I give below Alexander Kumar's article of 3rd Dec 12 in the NYT and my comments for what they are worth.
NEWYORK
TIMES December 3, 2012, 6:07 am
MALARIA
OR MARS
by
Alexander Kumar
Alexander
Kumar, a physician and researcher at Concordia Station,
writes from Antarctica, where he conducts scientific
experiments for the European Space Agency’s human spaceflight
program.
It
was Lao-Tzu
who said, “For the wise man looks into space and he knows
there is no limited dimensions.”
In
the past century, we have had several world wars, seen man take
his first juvenile steps on the Moon and bore witness to the
discovery and trail of devastation left by H.I.V./AIDS the
world over.
Many
argue and question why humans should venture out to other
planets, and perhaps in the process create new problems, when
we have so many problems on our own planet. Among other things,
there is a potential for forward and backward contamination of
Mars and Earth.
I
have spent the majority of my time exploring the world we now
share, trying to identify its shape and boundaries in hopes of
better understanding the way it works and its problems — and
how I can best make a constructive and directed contribution.
At 29, I am still learning, intrigued and curious to help find
solutions to the world’s problems. Furthermore I consider
myself extremely fortunate to have had such unique
opportunities to experience and see many beautiful areas and
meet interesting people of the world, from the Amazon to the
Arctic.
Antarctica
has been my latest journey of discovery. I ventured down here
to investigate the possibility of one day sending humans to
Mars. Months ago, as the curtains of darkness were drawn, the
world took on a different perspective — distant, as if
looking back at it from another planet. I pondered if we can go
to Mars, when we
will go to Mars and perhaps more importantly, if
we should go to Mars.
What
I have found through this difficult, challenging and unique
experience, as I emerge from the snow-hole, has been as
romantically depressing as it is inspiring — a Shakespearean
tragedy mixed in with beauty and experience, with an umbrella
of humor poking out.
This
is a land so far removed from mankind that there has never been
an aboriginal or indigenous population. We are only visiting
specks, blown by the winds of time, living against a blank
white canvas — an area of the world God had either forgotten
to paint or perhaps left intentionally blank to remind us of
our insignificance. As this is the seventh continent, if this
God took rest on the seventh day, perhaps it was just a
question of running out of time.
While
living here, I have been repeatedly asked by people from all
over the world why the human race would invest its precious and
finite resources (money) into space exploration? People have
presented valid arguments both ways: those against, about
depriving the bottom billion of our planet by diverting
much-needed funding; and those in favor, for furthering
mankind’s now-desperate need for discoveries and new
life-saving technology through exploration in space.
One
reader caught my attention, having e-mailed me about malaria as
the basis to his argument — a disease I had seen ravage
equatorial communities from Africa to the Amazon. Their point
was perfectly clear: according to the World Health
Organization, despite increased prevention and control measures
that have led to a reduction in malaria mortality rates since
2000 by more than 25 percent globally, half the world’s
population remains at risk of malaria and an estimated 500,000
to more than 1 million people die from it each and every year.
But
there is much more to it than that. W.H.O. reminds us that each
year another 2 million die because of H.I.V./AIDS, another 1.5
million because of diarrhea-related illnesses and another
million from tuberculosis — all largely preventable and
treatable diseases. Five leading causes of death in children
under 5 are pneumonia, preterm birth complications, diarrhea,
birth asphyxia and malaria. Maybe numbers speak louder than
words — or even the names of those less fortunate?
Such
health inequality reminds me of the reasons I went into
medicine and developed an interest in science and research. And
fortunately, I now have first-hand experience after living on
both sides of this debate.
Looking
at the world’s problems closely while pursuing a degree in
International (Public) Health in 2006, I felt an air of
excitement and focused energy toward the United
Nations Millennium Development Goals, adopted at the turn
of this century as a vision for a better future. Currently 193
United Nations member states are working together to achieve
these goals by 2015, in a promise to “free people from
extreme poverty and multiple deprivations.”
As
our human population is expected to surpass eight billion by
2025, the world and its many inhabitants will face further
challenges. And already it is clear that our planet has started
to stretch, strain and buckle and unzip at its seams, with a
gathering body of scientific evidence being unlocked from
within the ice cores drilled beneath the chair I sat on while
writing from Antarctica, alongside images of the marked retreat
of the glaciers, now deserted by ice shelves the size of
countries. In the next century we can expect food shortages to
worsen, clean and ample water to become a commodity for the
privileged, and our oceans to become acidified and over fished.
For
Mission Earth, the count down is on… 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3,
2, 1. Only time will tell what technological advances will be
made in space that can be adapted to save humanity and cure the
world’s problems. The world lives in hope that this search
will lead to a new renewable and clean energy supply that can
meet our excessive demand — and in turn prevent the
realization of Thomas Malthus’ predicted cataclysmal,
apocalyptic end.
