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Protecting Planet Earth from the Tallihae Aliens sample essay
Today on March 1st we have the last chance to save our planet from being destroyed. Aliens from Planet Tallihae are horrified with what they know about the last century on Earth, they think we have been doing nothing but harm to ourselves and universe over the last hundred years. Judging from the information available to them they have decided to destroy our planet tomorrow on March 2nd in order to prevent further harm made by humans. Surely this is a huge mistake caused by lack of information available to aliens.
Even though the 20th century was very hard and a lot of mistakes were made, people still made more good than harm. In fact no other century was as fruitful and progressive as the previous one. At no time before people lived with this amount of comfort. Achievements and positive changes made during this century vividly demonstrate that Earth deserves the chance to live. During this century people demonstrated their ability to learn from previous experience and to multiply success.
This century is so rich in events, outstanding people, inventions and other worth mentioning facts that it is hard to decide what to start with. I think the best way is to admit the failures and mistake of the previous century first.
Indeed, fast development of technology did not only improve the lives of people, but also nourished ambitions and caused much violence. There were a lot of wars, organized famines, acts of terrorism, murders, rapes, tortures, suicides, drugs distribution, human trafficking, etc. Really the picture is terrifying. The only thought that during these hundred years there were at least twenty wars, where the number of victims exceeded 75,000 (White). Most wars lasted minimum 3 - 4 years, many continued up to 10 years or even longer. This means that there were rarely times when there was no war on Earth during this century. In fact I wonder if there were such times at all.
Wars this century were different from the wars of other generations. People invented advanced means of destruction it because possible to destroy whole cities in just a few moments, like it was with Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the United States dumped atomic bombes on these cities. Citizens of those cities and nearby regions that did not die right away further suffered from leukemia and other diseases. This century army started to use chemical and bacteriological weapon against the enemy. Scientists invested nuclear weapon, and the most powerful countries created such weapon for their army. Humanity is lucky that politicians had enough common sense to not use this weapon during the Cold War and in other tensions that further occurred. Otherwise we would destroy ourselves without any external interference.
Besides the human-caused problems there were also earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, and other natural disasters that people failed to prevent and failed to ensure human security.
Morality is another sphere where people made a lot of mistakes. This century drugs, chaotic sexual relations, abuse in families reached up high, causing new diseases like HIV/AIDS, decreasing morality of the new generation, breaking ethical norms and values, and leading to all kinds of crimes (“Technology Triumphs, Morality Falters”).
By now we have a terrible picture of a place full of violence, suffering, diseases, etc. However this was only the dark side of the coin, whereas there was also the light one. During this century humanity managed to solve most problems that humankind suffered from during many centuries before. For example, scientists found medicine against many diseases that were long considered incurable and made many generations suffer. Unfortunately success in this area is not full because there is still no cure invented for cancer and HIV/AIDS, which is a new and not fully studied disease.
We say that twentieth century was so horrible, but maybe this is because we forget what it used to be like earlier? Wars were always there, hatred and poor morality as well, however it was not this widely announced, due to lack of Mass Media. However, we can think about what was done in the twentieth century that put an end to sufferings of earlier times. Today it seems absolutely normal that all people have their rights to voice their opinion and not be bitten up, imprisoned or killed for it. It was not always like this. Only white, rich and male had the full rights, whereas other groups of population were considered inferior to greater or smaller extent. Let us not forget that in the middle of the nineteenth century slavery was considered absolutely normal, and up to 60s years of the twentieth century black population still experienced common discrimination.
Unfortunately, there are still cases of child labor and human trafficking for slavery work and sex industry, however amount of such cases are by no doubt much smaller compared to previous centuries. African-Americans that used to be used for slave work in America last century today have all civil rights and equal opportunities. Using people as slaves became a legal crime in all civilized countries. Courts protect right of all people on equal basis regardless gender, race and personal background, which was not the case in the 19th century.
People were previously discriminated not only on the basis of race, but according to gender as well. In the nineteenth century and earlier women were simply not taken seriously at any job other than raising children, taking care of households and assisting to men. Women did not have a right to vote or to inherit property, to sign contracts, or to own any money herself: all the property officially belonged to her husband (Elizabeth Cady Stanton). Disadvantaged groups were not protected by the law and were considered inferior to those who possessed all legal rights. Many ethnic groups, where Irish people is a good example, were often discriminated, had hard time finding a job and were underpaid even when they found one.
