The future of human kind - Peter Varholak

Life on the planet Earth will be destroyed. Mr. president, mr. toastmaster, fellow toastmasters and most welcomed guests.

Yes. It is only a matter of time. We don´t know if it will be by meteorit hitting the ground, by nuclear war or finally in one billion years by sun. But we know it. And we can start to prepare.

Humankind is interesting form of life. We can think about the long future, learn from each other and even have common goals. Yes there are couple of instances when most of the humans agreed that some idea is great for humanity. Creating United Nations to prevent future wars with such terrible effects as World War second. Reducing gasses that cause greenhouse effects or creating set of human rights are shining examples. Humans can also unite in madness like world wars and I want to present alternative. Alternative where all countries should transfer some finances maybe even from defence budgets. Something that I believe all countries should participate in.

Spacetravel and colonization of other planets or moons. First most suitable planet is Mars. And it has risks of course. But be isolated on one place in universe is even riskier. When first explorers traveled to american continent they didn´t know if they return. It was common that return trip lasted more than year. But they took the journey anyway. Space exporation is similar. Normal round trip crewed mission can take 400 to 450 days, fast 245 days. In testing are also another experimental propulsion systems that can significantly reduce round trip journey to about 2 months. Cheapest mission is estimated to be 4 billion pounds. But when you take only 1% from world defence budgets you can send 2 missions yearly. Isn´t it amazing? When you add existing space research budgets you can suddenly jump to 10 crewed missions yearly.

Why we should do this?

Well it´s right question. It is not profitable short term. But long term benefits are huge. Investment to research and development of possibilities to travel to other planets or maybe even stars. More space for living and more resources available and finally uniting in cause that is not destructive but constructive.

Or we can wait for somebody crazy pressing red button, meteorit Aphophis suddenly changing it´s trajectory and impacting Earth on April 13, 2029 or another catastrophy wiping out life on whole planet.

I believe that I will witness first people on the planet Mars. And I hope that it will be reached by cooperation of all of us. With cooperation of people of all nations, all backgrounds and all beliefs.

Thank you