A
manned mission to Mars, leading to exploration and eventually
habitation, could provide unforeseen benefits for mankind, from
new technology to invention and innovation as evidenced by the
benefits from the Apollo 11 and later lunar missions. A
multi-trillion dollar investment could also certainly trigger
economic growth.
Malaria
remains a political issue — quite different from a Mars
mission — but requiring the same long term planning,
dedication to resolution and financial and human investment.
Simple donation is not the way to reach Mars or the way to cure
malaria, where all the mosquito nets in the universe will not
prevent or eradicate it. An old phrase told to me by my father,
who was born in India says, “It would be better to teach a
person how to go fishing rather than offering him some fish.”
Eventually,
developed countries, by integrating promising new discoveries
from space-flight research, may be in a better position to help
invest and fight the world’s problems. And so could it not be
true that problems like malaria, although in no way linked to
Mars missions, could one day stand to benefit from such
exploration — and the seeds of inventions which accompany
these endeavors grow and blossom beyond the wildest
imaginations for the benefit of mankind?
And
there is another question to ponder: Perhaps we will one day
have no other option than to leave this planet. Should we start
looking farther afield now, for a bigger home, in a better and
safer area, with lower crime rates, in our race for space?
Again,
in the words of Lao-Tzu, “The journey of a thousand miles
begins with one step.” And after all, just one small step for
man may well be that “giant leap for mankind.”
I
think back to the words of the great British poet Sir Alfred
Tennyson, which are engraved into a large, lonely wooden cross
overlooking a path, in memory of explorers who sought the South
Pole 100 years ago, which represented the uttermost end of the
known world: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”.
My
comments
God
rested on the seventh day and the seventh continent is Antarctica?
Without offending anyone's religious sentiments can we possibly think
God has started his work on the seventh continent already? Better
still, man, created in His image according to the same faith, has
been given the freedom to do his best with Antarctica? It is not
malaria or mars. It is malaria and Mars. Both as metaphors. I cannot
help but voice my vision which is gaining power by the day. Thomas
Malthus' cataclysmic, apocalyptic end of the world did not factor in
man's innovative genius and God's grace operating through the simple
human goodness that characterizes the vast majority of mankind
everywhere even today. I envision a future for mankind wherein the
eight billion people by 2025 will live in undreamt of comfort and
fulfillment. And those who come after them too. Major diseases would
have been wiped out with innovative biotechnological solutions (eugenics) in the
area of gene modification, stem cell therapy, nanotechnology in
pharmaceuticals and drug delivery inside the human body and yoga and
meditation techniques along with cognitive behavior therapy and
behavioral modification through powerful role-modeling techniques.
Powerful role models in many areas of human activity will come to
exert an upward, evolutionary force on mankind. My mind refuses to
accept that the countdown to the Earth has started. On the contrary,
we all went wrong in some aspects of our individual and collective
thinking and the Earth is telling us to correct ourselves. We will.
Geo-engineering solutions will be tested in small areas on a pilot
basis and eventually we will master the techniques to clean up the
Earth. This will take time but we will do it. Genetic technology
(with cloning and stem cell culture as part of it) in tandem with
conservation methods will bring into being vast numbers of
near-extinct life forms and even the oceans will be re-populated with
great varieties of life forms. Forests will reappear with stunning
fauna and flora. The basic problem of clean energy will be solved by
placing in near earth orbits vast solar arrays all over the earth.
They will convert uninterrupted solar energy into electricity and
beam it to earth in receiving stations suitably aligned all over the
earth. Mankind will never be wanting in energy for a long long time to
come. One vast grid of energy, overground and underground, will
supply energy to the whole of mankind at very low cost eventually.
Since clean energy will be available, clean water will be available
aplenty all over the world. Give me enough clean energy and I will
give you enough water for the needs of all life forms, restoring the
nitrogen cycle and oxygen-breath-of-life-carbon-dioxide-photosynthesis-food-cycle. Scientifically it is doable.
Communication and transportation will happen in ways which even
science fiction has not yet explored. Thoughts and feelings will be
converted to quantum wave functions and transmitted to wherever we
want. 'Teleportation' already demonstrated and proved as possible at
the atomic level will open up unimaginable methods of logistics. Vast
networks of 'maglev' super fast transportation machines all over the
earth will take us wherever we want in time spans we are yet to
imagine. Through working on our Consciousness, we will commune with
the vast outer space, beating the speed of light several times over.
Light years will cease to be awesome and unimaginable. Yoga in its
essence, in its selfless purity, will help us work on our
Consciousness in this direction. We can go anywhere we want any time
we want, through the dimension of pure Yogic Consciousness, not in
pursuit of the satisfaction of physical desires which so tragically
crib and cage Consciousness, but because that is our true potential.
