We Need an "Earth Corps"

Like everyone else, I have been saddened by the impact of the recent earthquake on the people of Haiti. It seems horribly unfair that they have been hit by this disaster just as (according to some reports) their economy was beginning to move forward.

At the same time, the response of the world community has been heartening. People have given money to help, and first responders from many different countries are on the ground, doing what they can to assist the survivors. (Sadly, two of them have recently died in a helicopter crash.) There have also been complaints about the pace of the relief operation, and stories about lack of coordination. Unfortunately, this sounds familiar, because it's a pattern with just about every natural disaster that strikes, i.e., there is a tremendous outpouring of support in the early days, and then there is a sense of frustration when food and medical supplies are delayed in reaching those who need them the most.

For the most part, we cannot stop natural disasters. However, we can do much better in how we respond to them. Our current approach is to go along with business as usual until a volcano erupts, an earthquake occurs, or a tsunami roars out of the ocean. Then, we hurriedly cobble together a relief effort. The truth is that we are going to have a number of these disasters every year, and we should simply prepare for them so that we can mitigate the suffering to the greatest extent possible.

This is why we need an "Earth Corps," a standing group of people trained in all aspects of disaster relief. Like a military organization, some Earth Corps members would be career professionals, ready at all times to move out as needed to devastated parts of the planet. Others would be reservists, who would be activated on certain occasions, especially if the problem occurs in their own country. In quiet times, rather than allowing "business as usual" to take hold, Earth Corps teams would monitor events around the globe and be ready at any time to respond. They would also spend their time in training, learning, for example, how to use new tools for locating people trapped in collapsed buildings.

The Earth Corps has to be a planetary organization to be successful. It could be funded by participating governments, private donations, or a combination of both. It might be supervised by the United Nations or another international organization. Many of those who currently respond to natural disasters would be ideal members of the Corps, while others could easily be recruited to such a noble cause.

Creating an Earth Corps is a form of "overview thinking," or taking to heart the message of the Overview Effect that we are one species with one destiny, and beginning to understand the art and science of planetary management. As I wrote in The Overview Effect, planetary management is a centerpiece of a planetary civilization that is emerging on Earth, and which I called "Terra." We Terrans cannot rest easy in simply realizing that our planet is a whole system, in which everything that happens affects everybody. We must begin to act on that realization as well.

A New Paradigm for Space Exploration

President Obama has now made the most important decision of his presidency. That decision forges a new role for NASA and brings commercial space exploration and development to the forefront. Many people in the space community have already come out against the choices the president has made. There is likely to be a huge fight in Congress, especially because cancellation of the moon mission and the Constellation program means a huge loss of jobs at a time when we need all the employment we can get.

At the same time, there is much to admire in the new policy, not only the emphasis on involving the private sector but also the focus on international cooperation.  Many others will attack or defend the new paradigm on policy grounds, so I will add my thoughts with a different focus, i.e., why this is the central decision of this administration.

The analogy is clearly to President Kennedy's declaration that the United States would create the Apollo program and go to the moon. As many observers now agree, what we learned about the Earth as a result of Apollo was as crucial as what we learned about our satellite. The Overview Effect had been experienced in limited form before Apollo 8, but when the astronauts of that mission turned their cameras around to show us the whole Earth, a jolt went through our collective consciousness. For the first time ever, we clearly saw our home, our mother, the environment in which we were really living. The astronauts were in one spaceship, the rest of us were in another: as Buckminster Fuller put it, we were riding through the universe on "Spaceship Earth."

That was more than 40 years ago. What has followed is the environmental movement, globalization, and countless other changes in our planetary civilization. Perhaps most important is the awareness that we are actually part of a planetary civilization and are global citizens, like it or not.

Forty years from now, I suspect there will be shifts in human consicousness similar to what happened as a result of President Kennedy's decision. In 2050, someone will likely see President Obama's choices in a different light than we see it today. (First, this new paradigm has to get through Congress, of course.) While it would be foolish to try to predict with precision what the results will be, I suspect that the new emphasis on private enterprise's role will support more people having the opportunity of experiencing the Overview Effect. This in turn will lead to more "overview thinking" worldwide I also hope that if we can turn a new focus on international space cooperation into a global "Human Space Program," it will lead to greater understanding of our role not only as global citizens but also as "Citizens of the Universe."

Climate Change, Global Warming, and the Overview Effect

If ever there was a situation that needed "overview thinking," it's the current debate over climate change and global warming. The recent meeting in Copenhagen was a positive step in that many of the world's leaders came together to talk about one aspect of "planetary management." It was a step backward, however, in the way the process unfolded and was reported.

