At a festival devoted largely to the farthest reaches of the universe and technology, one prominent guest had a rather more immediate concern. Jane Lubchenco, former head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, took the stage at Starmus, the science-and-music festival founded by Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Sir Brian May, to deliver a reminder that might have seemed almost quaint among the astronauts, Nobel laureates, and proponents of interstellar travel in attendance: We have a planet worth saving.
May, who put his doctoral studies in astrophysics on hold in 1971 when he formed Queen, eventually returned to academia, earning his PhD in 2007. Since then, he’s become something of a rock star in the science world, co-founding Starmus in 2011. The festival has attracted everyone from Stephen Hawking to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, and its latest gathering was, as usual, heavy on cosmic ambition. But Lubchenco wanted to talk about something a little closer to home.
This comes as no small slap in the face to any number of esteemed guest speakers and attendees promulgating incentives for everything from lasers, satellites, to AI gobbledygook and a proposed 80,000-year mission to Proxima Centauri (our nearest star)—anybody care to join and not surf for 80 millennia? Criminy! Far-out ideas, to be sure. Outlining the High Seas Treaty, which 145 UN member states signed into international law in January, Lubchenco palpably spurned the increasingly popular sentiment among the elite that Earth’s problems are too big to fix and those of us who can afford to leave might just as well.
The High Seas Treaty, Lubchenco lauded, resolves to address looming environmental catastrophes. It says marine protected areas and conservation work. It says that an untold number of drugs can still be derived from the sea and its inhabitants, and that it ought not to be mined for commercial profit. The treaty, said Lubchenco per the New World, who attended the festivities, “is a giant leap forward towards a healthy ocean and a vibrant future.”
“Whether or not she meant to echo Neil Armstrong’s words from the first lunar landing (I suspect she did),” writes inveterate British journalist Philip Ball, who attended the festivities on behalf of The New World, “this message of hope is also a reminder that our priority, if not indeed our destiny, should lie here on Earth and not among the stars.”
Hear, hear, Philip! There’s still an awful lot to discover down here, too, including untold marine life, potential medical breakthroughs, and, let’s not forget, a few tasty waves. Here’s to Sir Brian May and Dr. Jane Lubchenco for reminding a roomful of space junkies that we have a pretty extraordinary place to call home, and that it’s worth protecting.
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