Caring about the air, water, and land that give us life.
“The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth.”
― Chief Seattle, The Chief Seattle’s Speech
People on the Earth have not heeded environmental warnings and have lived without protecting their environment for decades. Now, due to a huge hole in the ozone layer, the Earth’s temperature has slowly risen. As a result of this temperature rise, the Earth’s core temperature has risen creating new volcanoes which are erupting everywhere. There is almost complete devastation of the Earth’s surface. However, on one small plot on Earth, a spaceship is equipped for automatic flight to a planet that is similar to Earth.
The only known survivors of the volcanic eruptions are 13 people clamoring to get aboard the spaceship. The problem is that there is only space, oxygen, food and water aboard the spaceship to accommodate 6 people.
The people waiting to get aboard the spaceship are:
- a 59-year old Member of Parliament
- an 18-year old, unmarried pregnant woman who is a high-school dropout
- an African-American third-year veterinary student
- a 30-year old Minister
- a homemaker of 25 years
- a Mayor of a small town in Mexico
- Building Maintenance Engineer
- a 12-year old Australian Aborigine
- a 55-year old grocery store owner
- a 23-year old female school teacher
- a 45-year old male botanist who is confined to a wheelchair
- a 55-year old retired plumber
- President of a Corporation or Union
This material is one of a group exercise in a course I participated. The lives of these 13 people are in our hands. It was a very interesting group dynamic on how we arrived to the chosen ones and the reason behind our choices.
Your turn: who will be the lucky six people you will choose to survive and develop the Brave New World? Feel free to add in a brief explanation of your choice.
Photo Credit: Robert Macky
Photographs and Memories 
I chose six people that connects to one another. The Aborigine, the pregnant woman, the botanist, the veterinary student, the maintenance engineer and the homemaker.
We chose the same but the homemaker was voted down by my group. The homemaker would be a great help for the new born but oh well….
The homemaker is the most important in the group. Mom rules!
Precisely!
It might be a good idea to include one or two older people. They may have some wisdom to share. There’s no “fair” way to do this (not that life is fair), and there’s no way to tell from those brief descriptions which ones would do best with the new world, so I think I’d just put the names in a hat and pull out 6! Maybe if I did that, fate would have a hand in which ones get to go.
Maria, you have a fair game going there. Hat tricks. I wish I have thought of that during the seminar! I will take away 2 points from Plaridel and give you 10 plus 2 😛
i’d go for the six youngest folks. old people have already lived their lives. they can’t be expected to learn new tricks. besides, the future belongs to the young. always does and always will be.
good one, 10 points for that!
Mr. p. There were two people against you and you points just went down by six. Thanks for playing.
If we’ve already ruined one planet, I’m not sure we have the right to inflict ourselves on another one. Plus, to make a decision like that, one would need much more information. For example, what are the skills, experience and attitudes of each person. How would they work as a team? What is the purpose of the mission – is survival enough, survival of the species, domination of the new world, exploitation, peaceful co-existence? And so on… I’m not trying to be difficult, just being me. 😀
Sarah, this decision making is killing me. This is all we have to make a decision. Good questions though and I like your thoughts. 😛
I disagree with Plaridel about the old not being able to learn new tricks. That seems to be a very popular thought these days but it’s just not true. There are people well into old age doing amazing things and they have a lifetime of experience to draw on. I myself was over 40 when I went back to university to get a Masters in Medical Physics – I got a 1st. I am currently learning Japanese. I hate to be told I can’t learn just because of my age. I refuse to take that lying down! :b
Way to go for speaking out. Mr. P is starting to loose more points. I agree with you on that one. You just earned 10 points plus 4 that I am taking away from Plaridel. That gives you 14 points. Plaridel just lost a total of 6 points. Oh this is fun just like our discussion at the seminar. Thanks for playing, Sarah.
😀