NASA: Aliens might destroy us because of our gases

[n2doc]

By: Chris Matyszczyk AUGUST 18, 2011 8:12 PM PDT

It's not just the threat of another recession that tells us we're destroying ourselves. We express it in every alien movie ever made.

Save the Earth. Save the Earth. A question that, increasingly, offers the question: "Why?"

Still we, cranially deficient as we are, prefer to muse about "when?" and "how?" Well, the earthy Guardian points me to a new NASA report, written by scientists at NASA and Penn State.
The report suggests that is just remotely, theoretically possible that the green, blue and orange beings out there might notice that we're sending out a lot more greenhouse gases.

In noticing these noxious emissions, the aliens might consider that our puny planet offers more of a threat than they had previously imagined. This, the report goes on to wonder, might signal to those up there that we are a rapidly expanding entity, one that needs to be nipped before it buds any further.


Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20094398-71/nasa-aliens-might-destroy-us-because-of-our-gases/

more likely to destroy us because of our (radio) emissions, specifically Rush Limbaugh...

[Ian David]

1. NASA never said that

Right Wing Freaks Out About Aliens
http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/08/aliens-nasa?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+motherjones%2FTheBlueMarble+%28Mother+Jones+|+The+Blue+Marble%29

[mysuzuki2]

2. Wow. No more bean suppers for me!

[RKP5637]

3. Earth needs to be put in one giant prophylactic thanks to humans. n/t

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. See also…

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=308139&mesg_id=308139

[Riftaxe]

5. Alright Already!, no more Tex-Mex Tuesdays for

me then... :evilgrin:

[Sherman A1]

6. Beat me to it!

Slightly different take on it, but pretty much what I was thinking.

[NYC_SKP]

7. They won't have to destroy us. All they need to do is kick back and watch us...

...destroy ourselves.

x(

[customerserviceguy]

8. No matter what we do to ourselves

How is it even remotely a threat to any intelligent being outside of our solar system?

[txlibdem]

9. It would depend on how many habitable planets there are in the galaxy

If there are many thousands of them then you have a point. Not all of those will have evolved sentient life and other species can colonize.

If, however, habitable planets are relatively few and they see us doing everything we can to destroy this one... maybe they would feel a sense of duty to step in and either correct our ways or to help us wipe ourselves out (thus freeing up a perfectly good planet for an intelligent species).

[BeFree]

10. well

Could be the dinosaurs were just alien 'cattle' on the feedlot we call earth, and we are even better 'cattle'? Humburgers, anyone?

[txlibdem]

12. FTL would have to be both cheap and small enough for a personal size craft

So "mom" and "dad" (and maybe "trigenitor") could ask the kids what they want for dinner, FTL over to Urth and pick up a suitable sized meat bag (with homage to Bender, of course).

/edit to add: FTL would also have to be instantaneous, which is possible in an 11 dimensional universe if one of the dimensions never experienced the "inflation" that some / all of the other ones did.

[customerserviceguy]

11. If we saw a planet very far away

that was engaged in self-destruction, would we spend any effort in trying to get them to stop? We'd only intervene if we thought they had some possibility of causing harm over here, and if their space program had sputtered to the point where all they could do was fling a satellite or two in their own solar system, we'd probably just use them as a good example of a bad example.

[txlibdem]

13. So just keep a wary eye till we have to put up a blockade?

Can't let a warlike or Capitalist society to get out and (much like a deadly virus) pollute the galaxy.

But still, if there are few habitable planets would a sort of UN of Space-Faring Peoples allow one of those very precious planets to be wasted on a species who have a historical record as self-destructive as ours, as destructive to the planet as ours?

[customerserviceguy]

17. Well, it's a bit of a value judgment

to declare that a planet was 'wasted' on a species that evolved on it. Seems like something resembling Star Trek's Prime Directive would apply when intelligent species are deciding what to do about another planet that's pretty far away from the inhabited planets of their 'Federation'.

[txlibdem]

18. Pardon the geek-out but how do you know we don't live in the "mirror" universe?

:hi:

But seriously, it depends on the number of habitable planets, the percentage of species who breathe O2 and are based on carbon, the Federation's patience with terraforming, and the number of species in the collective in need of room for expansion.

[NickB79]

14. It assumes our industrial know-how would allow us to expand beyond our solar system

And at some point in time attempt to invade or colonize THEIR solar system.

[Meeker Morgan]

15. Oh look. A semi-retraction from National Review.

http://www.nationalreview.com/planet-gore/275040/global-warming-may-cause-alien-invasion-updated-greg-pollowitz

[madokie]

16. I'm sure I'm adding to the green house gases more than I like to admit

I'm a pretty gaseous fella :-)