Illustration by Susanne Gold/ text by Ted Ganten
In this clip you will get more information on “Terraism”.

After the ethical and organisational topics of the last weeks we now get into content. Which topics does an association have to drive to contribute to the goals of Terraism? For your re-collection, here is the super short version of Terraism: Preservation of the planet as the highest commandment, respect for all animate beings and the way into space as a common goal. ( see  11/52 –  Terraism)

What is mission critical?

A terraistic association would need certain divisions and committees that cover relevant topics to further world peace and the continued existence of the planet and humanity. These organizational units the “missions” are not organs of the association, but can be changed, dissolved, and adapted at any time by the board. I propose three missions which seem to me to be the most relevant now.

What are the critical missions?

The preservation of the planet is the central concern. In my view, this is not only about environmental protection. We need a mid- to long-term strategy for dealing with other challenges, especially peacekeeping. Additionally, I propose to establish a division for development of progressive ethics to deal with foreseeable dilemmas. For one thing, no suprarational organization seems to be seriously engaged, and for another, there can be no meaningful consensus on this topic as long as nations are in a race for capital and influence and therefore have an interest to avoid long-term ethical discussions. Finally, the unifying goal of advancing us into space requires planetary coordination and communication and will help with the two topics mentioned before.

Of course, I am not a specialist in all areas and my plea is that specialists deal with the implementation and definition of the topics. Therefore, the following list of missions and their topics is only exemplary and hopefully a good start for discussions.

What is part of the mission “planet preservation”?

The “Planet Conservation” mission is not only committed to environmental protection. Rather, there are several activities that must be tackled in parallel. It is obvious that peace must also be part of planet conservation. Not only because of the thousandfold overkill caused by the existing atomic and hydrogen bombs, but also because of the at least equally planet-endangering biological weapons.

And finally – even if we produce and use our energy ever more efficiently – there is always an upper limit to the number of people who can be sustainably supplied with energy. Population development will interact with both environmental protection and peacekeeping. I am aware of the danger that this is bordering to utilitarian concepts which, in case of doubt, place the preservation of the planet above human life. We can argue at length about whether this is the right ethical approach. But the longer we talk about it instead of acting, the bigger the problem will be – and the more radical measures will probably have to be to preserve the planet. To avoid dramatic conclusions, such as in “Kingsman: The Secret Service” and many other films, we need to face the reality now and swiftly follow a common, ethically justifiable path. That includes population control and green technology. Any of the above topics seem to be impacted heavily by education. So, that is where we are going to start.

Next week I will share my thoughts on the substructures within the Mission “Planet Preservation”. I call the subtopics “committees”.