Incredible! Scientists Propose Lunar Sperm Bank
By Elio Delgado Legon
HAVANA TIMES – This news spread like wildfire a few days ago. It was featured in most countries’ main press: A group of scientists from the University of Arizona, participants at the Electrical and Electronics Engineers Aerospace Conference, proposed setting up a sperm bank on the moon to save humanity, they say.
Humankind is in danger of extinction, there’s no doubt about that. Fidel Castro already warned this would happen when he took part at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, in 1992. There he stated:
“An important biological species — humankind — is at risk of disappearing due to the rapid and progressive elimination of its natural habitat.
“We are becoming aware of this problem when it is almost too late to prevent it.
“It must be said that consumer societies are chiefly responsible for this appalling environmental destruction.”
(…………)
“Now that the supposed threat of communism has disappeared and there is no more pretext to wage cold wars or continue the arms race and military spending, what then is preventing these resources from going immediately to promote Third World development and fight the ecological destruction threatening the planet?”
(……..)
“Enough of selfishness. Enough of schemes of domination. Enough of insensitivity, irresponsibility and deceit.
“Tomorrow will be too late to do what we should have done a long time ago.”
Scientists in developed countries have done very little and politicians much less, in the 29 years since then. They have yet to find a solution to the problem, which is real and should be a great cause of concern for all of us.
However, reality in developed countries doesn’t call upon them to find an urgent solution to the many problems that humankind will have to face, sooner or later.
Trying to save humanity, creating a Noah’s Ark on the moon seems to be a joke and many people laughed. But those scientists aren’t playing around, and this news should make us sit down and think instead of laugh.
The solution for saving humanity lies here on Earth. I’m sure that it would be a great deal cheaper and we wouldn’t have to wait for humankind to become extinct in order to start from scratch.
Many of the problems that concern scientists can be resolved with political decisions. It’s no secret that the main danger humankind faces in becoming extinct is a nuclear war of great dimensions. This could be prevented by getting rid of nuclear weapons and banning their development, adopting effective measures by the United Nations.
Deforestation of rainforests is another great danger for human sustenance, but nothing is being done to stop it. The economic interests of multinational corporations and corrupt governments weigh heavier than concerns for humankind’s fate.
The idea is somewhat similar to the Global Seed Vault, which is located on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, on the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago. It’s called the end of the world vault (the most logical and cheapest idea), where scientists are storing frozen seeds of the world’s most important crops, to protect this genetic material from disasters in the future.
Scientists are talking about possible natural disasters. However, no matter how severe a natural disaster is, it will never be able to wipe out human life entirely on Earth. The scientists I mentioned at the beginning of this article are saying some 250 trips to the moon are needed to stock this sperm bank.
I wonder: Who will be responsible for doing this? Who will fund it? The same people who can’t fund development of life on Earth today? If life is wiped out on Earth, who will travel to the moon to bring back material stored in this “bank”? It’s absolute madness!
Instead of thinking about how they can restore the landscape after the war, we should be using our brains to think about how we can prevent the war. It’s already a little late, but we can still do something.
It’s a little rich that the very same Castro “lamabota” would dare to suggest that nuclear arms be eliminated. Not that it is not a good idea but that it was Castro who demanded that Khruschev initiate a first strike nuclear attack against the US. It is also backasswards that Elio would suggest that developed countries (insert US) help third world countries develop.
(insert Cuba). Again, in general, not a bad idea but as long as Cuba continues to be its own biggest obstacle to progress because of its moribund Castro dictatorship, what fool would send investment money to support that regime? Elio is out of his mind to expect outside help as long as Cuba remains a dictatorship.
I have to concur with Elio on this article not so much in the realm of a sperm bank on the moon but in the notion that this planet – Earth, our collective home – is in dire straits right now regarding environmental catastrophe.
Elio quotes Fidel Castro to back up his assertion. Elio, a Cuban has tremendous respect for Fidel and he has every right to support and advocate Fidel’s feelings regarding environmental degradation. I, as a Canadian, will call on Dr. David Suzuki an immanent Canadian scientists, author, geneticist, professor, emeritus professor, and television nature broadcaster to support Elio’s and Fidel’s sentiments.
For those unfamiliar with the prominent Canadian environmental advocate, Dr. Suzuki, who has a Japanese heritage, was inexcusably interned in Canada with his family during the Second World War and later became one of Canada’s most popular scientists and media personalities. He is best known as host and narrator of the popular and long-running on the Canadian Broadcasting network (CBC) science program “The Nature of Things” viewed in many countries.
Dr. David is well known to criticize all forms of governments, municipal, provincial, federal and also globally in their lack of sustainable action to protect the environment. He presently has grand children and for their sake and all future inhabitants of this precious planet he pleads persistent polluters to cease and desist. Dr. David also has his own “David Suzuki Foundation” which advocates ways for planet Earth inhabitants to live in balance with the natural world. We either do or die. It is that simple.
In recent years, Dr. David has become increasingly vocal on global climate change and its horrendous impact on geography and more importantly on people’s lives. Elio quotes Fidel Castro: “Enough of selfishness. Enough of schemes of domination. Enough of insensitivity, irresponsibility and deceit.
Tomorrow will be too late to do what we should have done a long time ago.” In a sound bite, something needs to be done now, and fast.
Dr. David Suzuki, like Fidel Castro is unequivocal that climate change is a very real problem and that many, many scientists and academics now agree, as Fidel saw and prophesized when he was alive, that human activity is responsible. Elio quotes Fidel.
I quote from the David Suzuki Foundation: “The debate is over about whether or not climate change is real. Irrefutable evidence from around the world – including extreme weather events, record temperatures, retreating glaciers, and rising sea levels – all point to the fact climate change is happening now and at rates much faster than previously thought. The overwhelming majority of scientists who study climate change agree that human activity is responsible for changing the climate.” Climate Change Science and Policy. David Suzuki Foundation 2011-08-03.
I am in full agreement with Elio: “The solution for saving humanity lies here on Earth.” Dr. David Suzuki, I am sure, would also concur with Elio and Fidel at the “Earth Summit”, otherwise he would not have spent his entire career, Dr. Suzuki that is, advocating for a sustainable and livable world, here on Earth, for all.