Putting the Cart Before the Horse

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has big dreams about one day making the planet Mars a habitable planet. I must admit I am fascinated with our fellow planet, which shows evidence that it once had rivers, life, and a breathable atmosphere. The theoretical process whereby a dead and frigid desert planet with water-ice poles might be ogiven an atmosphere so that organic life could (once again?) be supported is called "terra-forming". The word "terra", of course, comes from the Latin word for "Earth". So, we will make it like our own planet. Scientists have carefully outlined all the progressive stages whereby this might be accomplished. It seemingly requires only the concerted wherewithal on the part of the human race to accomplish this, and in a century or so, Mars might be made a living planet (perhaps for the second time in its existence). Of course, for such a project to succeed, our own planet would have to enjoy true political unity, full economic, technological and scientific cooperation, and be on top of alternative energies in a dedicated and developed form. And then, of course, the project would run into the trillions and trillions of dollars over the ensuing decades. Yet the talk of this project is so palpably enthusiastic in the slew of documentaries that come out on the United States Space Program and extra-planetary science that it seems to be a matter more seriously considered than the will to save our own planet, which is the hidden, unacknowledged and absolutely critical factor that must be accomplished before we can even truly (and ethically) consider performing an act of technological resuscitation/revivification/necromancy on the Red Planet. In the meantime we have political parties, pundits, corporations and organizations that claim that Global Warming is a hoax. However, the longer we drag our heels on this matter, the closer we get in developing a process I call "Marti-forming". The adjective-forming stem of "Mars" is "marti-"; for instance, the ancient Romans called their military practice field "Campus Martius", or, "The Field of the God of War". As we heat up our planet with the unrestrained burning of fossil fuels, marginal land becomes desert, arable land becomes marginal land, rivers and lakes dry up, and it keeps progressing. It is happening as we speak, and people who once could grow crops and graze livestock are starving in newly made wastelands, or they are fleeing to cities, not finding work, and starving there. And wars are being waged over the dwindling arable and water-fed land, whatever ideological reasons they may overtly give for their warfare. S0, while we dream and plan (and even read epic science fiction novels about making Mars a green planet) we are destroying our own. If we don't turn off the oil tap on greed, if we don't stop leveling mountains for coal, we are going to "marti-form" our planet. And then, there will be no more talk about trying to "terra-form" Mars. All our bold dreams will have dried up along with our own dear and precious parent, Mother Earth.