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NASA Puts the Earth Up For Adoption (cnn.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Wondering how to show that special planet some affection this Earth Day? Adopt it. NASA has sectioned off 64,000 individual pieces of Earth to be "adopted" by supporters on their website. The pieces are about 55 miles wide and assigned randomly. Similar to adopting a highway or naming a star, participants do not get legal or property rights to their section. So whether you get the 55-mile section that contains the Taj Mahal or the one that is square in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, you benefit the same.
I picked Area 51, but some strange people in suits came to my door, smashed my laptop, and demanded I give them the area.
Table-ized A.I.
Actual link to NASA Page.......
I'm going to put an air conditioning unit in my section, and vent the exhaust into the next section over to do my part to combat global warming. I can only hope everyone else will do the same; collectively we could make a difference.
When NASA was so busy trying to fly to the moon that it had no time for such nonsense.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
Once the adoptions fill up, they will be reassigned to allow everyone the opportunity to celebrate their own little corner of the Earth.
Just hope that your randomly assigned slot isn't double-booked with a NASA employee or else you could end up being beaten up and forcibly removed from the Earth.
I donno about the cost, but I expect that a lot better return on that cost will be borne by this initiative than your post will generate, both in relative and absolute terms.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Oh, cool! I can't wait to see if I got something neat!
Oh, yeah. Ocean.
Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
...Got a piece of Russia, thanks Nasa! _ . _
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Considering the fact that two thirds of the earth is covered in water, you have an excellent chance of adopting a bunch of ocean!
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
It's sad to see what has become of Slashdot these days. The GP's comment makes a good point about the hidden costs of pointless activism such as this, especially when it's environmentalist activism that ends up harming the environment. Yet for some inexplicable reason that insightful comment is modded to -1. Your comment, on the other hand, is nothing but useless snark. Yet it was modded up to 3. I suppose none of this matters, though. The GP is right: environmentalists are often their own worst enemy. They'll generate significant greenhouse gas emissions by flying thousands of delegates to places like Kyoto, Paris and Copenhagen to come up with ineffective and disregarded agreements like the Kyoto Protocol, Copenhagen Accord and Paris Agreement. They drove in gas-powered vehicles from all over the US to the Standing Rock protests, and then left all sorts of garbage and debris (read: pollution) lying around when they left. Even if everybody else on Earth managed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions down to nothing, the environmentalists would still ensure that significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions were generated, all in the name of reducing greenhouse gas emissions!
Who would have thought that the stupidest thing I've read all day would be from NASA. Assigning someone a patch of earth that will get reassigned based on demand that a person can't do anything with and is probably geographically distant and thus can provide no benefit to. Don't you guys have some rocket ships to build or something right now?
So NASA is looking for things to do around the place? How about grab a broom?
When you adopt a section of highway you are expected to pick up litter. Are we expected to clean up the section of Gaia we adopt?
What right does NASA have to adopt out sections of Gaia?
Forget NASA we need a public share offering from SpaceX then we can really own a piece of a space program that looks like it is actually going somewhere.
I would mod this up if I had the points.
Though you left out :
Charging their Phones, and cars. The lights and utilities and things left running while they weren't using them like refridgerators and the people and power that run the airlines, the harmful effect and cost of producing the above said items.
It's actually much worse than that even.
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
Because I'm sure no one else will want it.
When I read the title I thought NASA was advertising Earth for adoption by aliens, after it had been neglected by its native inhabitants. That actually makes more sense :-P
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Touchy little guy aren't you?
Would those above comments have hit a little too close to home?
I don't see where race has anything to do with this since I see all nationalities doing it. But since you seem so smug and racist lets go into more detail:
How much environmental damage is caused by mass open-pit mining of the rare earth minerals it takes to build a smartphone, a battery of any capacity, Lithium or Lead Acid? The Burial and associated leeching of those materials back into the environment they were disposed of?
All these environmentalists are really terrorists. Demanding every power generation technology be banned out-right or focused on environments *they* don't care about in other countries. Shutting down business around them in favor of concentrating the pollution in *someone else's country* so they can jog with their music playing on their iPod through a pristine silent environment they don't need to journey for days to get to.
Talk about privilege. Fucking check it assholes.
In the meantime, BioDiesel and Alcohol fuel can be created from rotting vegetable matter that's renewable. But you don't want to smell the exhaust or hear the engines purr for the 'cabon footprint' that hasn't been reduced, just offset to some third world country they don't care about.
The 'Green' movement may as well be 'blood red'.
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
I see someone's hopped on the social justice 'intersectionality' bandwagon. If you hate white men that much, maybe you should just shut off your electricity altogether.
Unlikely. NASA should focus less on political activism and more on engineering a long term plan for a permanent, productive presence elsewhere in the solar system. If we're going to keep the organization around then that is the role they should play. Semantic arguments over the word 'planet' are as completely unproductive as this stunt.
I, for one, welcome our new adoptive parent overlords
Gently reply
According to NASA: "Our goal is to have the entire planet adopted by Earth Day, April 22. Once all 64,000 pieces are adopted, we'll start again from the top, so everyone who wants to participate will be able to."
So, basically, we're going to sell something off that we don't own and you don't get and once we've sold them all we're going to sell them again? Fucking brilliant!
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Cost vs. benefit... You and GP deem it as pointless, but educating people about climate change and getting governments to align is worth the net cost. The only way you can get world governments on track with the program is to fly delegates out to these places. Simply existing contributes to GW and environmental impact, but that's a cost I think we should all be willing to accept. Pointing out hypocrisy where none exists makes you and the OP look foolish. That's why you you got downvoted.
Can we put NASA up for adoption?