August 9, 2024 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
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Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Throwing this out for discussion. Should we terraform other planets? We protect virgin environments on this planet, why not other/
Col–
http://bastiat.org/en/petition.html
Col Beausabre: It is for the people that live on those worlds, in the future, to decide. I guarantee that for at least the first 500 years of their settlement they will have zero problem with terraforming, aggressively. They will be pioneers whose survival — more important the survival of their children — depends on it.
Keep in mind that Earth-based governments will have NO SAY in what happens on other planets. Robert is exactly right, the people who are there will make these decisions, not some far away government agency or a crack-pot group of “planet-huggers”!
Col Beausabre asked: “Throwing this out for discussion. Should we terraform other planets? We protect virgin environments on this planet, why not other”
Why would we want to protect virgin Mars environments? We protect some and certain Earthen environments for nature’s animals or as nice places to visit, but we don’t protect all environments and use many for our own purposes. We are able to protect environments because we are prosperous enough to live well without using them for our productivity. Early martians will have too many difficulties to overcome to worry much about environmental protections.
However, perhaps we should also consider O’Neill’s hypothesis that we will expand into space not so much on planetary surfaces but in the kinds of orbital colonies that he had imagined. Getting off planets takes a lot of energy and resources. Travel between space-borne colonies takes less of each. Planetary environments may not be in as much peril as we think.