I have to tell you a secret.

The world is not flat. Therefore, it doesn’t have an edge to jump from like this painting. This painting is a lie.

The subject in this picture… they look like they could jump into space with a few spider friends and land on a neighboring star. It’s just not real.

The nearest star is too far away. And it’s not a planet, so you can’t live there.

Where does that spider web even go, anyways? That detail doesn’t make a lot of sense.

It makes me wonder: why are we so obsessed with the idea of evacuating earth? Rich people are all trying to get into space. Movies commonly show humanity leaving a ravaged earth behind to find a new home in space. There’s talk of building habitats on the moon, on Mars. There are books on the subject. Books that were turned into movies.

This place we already live, this place called Earth, this is our home. Are we really so willing to trash our home and abandon it after waiting so long to evolve and actually have a shot at living here?

Why aren’t we investing more in fixing the problems we have here? Is sending Jeff Bezos into space going to remove plastics from the ocean? Is the phallic-shaped rocket going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Oh, I know, when it punches through the atmosphere, the gasses will just follow.

That’s science, right? That’s how it works, I’m sure of it.

Space travel is endlessly fascinating. I love it too. But, every now and again, I wish we’d take a look at our own home. I wish we’d pause the music and really take a look at how much damage our party is doing.

Think about this, you do realize that those space rockets are smaller than Earth right? Most of us aren’t going to be boarding for the next great space adventure. There just isn’t room.

No. We can’t all go.

Most of us will be here, cleaning up the mess because the party ended.