Bill Maher has a message for those in the government – especially Donald Trump – who slash the climate change budget while funding Mars explorations: “If we’re going to take up the challenge to overhaul a planet, let’s do this one.”
Maher’s slammed Trump’s decision to fund a half-trillion dollar mission to Mars, while simultaneously cutting funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
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Maher said:
Here’s a crazy idea: If we’re going to take up the challenge to overhaul a planet, let’s do this one. Let me spell this out in terms simple enough for [Fox & Friends Host Steve Doocy] to understand so he can explain it to Donald Trump. Mars is an airless, lifeless freezing sh*t hole. It’s Antarctica crossed with Casey Anthony’s trunk. I mean just for starters, I’m a big fan of some Earth-only attractions, like breathing.
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Hey, you want to explore something cold and hard? How about the facts? Facts that confirm climate change is killing us, but completely doable policies could reverse it. We hear a lot about putting America first. Let’s put Earth first. Millions of years of evolution shaped us to thrive here and only here – on Earth. … Stop looking for the Goldilocks planet. This is it. … It’s time to make Earth great again.
As Earth Day brings out thousands of activists across the country to speak out in favor of science and against the new administration’s anti-Earth agenda, it’s important to remember, as Maher said, that this is the only planet we have.
There is nothing particularly wrong with wanting to explore space, but the government shouldn’t be funding it at the expense of the only planet we do have – Earth, which continues to suffer the consequences of man-made climate change. In other words, we shouldn’t be worried about looking for a new house while the one we’re all living in right now is slowly burning to the ground.
Once world leaders – America’s, in particular – get their act together in dealing with the damage already being done to this planet, perhaps then we can consider prioritizing space travel.
Until then, it might be a better idea to save the one planet we have.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
