Letters to the Editor: How deluded is humanity? We’re sending a rover to Mars during a pandemic

To the editor: I was disheartened to read Sarah Stewart Johnson’s op-ed article about the possible benefits of the recently launched Mars rover.

There are two crises in the world today that are much more important than a mission to Mars: the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. Protective equipment is still being rationed for healthcare workers, and climate change is a dead subject in the Trump administration.

We are not prepared for the end of fossil fuels and how that will affect our lifestyle. Missions to Mars tell me that we prefer to believe that technology will save the day for us all, while the most basic common-sense actions of using less fossil fuel and preparing for a more austere way of life are routinely ignored, just as the most basic action of wearing a mask is derided.

How stupid are we?

Shannon McCalla, Sweet, Idaho

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To the editor: Reading about the Mars rover Perseverance, and considering the current condition of our world, I was reminded of the closing lyric of “Galaxy Song” from “Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life”:

“So remember, when you’re feeling very small and insecure/ How amazingly unlikely is your birth/ And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space/ ‘Cause there’s bugger all down here on Earth.”

Charlee Hutton, Long Beach