We Can Save the World

"HISTORY", remarked an esteemed historian, "is just one damned thing after another." And so it is. And often the new history, the news, seems to keep getting worse and worse. Everyday, some new act of violence, some new financial crisis.

And now, worst of all, it seems as if the universe as a whole is ending, or rather, will eventually end much sooner than we had previously thought.

Ever since we have known about the expanding universe, the question has been whether it would simply keep expanding forever, becoming more and more empty, or woulod eventually stop expanding, and be drawn back into a collapse by the force of gravity, to begin the cycle anew.

And now it looks as if neither of these scenarios will ever come to be. Scientists are speculating that within a few billion years, an imbalance in the distribution of energy will destroy the universe in its present form, and replace it with...whatever...that part they still haven't worked out.

Its easy for us to make jokes about all this, because we know it has absolutely no effect on us. Strange to think, however, that there might very well come a day when some intellgeint creatures are forced to behold the end of the universe, and their own happy lives. However, even though we need not worry about the end of the univberse, we do need to worry about the end of the world.

NO, the small asteroid which crashed into russia last week had nothing to do with global warming. But yes, it should sever as a reminder, and a warning to us, that collisions are a common occurance in our solar system, and that our world could end, literally, at any moment, no mattter how long the universe as a whole lasts.

But the great thing about it is; we can do something about it! We can prevent a big rock from colliding with and destroying the earth, even if we can't prevent the universe from someday ending. We can build a telescopic detection system, and a rocket delivery sytetm to nudge an asteroid ever so slightly off its course, thus saving earth, and us. 

Isn't it comforting to know that we can save the world? Might as well start doing it!