As I watched and listened, I couldn't help but wonder how the various heads of state would be approaching the topic if they were meeting in orbit, rather than in Denmark. I imagined that they might be gathering at a future version of the Overview Institute, where the setting would encourage them to think about the whole (Earth) rather than the parts (their own nations).

I hoped that they would be more inclined to think broadly about all aspects of planetary mangement, dealing with climate change as a subset of that larger endeavor. I also hoped that they would be more inclined to develop solutions that would be equitable for all the people and other living creatures on the Earth.

In the end, would the results have been different? I don't know, but I believe that this is the direction we must take as we begin to realize that the Overview Effect points us quite clearly to a new way of thinking about humanity's future.

Another Big Decision

President Obama was criticized for taking so long to make a decision about Afghanistan. However, there is another decision on his "to do" list that is much more important, and that is the future of American space policy. As I understand it, the president wants to adopt most of what the Augustine Commission has proposed, which includes much more reliance on commercial space development and international partnerships. In my opinion, that's the right direction to take. However, Congress is apparently fighting him on this, because it would mean stopping development on Ares and Constellation, a resulting loss of jobs.

When we look back at the 1960's, there is no question that the war in Vietnam holds a major place in our history, as it should. However, space exploration, especially the Apollo moon program, looms much larger in terms of its impact on human history. It was during this time that we not only put the first human being in space but it was also the first time we experienced the Overview Effect. If President Kennedy had not committed us to exploration of the universe, even though he had to contend with war on Earth, we would find ourselves in a much different situation today. Similarly, while President Obama must cope with Afghanistan, his decision about our future in space will be far more critical do our descendants in 2050.

The Overview Effect for Everyone

Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic is scheduled today to unveil the spacecraft that will carry thousands of people into orbit, starting in a few years.

While this may seem like "a very small step for humankind," it is really huge. So far, only about 500 people have left the planet and directly experienced the Overview Effect. Soon,  that number will expand dramatically. What took 40 years to achieve will be accomplished in a year or so. As people bring their new consciousness back to the Earth, a quantitative change will become qualitative.

What will the change look like? We can't say for sure, but the Overview Institute is dedicated to finding out and sharing our insights with the world.

Look for more on this blog in the future.

Water on the Moon: What Next?

NASA recently ran an experiment in which they crashed a spacecraft into a lunar crater to see if they might detect water there. As it turned out, they did, which should be a paradigm-shifting view of the moon and of our debates about space exploration.

The fact that there is water on the moon changes our view of our own satellite from that of a desolate planetary body to a place with a lot of potential for us as a spacefaring species. Moreover, water is the essence of life as we know it. I haven't really heard any speculation about whether there is some form of life on the moon, but water certainly enhances the chances for us to live there.

There should be even more to it than that, however. In the Overview Effect and other writings, I have proposed that we move beyond seeing the Earth as a living system (The Gaia Hypothesis) and see the universe in the same way. I have, in homage to James Lovelock, called this idea "The Cosma Hypothesis." (cf, The Overview Effect, p. 93 and Living in Space, pp. 8-9) It really isn't all that new, and other authors, such as C.S. Lewis, have argued that space is not a dead vacuum, but rather a place teeming with life and beauty. Much of our recent exploration of the solar system, including Mars, confirms this perspective. More recently, Duane Elgin and Deepak Chopra have published a book on this topic called The Living Universe.

This matters because so many people, in my experience, oppose human evolution into the universe precisely because they see a stark contrast between Earth and space, with the former being friendly to humans and the latter being unfriendly. Of course, we cannot survive in a vacuum, and we would still need technological support to live on the moon or Mars, but let's begin to look beyond our neighborhood and see if we can't think of the universe, as well as the Earth, as our home.

Frank White

The Human Space Program

In The Overview Effect, I proposed a "Human Space Program" that would be global in scope, and would transcend all national programs. It would last for a millennium, and would be a "central project" designed to unify humanity in a common purpose, i.e., exploration of the universe.

There are signs that this kind of thinking is now seeping into the global consciousness, and I want to report on it in some detail in future posts. I have read several references to NASA/ESA cooperation, and to a proposal by a thought leader in India for a new, global vision of space exploration. The Augustine Commission is also clearly pointing in this direction.

For now, suffice it to say that it is very exciting to see this taking place. I hope we can nurture this new thinking and make it a reality.

Frank