NASA: Greenhouse Emissions Could Elicit an Alien Attack

Humans should reduce impact on global ecosystems and limit emissions of greenhouse gases to avoid contact with aliens, says a recent report by NASA and Pennsylvania State University.

The report titled "Would Contact with Extraterrestrials Benefit or Harm Humanity? A Scenario Analysis" lays down the various possibilities that humans may detect, communicate or contact aliens in the future.

The analysis organized ETI contact scenarios broadly into three different sectors; beneficial, neutral or harmful.

Although the possibilities fall along a spectrum along these lines, these three sectors represent a useful categorization scheme. While the beneficial contact would be desirable for humanity neutral contact would cause indifference for humanity and harmful contact would be undesirable.

The study mentions a large number of scenarios which fall within the harmful-to-humanity category. However, broadly categorized under two sections, the first scenario involves hostile, selfish ETI attack to maximize their own success. This scenario suggests a standard fight-to-win conflict. The second scenario involves ETI that are in no way selfish but instead follow some sort of Universalist ethical framework.