Abstract
The purpose of this article is to discuss a long term survival strategy for the human race, should some catastrophically destructive event befall the Earth. The “Earth Colony” is introduced as a structure that would preserve a cross section of the human race indefinitely, along with our collected knowledge.
Introduction
Fossil evidence confirms that as many as ten mass extinctions1 have occurred during Earths history, the last being the Cretaceous period extinction some 65 million years ago. There have been several other less drastic waves of extinctions over the last 2.5 million years. A mass extinction is an event which destroys more than 50% of the Earths species. The cause of these extinctions has not been verified with absolute certainty but popular scenarios include asteroid impact, sea level change, continental flood-basalt volcanism and changing climate2.
With this ominous record of extinctions it is certainly worth contemplating the possibility that such a catastrophic event could occur again, seriously threatening the survival of the human race, and thus it is in our best interests to consider options to ensure the survival of mankind3.
Possible catastrophe’s that could inflict grave damage to the human-race include; nuclear winter scenarios, global ice-age, asteroid impact, complete ozone depletion, catastrophic rise of sea levels and viral epidemics.
One possible insurance policy for humanity would be a self-sufficient off-world colony, something that has been discussed extensively over the last few decades. However, the colonization and terraforming of another planet (probably Mars4) is decades, if not centuries away from realization. Unfortunately nothing says that a catastrophic event would kindly wait for us to colonize Mars before it struck. With this in mind, this paper proposes that a safeguard is required that would guarantee the longevity of the human race.
Current fallout shelters are hopelessly inadequate to serve as long-term survival refuges should some disaster occur, rendering the surface of the Earth uninhabitable for periods of decades, centuries or more.
This paper proposes the concept of an “Earth Colony” which will be defined as a structure that would:
• Survive any conceivable catastrophe
• Be a self-sufficient home to a selected cross section of the human race
• Preserve the sum of human knowledge
• Facilitate the ‘repopulation’ of Earth at some arbitrarily distant future time
A discussion of each of the above follows.
‘Survive any conceivable catastrophe’
Clearly to survive any catastrophe the location of a colony is of paramount importance. An obvious geographical trait would be to position an Earth colony deep underground where it would be isolated and shielded naturally from any devastating effects such as nuclear explosion and fallout, asteroid impact, flooding and bacteriological infection.
‘Be a self-sufficient home to a selected cross section of the human race’
In a ‘worst case scenario’ all reliance on the Earth and its inhabitants needs to be abandoned. Thus the colony should be completely self sufficient. This clearly requires a complete mastery of recycling technology which does not currently exist. However extremely credible early attempts at self sufficiency exist in the current space station efforts and the ‘Biosphere’ concepts which is an ongoing experiment at fully isolated self-sufficiency5. Evidently the technology for the Colony is not yet in place thus accelerated research in this area is required, however this clearly parallels the research efforts of NASA in building lunar and Martian bases. Thus, expertise and help could be found within the aerospace industries where previous feasibility studies and projects have already been accomplished.
A colony should have adequate energy resources to power the recycling mechanisms and to provide light and warmth to the colonists. A fission generator would no doubt be extremely useful, perhaps adapted from nuclear submarine technology. However if the colony is to survive indefinitely then other options for energy creation should exist. Possibilities include the utilization of geothermal and hydrothermal energy and other renewable sources such as solar energy (assuming the earth will not be perpetually cloud covered) and wind power.
Clearly with a supply of disposable energy and gas recycling systems a district within the colony could be cultivated to grow food and nurture animals which would be used to sustain the citizens of the colony6.
‘Preserve the sum of human knowledge’
Tantamount to the preservation of the human species is the preservation of our accumulated knowledge. An optimum survival and ‘terrestrial repopulation’ scenario would be one in which we would be able to return to the technological level that we found ourselves in before the catastrophe occurred. Thus, colonies should be equipped with a full library of human knowledge including the vast repository of information that is the internet.
It is certainly a possibility that in the near future our scientists will become sufficiently adept at mass-scale animal cloning. If this is that case then it would be practical for us to collect a huge library of genetic samples7 from as many animals as possible such that if and when the time came for humans to begin repopulating the Earth after some catastrophe, then we could also reintroduce the animals.
A colony should be prepared for human births and also have the capacity to nurture children and to teach them about their future roles in preserving humanity and the future reseeding of Earth. Life within the colony would not be luxurious but the inhabitants should exist comfortably with warmth, food and education.
Inter-Colony Communication
In the worst case scenarios the colonists would be the sole survivors of humanity. If a number of colonies were built then each should have failsafe contact with the others to allow for the future coordination of survival efforts with plans for the evacuation of entire colonies should some major life-support system fail.
The Role of Colonists
Colonists will not exist merely for the sake of existence but also to play constructive roles as members of the surviving human race.
Colonists could potentially perform sweeps of the surface of the Earth in an attempt to either locate pockets of surviving humans or find areas where it would be possible to repopulate the surface. Telemetry links to earth observation satellites would make it possible to locate regions on Earth where photosynthesis occurs. Colonies would be equipped with the capacity to explore the Earths surface in rovers and possibly aerial vehicles to transport equipment or to perform missions including search and rescue operations.
Colonists would be skilled in a range of fields, predominantly scientific, and would be constantly engaged in research related directly to the survival of the colonists. This could take the form of improvements in recycling, health improvements, colony system improvements, greater search capacities and improvement of life within a colony.
SOS
Should the absolute worst-case scenario ever occur that would render the surface of the earth completely uninhabitable and lifeless then a desperate last effort to save humanity would need to be undertaken. It is conceivable that a powerful transmitter could be erected with the capacity to broadcast an ‘SOS’ signal. Many scientists today have a ‘gut-feeling’ that intelligent life exists beyond our solar system. If a catastrophe where to make the Earth completely uninhabitable then the surviving human race (the colonists) would be doomed to spend eternity in the colony until either the sun turned red giant or the colony naturally succumbed to failure. Thus, in this bleak scenario our only chance would be to hope for another intelligence to pick up a distress signal and come to our aid. Although this is recognizably far-fetched it would be the only hand that the human race would be left to play.
Summary
It is important to recognize that there exists a small, but still very real threat to humanity in the form of numerous ‘apocalypse’ scenarios discussed briefly in the introduction. It would thus be prudent to establish safeguards that would unequivocally guarantee the safety and longevity of our species and enable future generations to rebuild and repopulate the Earth. A suggestion for this safe-guard comes in the form of the ‘Earth Colony’ discussed in this article.
Bibliography
- Ward, Peter D. (2000): Rivers in Time. Columbia University Press, pp. 6-7
- MacLeod, Norman (2002, in press): Extinction. In Encyclopedia of Life Sciences. Nature Publishing Group, Macmillan.
- Morrison, D., C. Chapman, and P. Slovic, Hazards Due to Comets and Asteroids. University of Arizona Press, 1994.. pg. 63
- Robert Zubrin, The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why
- See for example, Schwartzkopf, SH, Human life support for advanced space exploration. Adv Space Biol Med. 1997;6:231-53
- See for example, Mitchell CA, Bioregenerative life-support systems, Am J Clin Nutr. 1994 Nov;60(5):820S-824S.
- Consider the ‘Frozen Ark’ project of the British Natural History Museu
