Are we meant to leave planet Earth ?

We upgrade our phones, cars, TVs and even our houses every few years. I hope that didn’t make us believe that we can upgrade our planet too. We try to modify/replace parts of our planet to upgrade it’s “performance” and to better suit us. We also believe we will move to a new one at some point in future. Countries and Corporates are preparing for this for the past few decades.

In the near future, our pursuit for finding a new planet will get stronger. We ignore the possibility that Earth might be our only home. We might exploit it in all the ways possible to get a better home. We might just assume it is irreparable, and look forward to move ahead.

But there is one problem. Everything we upgrade today is artificially made by us. These were never perfect. We create new ones to replace them. But Earth is not made by us.

We might survive on any planet that has an environment similar to that of earth. But is that all that makes life? I doubt that. There is lot more to life than just surviving.

Each of our cells and features are sculpted by earth. We have evolved to fit this earth. We will never fit in another earth without significant changes. I believe we might evolve into some other species by the time another earth becomes our home. Think Wall-E. Even if we leave for a while, we might have to come back to Earth.

So let’s make one thing clear. This earth might be our only home. We don’t exist without it. It has seen numerous species in its life time. We might be special, but certainly not independent. Earth might not need us. But we need it.

If earth is our only home, how important is it to keep it habitable for us?

I watched the latest Kung Fu Panda recently and something struck my mind hard — “Qi” (qì or ch’i in Chinese culture, gi in Korean culture, ki in Japanese culture and Prana in Indian culture)

It is the life force that is almost described in every religion in one form or the other. But what does the word really mean. In most of the religions, this means “Air/Breath”.

Our life force is probably not just the air/breath. It must be the earth. Our planet connects us all. It stores all our memories. Its atmosphere is shared by all of us. We are mostly made of earth particles. It is only logical that if we make earth a better place to live, we will have a better life.

From now on whatever we do, let’s make sure it is safe for Earth, our only home. It is not too late. We may have ignored and forgotten earth for a while. But earth has seen worse. I am sure earth can recover pretty quickly from the damage already done, if we support and help out.