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From: DMS%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: "Rights" of planets?
Message-ID: <15471@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 14-Jan-84 12:46:00 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.15471
Posted: Sat Jan 14 12:46:00 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 16-Jan-84 01:29:15 EST
Lines: 24

From:  David Siegel <DMS%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA>

    From: dietz%usc-cse%USC-ECL at SRI-NIC
    Re:   "Rights" of planets?

       What gives us the right to nuke Venus or any other planet or moon in
       the hopes that it will make it habitable?  We have done much to
       destroy Terra's ecology, so now we must work on other places??!! It
       seems to me that until Mankind learns to be responsible enough to take
       care of his own planet, he should lay off trying to change other
       planets to suit his needs.

    One could argue that since Man has messed up Earth, we should try to
    make up for it by building ecologies on previously lifeless planets.  I
    disagree strongly with the idea that inanimate matter has "rights", as
    you seem to imply.  Absent this idea, it's hard to object to
    terraforming, except perhaps for esthetic reasons.

Who is to say that Venus is certainly a lifeless, inanimate object
anyway?  In the early days of our planet's life it too may have seemed
worthless.  If some other lifeform came along back then and attempted
a major experiment on this planet, we might not be around today.
Don't forget, nature has always seemed to be wiser than humans in the
past!