It amazes me how much it takes to unite people in a single cause. For example, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first manmade object to orbit the Earth, the United States panicked, fearing this showed Soviet military supremacy. Around a decade later, Apollo 11 touched down on the moon, and US astronauts set foot on the Moon (to this day, only the Apollo program has been able to bring men to the Moon). Do we really need to wait until we perceive imminent disaster to take action for the better?
The key in that last sentence was “we perceive.” The imminent danger must be seen as an immediate threat. For example, take global warming. It’s in the back of our minds, but it may not appear as something that needs to be taken care of right away. However, it is indeed a serious problem, and despite the efforts of a few people, we put it off until later. According to some, if this problem is not corrected within 10 years, the damage will be irrevirsible. It’s a shame that a little over a century of Industrial Revolution is capable of destroying millenia of progress on Earth, and indeed, Earth itself – the only celestial body found to date that supports life.
<Rant end>
