The Earth Has A Price? You Better Believe it!
Who can possibly place a value on the Earth? And why would we even want to do such a thing? I guess the answer to the latter lies deep in the psyche of capitalism, so that’s an easy one. So how much does the Earth cost?
According to the astrophysicist who put together the variables to come up with such a number, the Earth is worth $5 quadrillion dollars. Further, according to these calculations, we are on by far the most expensive planet in the solar system.
This just made me think of inter-galactic real estate agents. Can you imagine the commission?
So, How Much Does The Earth Cost??
Ok, so we’ve determined that, by one calculation, the Earth has been valued at $5 quadrillion dollars.
Here’s how that looks numerically:
$5,000,000,000,000,000.00
That’s more zeroes than most of us will ever see together in our lives. And I guess the number better be pretty big… after all, they’re adding up everything on the Earth, as well as the land itself.
So how could they have possibly come up with this audacious number?
How Did They Determine The Price?
Greg Laughlin, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California is perhaps the first “planetary appraiser” in the universe.
Here’s where it becomes slightly less credible, however: Greg admits that his calculation is less-than-scientific. Womp-womp.
What Does That Include Anyways?
When you’re setting out to establish the value of a planet, you have to take a lot into consideration. How close are the neighbours? Is there a lot of traffic on the star-way? How’s the view? Any inter-planetary waste-removal plants close by? And what kind of kitchen appliances are included with the purchase?
JK.
The formula Greg Laughlin came up with accounts for variables like a planet’s size, mass, temperature, age, and geographical resources. Using these factors, he comes up with a price. The Earth is by far the most valuable of the known planets… and the runner up is Mars at a measly $16,000.
Something tells me there are aliens somewhere laughing really hard at these calculations. It would be so humanof us to grossly overestimate our planet and underestimate all the rest because we’re only looking at them through our own limited perspective.
Anyway, I digress.
The Ultimate Message? Appreciate What You Have (Especially The Priceless Things)!
Perhaps by putting a price on the Earth, it will help humans to embrace the real value of where we live. While the setting for our existence is obviously priceless, some minds just work like that: if there’s a price point attached to it they think differently.
Personally, I feel that we should do whatever we can to get people to take conservation and environmentalism more seriously. Even if it’s putting a price tag on our planet.
