is to what end are we winning?  Is it winning if what we win at today, is what kills us tomorrow?

We have advanced technology only in that it serves us to go to war and “win” over another culture.  We have gotten the “next, better, best” in our cell phones, cars, homes, and clothing, only for the purpose of being the winner between ourselves and our next door neighbor.  We have used our skills to create chemicals that are injected to prevent wrinkles or make bigger breasts, in this perverse attempt at being alluring to the opposite sex.  We have created an agriculture system where we have dominated the planet so much, we are conquering it and killing it off.

Again, I am totally bastardizing this, but Carl Sagan once stated that in order for a civilization to participate in interstellar space travel (travel between stars), it would have to evolve beyond war and become globally peaceful.  Therefore, if we were visited by aliens, it would be safe to assume that they were more advanced then us by the sheer nature that they would have to be non-violent having evolved to a level where they can travel between stars.

I have come to fully understand what he meant by this.  I think, he has been proven correct.  Because of our insatiable need to compete and win, we abandoned the possibility that we could have human travel beyond the Moon.  That, to me, is sad.

However, in all of this, I had a thought that might be a glimmer of hope.  Our need for competition is what might be killing us, when you apply it to climate change; the need for stuff in order to outshine a friend, a neighbor, or even a country.  But what if we use competition to save us?

Who is the first to reduce their CO2 emissions for 100ppm?  Who is the first to come up with a sustainable way to get its citizens water?  Imagine the first country to be “off the grid”?  What if we made saving the planet a race to see who can get us all to the finish line first?

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The Golden Spiral was created to educate the public on all things about the environment and global warming.  We actually like the term ‘global destabilization” because what is happening is not just about the warming of the planet.  It is about choices we are making that may lead to an unsustainable life, whether it be through food, energy, consumer, or other type of choice.

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