Will we ever leave Earth?

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According to the Wikipedia page the PLA has 2,285,000 active service personnel 800,000 reservists and 1.1 to 1.5 million PAP (militarised police) so that they have a total strength of 4.185 to 4.585 million immediately, or near to immediately, available. If they really went for it then you can just think of any number up to about 500 million. Clearly they won't do that, except under really dire circumstances, because of the command and control, supply, and logistics headaches they'd make for themselves, never mind that it would be economic suicide. According to the article China has been increasing her military spending by 10% annually for the last 15 years:

Military spending in the People's Liberation Army has grown about 10 percent annually over the last 15 years. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI, estimated China's military expenditure for 2013 to $188.5 billion US. China's military budget for 2014 according to IHS Jane's, a defense industry consulting and analysis company, will be $148 billion US, which is the second largest in the world. The United States military budget for 2014 in comparison, is $574.9 billion US., which is down from a high of $664.3 billion US in 2012.
Copy & pasted from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Liberation_Army#Military_budget

The absolute military budget doesn't tell the whole story though. What really counts is that they've been increasing their blue water naval capability, which is the basic requirement for projecting force. So, while I agree that the Western media likes to exaggerate the military threat posed by Russia, China, Iran, and whichever other non-NATO/ANZUS country that's showing signs of independence, I think that it is the case that countries in the region will be looking at China's growing miliary strength with some discomfort.

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Any measurement that is *not* per capita just show how many inhabitants there are in the country in question, nothing more.

If we look at obesity it is easily shown that the inhabitants of USA consumes more food per capita than any other country in the world.

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Sorry I missed your healthy criticism. 😞

The political propaganda within USA is seldom meant to reach abroad, it's for their own consumption only.

Originally posted by divegeester
There is some discussion in the media about this at the moment and I know there has been scientific speculation for many years. Will we survive our own 'apocalyptic' course to manage to get it together sufficiently to truly leave the earth for another world?

I wonder if any civilisation would make it, or is just us who look like we are in self-destr ...[text shortened]...
Thoughts.

Edit: I didn't want of post this in debates or spirituality, for obvious reasons.

No for a variety of reasons.

I remember an experiment where a group of scientists created a self contained biosphere where they survived completly cut off from the earth. After a year or so, something odd began to happen. Plants began to die and the whole thing just fell apart. They still don't know why.

It is my guess that the earth itself has some sort of life generating power all it's own. Every known world out there is a dead one, and I don't see changing them.

Secondly, the only reason mankind went to the moon was for petty political reasons. Mankind is too involved in killing and fighting his own species. Now if all their energy was converted to interplanatary space travel, they would have a much better chance, but it's just not the nature of mankind.

Originally posted by whodey
It is my guess that the earth itself has some sort of life generating power all it's own. Every known world out there is a dead one, and I don't see changing them.

The woo is strong with this one...

How do you know every known world is lifeless?

There are dozens if not hundreds of worlds we know of where we have no
idea if they host life or not.

For that matter we still have not confirmed that the Earth is the only life
supporting body in our Solar System.

Mars may have had life, Europa may well have life, and we might yet find life
elsewhere in The Solar System.

Plus, proposing that the Earth has some sort of life generating power as an
explanation for why plants started dying in an experiment ON THE EARTH
doesn't really make sense. Unless you think this mystical power cannot
penetrate green houses... but then... Yeah, send this one back to the
drawing board. 🙄

Originally posted by whodey
No for a variety of reasons.

I remember an experiment where a group of scientists created a self contained biosphere where they survived completly cut off from the earth. After a year or so, something odd began to happen. Plants began to die and the whole thing just fell apart. They still don't know why.

It is my guess that the earth itself has some ...[text shortened]... ary space travel, they would have a much better chance, but it's just not the nature of mankind.

And here I was thinking, all this time, that you couldn't possibly get any more bizarro.

Originally posted by googlefudge

How do you know every known world is lifeless?

Well, you see, there are the unknowns we know about, and then the unknowns we don't know about.

Originally posted by whodey
I remember an experiment where a group of scientists created a self contained biosphere where they survived completly cut off from the earth. After a year or so, something odd began to happen. Plants began to die and the whole thing just fell apart. They still don't know why.

More likely, you still don't know why because your news sources only report mysteries, war and conspiracies and not scientific findings.
And even more likely, the original story you heard was outright wrong. Or you are simply lying as usual.

Originally posted by googlefudge
The woo is strong with this one...

How do you know every known world is lifeless?

There are dozens if not hundreds of worlds we know of where we have no
idea if they host life or not.

For that matter we still have not confirmed that the Earth is the only life
supporting body in our Solar System.

Mars may have had life, Europa may well hav ...[text shortened]... nnot
penetrate green houses... but then... Yeah, send this one back to the
drawing board. 🙄

I have a hunch that life is far more rare than scientists think. It's just a hunch. Until we find otherwise, to scoff at me seems......well......very anti-science.

I might be willing to take back this assertion but I am not willing to take back the assertion regarding human nature. Mankind is far too busy fighting with himself in a mirror than to be concerned with anything else in the universe.