The Mysteries of this Universe ! - Part I

I usually get very excited whenever I talk of Astronomy and I never had a definitive answer to the reason behind it.

Probably, and this is my best guess, is that this subject allows me to escape the rigmarole of our daily lives. Human are, by far, the most stupid of all races that I have ever come across. Birds, Animals, insects don't have an IQ that's even remotely close to us and THANK GOD for that ! If they had the same IQ and thought processes such as ours then sinners wouldn't have to go to hell !

EARTH WOULD BE THE HELL !!!
(if its not already...and I keep telling myself that it is)

A few examples of the profound stupidity of our race and our complex reasoning process (that is far from ideal) amply supports my reasoning for the statement I just made:

• Global warming is a proven fact now. Average Global Temperatures are more than a degree or two higher that a century back and its a trend that is on the rise. YET ! Why the hell are developed countries dragging their foot on taking concrete actions for reducing carbon emissions ? Economic considerations, I know, are playing a big role in their current stand. But why do humans only take action AFTER we have witnessed the worst repercussions of an event that is of certain significant probability ? (sea level would definitely rise over the coming decades if the trend continues - which I am sure it will)

• Plastics - Its another known fact that plastics are harmful for the environment ! Most of them cannot be recycled more than 7-10 times. Yet, we don't have strong government legislations on restricting its usage. It will be too much to ask from government to even think on developing alternatives.
  

• Driving - Forget Global warming & plastic usage. Consider the simple example of analysing the way people drive their cars, scooters and bikes to work. When I see a jam for the next 100 metres, would honking (way to glory) my way to the front be even remotely possible ? Do people even give way to ambulances for that matter ? YET, you would see drivers (even with senior executives at the wheels; Blackberry handsets , premium cars et al) with reasoning and this IQ comparable to monkeys and insects !

Astronomy - Its truly the LAST FRONTIER for the human race. The immense possibilities of the universe allows me the easiest way to escape the harrowing realties on earth.

Thank god that the terms we use daily in astronomy are so very alien in our daily lives !

Distances are measured in Light years and not kilometres ! (A light year is 5,865,696,000,000 miles (9,460,800,000,000 kilometers) - That's close to 10 Trillion Kilometres !!!!!

Thank god for that! (I am used to travelling 80 kilometres daily to-and-fro office. It is such a pain to hear this measure of distance these days)

Ages of stars, planets, galaxies are measured more comfortably in "Billions" of years and hardly anything of considerable significance happens within a human lifetime (collision of galaxies, lifetime of stars, mergers of black holes etc.)

It helps me tremendously to know what puny and insignificant we are in this universe ! and PUNY AND INSIGNIFICANT WE DEFINTELY ARE !

An example here will definitely put our human limitations in context here -
Our Sun is a middle-aged star. Its age is approximately thought to be about 4.57 billion years. And in another 2-2.5 Billion years, its energy output would start increasing significantly. In a short while from then it would enter the RED GIANT phase. The outer layers of the SUN would extend outwards such that it would even ENGULF the EARTH. When this event would even start to happen , all oceans on our Earth would literally be "boiled" and evaporate ! The Earth would literally be roasted out of all life as we know it!

Scientists (and thank god for them!) have already started thinking about ways to get Earth out of this zone of death. One possibility is to have an Asteroid of medium scale to rotate obliquely around the earth such that, over thousand of years, we would slowly get further away from the Sun to escape this Zone of death.

Isn't most of us humans so very hypocritical in their approach towards living and making decisions of significance to our own civilization ?

While on one hand we are thinking of ways in helping Earth get away from this event of calamity that's 2.5 BILLION years from now ! (These scientists are, after all, on salaries payed out of the pockets of U.S citizens who actually, to put it mildly, don't even give a shit to what is beyond their life time)

ON THE OTHER HAND

THE SAME government doesn't have the balls to have legislations curbing Carbon-dioxide output from U.S factories that is probably responsible for the melting polar ice caps irreversibly (U.S is one of the biggest offenders in its contribution {measured in tonnes of CO2 it produces every year} towards the Global carbon emissions released into the atmosphere each year!)

GOD DAMM POLITICIANS, COMPANY CEO's AND THE INVESTMENT COMMUNITY !!!

I am not blaming all of them though !!! but a significant percentage of them. Lack of awareness may kill us (by our own hands) one day !