[meteorite-list] pollution

[Darren Garrison]

On Mon, 18 Jul 2005 20:45:38 +0100 (GMT Daylight Time), "Dave Harris" <entropydave at ntlworld.com>
wrote:

>
>We have a responsibility to protect our own planet before we have the right
>to mess with another one!

Personally, I think that the "not mess around" part only really applies to worlds that have life
(like Earth, for instance).  Any dead rocks (like probably everything else in the solar system) I
think are fair game.  Do I care if someone turns, say, the Florida Everglades into a toxic waste
dump?  Very much so!  Do I care if someone dumps toxic waste on some desolate part of some other
rock orbiting the sun?  Nope.  There's plenty of space out there for both our exploration and
science and for our junk.  If it doesn't hurt anything, it doesn't hurt anything.

To me, this is almost on the level of the people upset over our smacking into a Tempel 1, thinking
that it is wrong to "damage" a comet.  They are just common, dead rocks!