Interesting article on Yahoo about possibly finding an Earth like planet by 2014.
New Earth Possible
This got me thinking about how we as people (Citizens of EARTH) would treat this new planet
Warp over the orange fold
Most like this planet would not have an intelligent spieces like humans on it (most likely would be just some lower animal/plant lifeforms). How would we go about treating this planet.
It may seem a long ways in the future, but I think some decisions should be written in stone NOW!
As there would be no pre-existing industry, I believe that a new planet that could sustain life should be protected by high enviromental standards so as to preserve it.
There would be no economy to ruin, there would be no lives affected by this stance before the first people land there.
It would be my fear that the mega-corporations of the world would just see this as a new opportunity to plunder, my hope would be for this new world to sustain life on a more simpler level. An agrocultural live in harmonry with nature philosophy. I believe a suffcient number of people would gladly jump at the opportunity to live this type of existance which would be a true safe haven for human race. (Let's face it humanity is pretty screwed the fuck up here and will most likely obliterate ourselves in glorious stupidity)
When an earthlike planet is found, I hope sensible people will get a UN resolution to protect this new planet before the mega multinational corporations get a chance to push their rape and pillage agenda