Comfort of life by no doubts increased not only in the sphere of civil rights, but also in the area of healthcare. Speaking about health of people we need to remember that it is not the same in all countries. However, the general trend is towards considerable improvement of healthcare and life duration. The United States of America is one of the countries were healthcare is on a high level and we can proudly say that during the twentieth century life duration of the United States citizens increased by more than 30 years. According to Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “25 years of this gain are attributable to advances in public health” (MMWR, 241). Among the public health achievements of this century are: vaccination, motor-vehicle safety, safer workplaces, control of infectious diseases, decline in deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke, safer and healthier foods, healthier mothers and babies, family planning, fluoridation of drinking water, recognition of tobacco use as a health hazard (MMWR, 241).
This list demonstrates that people not only live longer, but they live with greater comfort from childhood to senior years. Handicapped people are not closed in four walls any more - they have possibilities for socializing. Mentally sick people are not being put into prison for something they did because of their illness, they are now being cured in medical institutions, where they are not being abused and turned into vegetables, which was previously a common practice.
People are educated on family planning issue so there are fewer unplanned babies and consequently fewer economic, psychological, and medical problems connected to it.
Medical organizations make vaccinations and social institutions do everything to inform people about various diseases. Water and sanitation are being accurately controlled, therefore epidemics are quite rare in the United State nowadays (excluding HIV/AIDs and other diseases that are caused by lack of morality rather that by poor healthcare). Moreover, even incurable diseases like cancer and HIV/AIDs are not as dreadful as they used to be, because invented antimicrobial therapy allows prolonging life of HIV positive people, whereas surgery and chemical therapy allows to save lives of people with cancer (MMWR, 242).
Concerning better life conditions of people during this century, people are not being exploited like they used to be before, at least in developed countries. In duration of this century work unions took care of such problem as work-related health problems. Professional diseases are being better controlled and prevented. Injuries and deaths among mine-workers, manufacturers, transportation and construction workers have greatly decreased. Over the last twenty years of the last century safer workplaces decreased fatal occupational injuries by approximately 40% (MMWR, 242).
Another large area that cannot be omitted while speaking about achievements of the twentieth century is the growth of technology, development of advanced means of transportation and communication (Greatest Engineering Achievements of the Twentieth Century). Even relating this topic to healthcare, now a life of a child that has hear disease can be saved because a plane or a helicopter can deliver a healthy heart from any point of the world and skilled surgeons will make the heart transplantation. As the result the child will live and may grow into a genius that will find a way to put an end to all wars. Omitting the pathos speeches, the growth of technology that occurred during the twentieth century enabled people to fly around the world, make friends in many countries and visit them once in a while, which is another argument for having less wars, because it is not as easy to send troops to Japan, for instance, if your best friend lives there. Besides, with the development of mass media and means of communication people are better informed about culture, politics and economics of other countries. We are not scared of Australians any more because we know that they are not going to eat us, because the times of cannibalism are long time ago. Greater communication means enables people to organize international business. Countries can specialize in a number of industries that are the most profitable and affordable for them. The rest of the products they receive from other countries that have different specializations. With this international specialization products become cheaper and better in quality. Due to a better access to information developed during this century people can learn from others and Iraqi citizens can understand that they must not tolerate dictatorship in their country. Thus, we see that technological development of the previous century enables people to become more educated, live a more comfortable life, understand their rights and obligations, develop friendly international relations, etc.
Finally during this century lived such people as Mother Teresa, Rome Pope John Paul II, who did enormous amount of good deeds and are considered saints (Brennan). I am strongly convinced that Earth and humankind deserves to live on, because even God agreed not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities where people were great sinners if there would be just one righteous man. I named two on Earth just from the top of my head and could name a whole wealth of others. Besides, considering the positive changes, inventions, improvement in life and civil rights described above, people surely did more good than evil during the last hundred years. We learn from our mistakes and try our best not to repeat them. Greater amount of information allows us to make right decisions. Therefore, I believe that the right decision for Tallihae aliens will be not to destroy the Planet Earth but to share their knowledge with us, so that we can learn more and manage our planet and our lives on it better.
Bibliography
1. Brennan, Phil. “A Pope and a Saint: John Paul II and Mother Teresa.” NewsMax.com, April 6, 2005 Available:2. “Elizabeth Cady Stanton.” The Glass Ceiling Biographies. 2000. Available:
3. Greatest Engineering Achievements of the Twentieth Century. Available:
4. MMWR. “Ten Great Public Health Achievements - United States, 1900-1999.” April 02, 1999 / 48(12); 241-243.
5. “Technology Triumphs, Morality Falters.” The Pew Research Center. Available:
6. White, Matthew. “Wars of the Twentieth Century.” 1999. Available:
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