Whether there is existence of extraterrestrial life remains a topic of heated debate for a long time. There are arguments to be made that governments should spend more money looking for life beyond planet Earth, while the counterargument states how funding such ideas is a waste of money when there are still issues on our planet. I aim to take a look at both arguments to determine the validity of each side.
Firstly, there are many advocating for funding the search for extraterrestrial life. This is likely down to environmental concerns on Earth. With pollution remaining a prevalent issue for the past few decades, the obvious issue would be how long could that go on until pollution render Earth inhabitable. As such, it would be wise to continue exploring space in search of the next habitable planet to maintain human life. Additionally, given the ongoing situation regarding climate change and global warming, Earth’s temperatures are slowly increasing every year, which in turn causes glaciers to melt away and cause rising ocean levels. It is said that when ocean levels rise to a certain point, all of land on earth will be underwater, thus putting human life in great danger. Also, there is a sentiment that it is a sensible idea to continue funding research and discovery of life on other planets. Given that there have already been projects such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX designed to further explore space, it feels like a natural step to take to further realize such an ambition.
Conversely, there are also many arguing against increased spending on searching for life beyond Earth. There are no shortage of deniers when it comes to climate change, with conspiracies of it being a tool for world governance. Thus, there remains an amount of doubt and skepticism on the legitimacy of global warming that could put human life at risk. There is also an argument that since Earth’s temperatures change cyclically, Earth would eventually cool down again, thus rendering such concerns meaningless. Additionally, remedies to ease pressure on increasing levels of pollution have already been in place, such as using items made from recyclable materials, development of electric vehicles to be less reliant on fossil fuels and lessen greenhouse gas emissions. Also, there are no shortage of claims that there are more pertinent issues on Earth than finding life beyond it, with extra attention focusing on issues such as poverty, unemployment, and inflation, all of which pose an immediate threat to humans’ wellbeing. As such, it is argued that these immediate issues should be dealt with rather than searching for something that’s unconfirmed to be true while there are problems aplenty on our planet, especially with governments’ money collected from their citizens’ taxes funding real life needs rather than a distant ambition.
To conclude, there are many arguments supporting funding from governments to further explore the existence of extraterrestrial life, as well as there are arguments against it to instead remedy existing problems on Earth. There are many valid points made on both sides, however, given the uncertainty of whether life on other planets exist in the first place, it remains a big ask to convince skeptics to support funding such an idea. And thus even harder to encourage governments to increase spending on such a project.