Those familiar with Star Trek will be familiar with the phrase: “Space, the final frontier.” As Shaun, Roman, Chie, Anton, Nell, and Pietro orbit, another fearless group of unnamed adventurers zoom out to the moon in search of more to learn, more to conquer. As you read through Orbital, you may stop for a moment and think about human expansion and so-called progress, and perhaps destruction and decay in the name of it. The United States’ history of expansion was characterized by the notion of “Manifest Destiny,” the idea that colonists and settlers were divinely promised the right to territory in the west. In doing so, there were major human rights and ecological consequences, but these are often forgotten as we celebrate our country’s history. Think, too, of the Industrial Revolution, where we made major leaps and strides in technology and made our lives easier through automation and creation — but the consequences of this era are felt today as we continue our reliance on fossil fuels and we increasingly heat up the temperature of the planet. Every couple of orbits, the astronauts and cosmonauts watch as a typhoon grows in the Pacific and wreaks havoc on land, on people who contribute the least and suffer the most from climate change.
“Every swirling neon or red algal bloom in the polluted, warming, overfished Atlantic is crafted in large part by the hand of politics and human choices.” (Harvey 110)
As we send humanity to travel through the stars, what are we forgetting about ourselves, down here?
A Traveler's Guide to the Stars
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Back to the Moon
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Endurance
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The Disordered Cosmos
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What If We Get It Right?
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The Sixth Extinction
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Losing Eden
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