Nature Reserves

NASA wants to place humans on Mars by 2040, Elon Musk is trying to do so by 2024, and the Chinese, Russians, and European space agencies all are planning to send astronauts to the Martian surface. Martian astronauts will not just be making a weekend of it, like the Apollo astronauts did, but instead will live at least for long periods on Mars. When humans inhabit Mars in this way, NASA scientists tell us that inevitably the planet will become infected with Earth microorganisms. The question then becomes, “With what outcome?,” and no one currently has an answer.

In this situation, we will wish to understand how the human presence impacts Mars, and we only gain such knowledge with certainty if we have “before humans” ecological snapshots for comparison with “after humans” situations. To gain these prehuman ecological snapshots that can serve as scientific control samples, we need to protect parts of the Red Planet from human use before humans arrive.

The foundational ecologist Aldo Leopold provides us with an appropriate scientific method for preserving Mars with such ecological snapshots. Leopold proposes creating a “base-datum of normality,” a concept which I will call a “baseline ecology.” In the baseline ecology method, a land parcel that is relatively untouched by humans is set aside from human intrusion except for no-footprint scientific research. No effort is made to maintain the plot as it is, for this would forestall our understanding of ecological succession. Instead, a baseline ecology, left to develop over time as it will, provides a long-lasting “what if humans didn’t exist?” ecological control sample.

By applying the baseline ecology environmental method to Mars before humans arrive, we initiate a great deal of benefit in terms of protecting the planet ecologically as well as in terms of comprehending natural Martian processes. Below are the locations on Mars that are suggested for preservation.

Hellas Planitia: a giant impact crater that perhaps represents a Martian version of Death Valley’s beauty
North Pole: with abundant stores of water and carbon dioxide ices that can seasonally melt, this region may contain cold-adapted or dormant underground microbial life
Olympus Mons: the greatest volcano in the solar system rises to twice the altitude of Mt. Everest
Southern ground ice region: like the northern polar region, this area remains exceptional in its stores of ices, minerals, and seasonal ecologies
Syrtis Major: a topographically-interesting volcanic region that appears as a large dark spot on photos of the planet
Valles Marineris: a canyon that stretches for more than 2,000 miles and is five times deeper than the Grand Canyon
Viking 1/Pathfinder/Sojourner rover region: this reserve historically memorializes the first successful landing and the first rover on Mars

By applying the baseline ecology method to these magnificent natural features of Mars, we create durable conditions for science to thrive. We also engage in the prudent environmental protection of Mars. Further, we respond to the call of the environmental ethicist Holmes Rolston to “set aside wild areas for what they are in themselves, areas which we try to manage as little as possible.” Moreover, as I describe in my article, “Preserving Mars Today using Baseline Ecologies,” we can establish these baseline ecologies inexpensively and by utilizing existing international resources like the United Nations.

I should add that I have argued here for Mars, but similar arguments can be made for using the baseline ecology method to preserve lunar Apollo sites for historical purposes, as one can see on this site’s mining issues page. Using the baseline ecology method not only preserves the lunar ecology historically as much as possible, it also, as I have described, supplies additional scientific goods. In fact, the baseline ecology method can be used throughout our solar system and beyond for planetary preservation.

However, it must be recognized that we gain the maximum benefit by creating these reserves sooner rather than later. Future humans will wish us to have established these reserves as early in history as possible. Alternatively, if we wait until humans have arrived en masse on Mars or our moon in the not-too-distant future, we will have squandered our golden opportunity to enhance both environmental protection and scientific understanding. Hence, we must establish these reserves soon, precisely because no humans are there, for once humans inhabit these places, we lose our opportunity to create ecological control samples.

Watch a three minute video about protecting our moon with nature reserves.

What do Buddhists think of such reserves? Establishing reserves like the ones proposed here enjoys a long Buddhist pedigree. Even in the time of the Buddha some Buddhists already were creating nature reserves and today many Buddhists continue to do so assiduously on Earth. Data for this project indicate that Buddhists, through the values that they express, support establishing reserves on Mars. In the data Buddhists on the whole insist on extending Buddhist attitudes to the situation in which a sense of nonharm in terms of respect for landscape integrities becomes intertwined with clear recognition of the interconnectedness of humans and the features of Mars that they may wish to protect. Moreover, as you can see from the table, Buddhists on the whole insist on protecting extraterrestrial locations and specifically lifeless ones. These values, and the long Buddhist history of protecting ecologies with reserves, appear to support the proposal here that we protect magnificent features of Mars with nature reserves before human beings arrive in person.

Why not create these reserves today? Write your legislators and demand that we create nature reserves on our moon and Mars today precisely because no one is there now. Tell your lawmakers to encourage the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), which already oversees our moon and Mars, to establish these nature reserves as quickly as possible because of the immense scientific benefit for humans and the environmental protection of beautiful Mars itself.