by A recent story on Space.com presented the idea that some scientists believe we are entering what they call the “Lunar Anthropocene.” In other words, like Earth’s own Anthropocene, the moon is entering a phase in which human activities will play a significant role in its natural history.
This is true, of course. The first impacts of Soviet probes occurred in the 1960s, leaving scars and piles of metal and plastic buried in the regolith, and the Program Apollo it left everything from footprints and flags to hardware and waste bags on its surface. Today’s international Moon sees explorers and landers and rovers crashing into it, rolling over it, hitting it, and soon, the first private commercial probes will begin surveying it for resources. Within the next ten years, people will returnhopefully, stay forever, which means building Moon Ports, habitats, energy infrastructure and creating more waste.
World Anthropone It began long ago, as our civilization changed the ways of the planet with our increasingly intrusive patterns of living, consumption and destruction. However, apart from the term itself and its inference regarding the level of human effect on the world in question, the two have very little in common, and the results will be very different.
Related: The moon has been changed by human activity. Are we in a ‘Lunar Anthropocene?’
On Earth, the expansion of human society is, in many ways, an assault on the planet’s living biome. We have massacred, burned, harvested and hollowed out ecosystems in the name of our industrial expansion. By the simple act of growing our population and meeting their needs, we have shifted the operating system of the MotherWorld. Worse than that, until recently we did so without any thought or concern for the enormous stakes at stake, and now we are about to fall for that system.
The Human Lunar Era ahead is similar in that the hand of humanity will change irreversibly the moon forever (and already). But, in one major and primary way, their effects will be just the opposite in relation to the planetary body in question. While we were on Earth, our expansion was an attack on the life systems of the planet, on the moon, we are bringing life to a place that is now dead.
This difference is crucial to how we see, study and even control what we do on the moon and, indeed, any new and lifeless places we may find in the future. The only scientific study of such a pristine environment is essential, and the preservation of important features, both scientific and aesthetic, to define, as well as any historical sites, such as those that are “the first,” such as the first landing sites, and even the crash remains of those first probes. However, in the equation of life history i the universethe outcome of any judgment as to what, where and how any conservation must tend towards the expansion of the realm of humanity and life beyond any consideration of the idealized state of dead rock and ice.
We cannot slow down this expansion. Rather, I would strongly argue that we must do everything we can to speed it up – a lot – lest we have “anthros” left alive. It is too important for us to open the High Frontier of Space to allow anything to cross it. Science is important, but we can’t wait for every tiny nook and cranny of every rock we come across to be studied for every clue and data point of their available information before we move forward into each new domain. We have to find a balance, a way to expand our knowledge base, even as we expand the base of our civilization.
However, it is important that we do not drive our industrial society back and forth again as we did here on our own planet. We cannot carry the culture of prey and oppression in the name of state strategies or unrestrained capitalist money to carry us into this new future. If there’s any debris to be thrown into space or the moon, that’s the old way of doing things. We have to apply what we have learned here to what we do out there, or, in my opinion, at least, there is no point in going.
As the human hand places itself on the future controls of the moon and ultimately the whole Solar system, let’s navigate what we do with an eye on what we’ve done before. Let us learn, grow, and do better, without repeating the primitive cycles of apes with shovels and guns that characterize our time on this rock. This means the development of a new set of guidelines, norms, moral and ethical codes that are so profound that they transcend rules and laws – even as they inform them.
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For example, in 1987, I wrote the Lunar Ecology Code as a think piece and presented it at several conferences. It’s a bit raw and naive when I look at it now. For example, I was obviously a bit off about the use of the term “Eco,” which refers to life (again, the moon is dead.) Still, it was basically a good idea – to develop a set of guidelines for how could we. both the moon to develop and preserve the places and things that are special for each generation to come.
Here is an updated version of some of those points:
We agree that all nations will explore and develop the moon and its resources based on a standard set of good stewardship agreements. (This could be taken on stream Agreements of Artemis being spread by the US government and its partners.)
We established a body, based on similar bodies on Earth, to oversee human exploration sites on the moon and, through international treaties, to declare them off limits. (Exceptions are allowed for scientific and historical study as agreed by the governing body. For example, it would be good to know what happened to some of the subjects of those early starters over the years.)
We agree that this body, or another body created for the purpose, would be allowed to propose major lunar features and sites that can be promoted as outer limits for human development, pending review and vote by the international community.
We call on all nations operating on the moon to adopt a culture based as far as possible on these concepts regarding what they bring with them and the waste they create on the lunar surface:
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Recycling
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Reuse
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Reuse
Even as we deal with its unrestrained result in low Earth orbit, the moon gives us an opportunity to leave Earth’s “use it and throw it away” culture behind. And, given the economics of transporting or creating anew each piece of material, be it a package, piece of metal or plastic, it only makes sense to establish these concepts as rules within any subject . lunar society.
There are other aspects of human activity on the moon that we will have to face, and many that we will have to live with — for example, the creation of an atmosphere, however tenuous, as a byproduct of our presence.
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The authors of the Lunar Anthropocene concept did us a favor. Agree or disagree with them or me on any or all of this, it’s time to start a serious, results-oriented conversation. Some of them already are.
Likes groups For All Moonkind and the Hague Institute for Global Justice is at the forefront of such policy conversations. My own EarthLight Foundation, as the first eco-centric space organization, strongly supports our transition to a green and respectful culture in space – even as we develop and use its resources. To that end, we have begun to circulate what we call the Earth-Space Agreement among space leaders.
Now, it’s time to get the powers to pay attention, because it will be much more difficult to do it later. Dear reader, you have a job to do. I assume, if you’ve read this far, you’re a fan of space, props, or revolutions, as I am. This is one of the issues that fall into the category “we do it ourselves, or they will do it to us.”
Wherever you live in this precious world, reach out to those in your nation who want the next one – or who can influence how it happens. Make sure they hear your voice when you tell them you love what they’re doing, but please, can we do it right this time?
Rick Tumlinson is the founder Space Fund, a venture capital firm that invests in space startups. He also established the Space Frontier Foundation, Earthlight Foundation, the Space Cowboy Ball, who was a member of the founding board of the X Prize Foundation and host of the Space Revolution podcast.
