Some years ago, a photograph of our planet was taken from a spacecraft hovering at the edge of the solar system. A faint, bluish speck, known as Earth, can be seen in the picture. Astronomer Carl Sagan commented on the “pale blue dot.”
“On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. … The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life.”
Shortly afterward, Sagan had a fascinating debate with Ernst Mayr, the legendary biologist. When asked if we will ever find intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe, Mayr said, “Not likely.”
Mayr reminded scientists that despite billions of biological species having lived on our planet, “high intelligence has originated only once, in human beings.”
Perhaps “high intelligence is not at all favored by natural selection,” as Mayr said.
Earthlings currently have a tool powerful enough to destroy all complex life on the planet: the nuclear bomb.
Even using 5 percent of the global nuclear stockpile would render our planet uninhabitable. Nukes have put us on the verge of self-destruction.
On the surface, nothing seems fishy about our leaders targeting Iran’s nuclear ambitions, as reducing nukes in the war-torn Middle East would be a crucial step toward a nuclear-free world.
For decades, the world has pushed for a “nuclear-weapon-free zone” in the Middle East.
The entire Arab world and even Iran has cooperated with the “nuclear-weapon-free zone” proposal. Only one country blocks the path to progress: Israel.
A country that daily commits war crimes against innocent civilians, Israel has a nuclear weapons program so secretive that the plant technician who blew the whistle was drugged and kidnapped from Italy by Israeli agents, eventually enduring 11 years of solitary confinement in Israeli prison.
Here’s a funny thing: We’re best buddies. Israel is the leading recipient of U.S. foreign aid.
Because we’ve got their back, the rest of the world can forget about forging a peaceful Middle East.
In the meantime, wouldn’t it be nice to distract the American public by focusing on Iran’s nonexistent nukes?
About 45 percent of all operational nuclear warheads are held by the U.S. Before “American exceptionalism” creeps in, let’s recall that we’re the only ones to have ever used nukes in a war, killing 135,000 people — mostly civilians — and ruining generations of Japanese lives.
From space, our planet is a dust particle. Earth appears as a single pixel. All the bloodshed and conflict humanity has endured has occurred on that tiny pixel.
Despite most people wanting to respect the fragility of that “lonely speck” known as Earth by living in peace with others, world leaders — America’s politicians being no exception — have hijacked humanity’s resources for military and financial gain, recklessly fueling wars. Life has become endangered.
There is hope. After all, we’re “highintelligence” beings. The sooner we realize that rabid patriotism is thinly veiled tribalism, the better. Being critical of our own country’s policies won’t be popular, but who cares about Facebook likes when the species’ survival is in peril?
Zulkar Khan is a UF microbiology major. His column runs on Wednesdays. A version of this column ran on page 6 on 10/2/2013 under the headline "‘Pale blue dot’ faces biological extinction"
