Astronaut Rex J. Walheim outside of the International Space Station
Humans are inherently selfish. We are programmed to look inwards, rather than out. That’s no fault of our own. Selfish impulses and instincts keep us alive; cavemen didn’t survive by giving away their food—they ate it themselves.
Sometimes we humans need a good wack in the face to turn our attention outwards. Wars are often started with a selfish intention and their destruction is often resolved through outwards communication amongst foes.
But getting wacked in the face isn’t the only way to not be selfish and to turn our attention outwards. Not being selfish can be as simple as a conscious thought for somebody else (Mothers are a great example of this).
NASA is that conscious thought. NASA is a program built around international collaboration. Projects such as the International Space Station and the James Webb Space Telescope have only been made possible through collaboration with other countries. NASA connects and brings people from all over the world together, breaking down political barriers and petty tensions.
Fighting against climate change effectively can only be accomplished if we all work together. Climate change literally affects us all and every individual on the planet contributes to it in one way or another. Climate change can only be defeated through international collaboration, a collaboration that NASA fosters.
Cutting aid to NASA will be detrimental for the fight against climate change and for human survival as a whole. Politicians cannot get selfish and fail to see the bigger picture.
Astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, when speaking about seeing Earth from orbit once said, “You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.”
~ Seamus Haney
Cover image linked here