Years ago, mass of people moved from the farmland to the big cities due to industrialisation and employment.Nowadays it has gotten so far that new big cities had to be built, to meet these needs. In The Netherlands for instance, we have Almere. But internationally speaking Dubai is also known as one of the many new cities. Urbanization is a common understanding in this current world we live in. The world population continues to expand and is estimated to get even older then is common. Will there be enough space left for everyone? The entire world population is able to fit in the county Los Angeles, when we stand shoulder to shoulder. And yet we speak of “overpopulation”…
There might not be enough space left for everyone if mankind keeps reproducing, I haven’t even started about the shortage of raw materials, nutrition’s and water yet. As Aaron already mentioned on his blog, building on water might be a possible scenario for this problem. But as we have seen in sci-fi movies, which appeared the last couple of years; isn’t there a place, somewhere in space, where we can move? www.aarontrends.wordpress.com
NASA’s latest discovery was Kepler-186f. A new planet, which is almost the same size as the Earth. To make life possible on another planet, the environment must be rocky and has to have a good distance from a near standing star. This ensures the water not to freeze or evaporate. So far Kepler-186f is the first planet ever discovered that has the right size and environment. But to be sure about life being possible here, further research has to be done.
http://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/nasas-kepler-discovers-first-earth-size-planet-in-the-habitable-zone-of-another-star/#.U2d3516GT_E
http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/4561/Wetenschap/article/detail/3637126/2014/04/17/Eerste-planeet-als-aarde-gevonden-bij-ster.dhtml
We ought to be very occupied about making life possible on other planets. Wageningen University announced Martian soil being able to grow food crops. There still are many challenges to be conquered. Such as the water systems, which have difficulties due to low gravity on Mars. However, the Mars One-project aims to settle a space Colony on Mars by 2025.
http://documents.plant.wur.nl/resource/Resource0810.pdf
http://www.wageningenur.nl/nl/nieuws/Voedsel-kweken-op-Mars-wellicht-mogelijk.htm
For years I have witnessed movies being released about several forms of the Apocalypse. These include unknown life forms and unusual lifestyles in space. I’ve been raised with the idea that these movies were fiction but looking closer on this topic, 2025 is not as far as we think it is (as mentioned in the article below). Step by step we are trying to introduce this unearthly element to our daily life. The Volkskrant for instance, published an article about an upcoming photo talent. She published a photo reportage about extraterrestrial beauty. i-D Magazine also wrote an article about Shaun Ross who can be considered extraterrestrial. This indicates that we might enter a new age in fashion. An age where people are proud of that what makes them different and not what makes them like everyone else.
http://i-d.vice.com/nl/read/interviews/2435/shaun-ross-in-his-skin-he-wins
I remember that, when I was younger, I stared through my window when the night skies were clear and I could see all the stars. I used to wonder: What’s going on there? Is there any form of life on another planet? And how is it possible that we are the only life forms in this gigantic universe? These twinkling lights have guided us in the dark and the Egyptians even used it to built the pyramids. The lines, in which these twinkling lights shine, also have something to do with our horoscope. Might there be something out there we are still not aware of?
We do not longer wonder IF there is any form of life on other planets, we wonder if we are able to create life on other planets. The earth becomes overpopulated and raw materials are becoming quite rare, the world struggles with many problems. Due to many wealthy years, people got used to their material wellbeing. Food, living, transport, everything we need is here. We even have time left to work on our social life. But how will people react when all these factors disappear? It will suddenly become way more difficult to improve your quality of life.
Does living on other planets offer us a fresh start? Will we get the chance to start all over again, to create a new life? At this moment we’re standing for a closed door, we do not have all the answers yet. We do not even know if the planet Earth will last long enough. But can we just leave the planet we called our home for so long?
We do not ask ourselves if we are going to live on other planets, we ask ourselves when. We are going to build new cities, new villages. But everything we did wrong on Earth will be done correctly this time. It might take some time before the first group of people leave Earth, but one thing is sure; we will visit these sustainable space cities one day. Hopefully we will treat our planet right this time.
Lilian Prins 