World Monuments Fund lists The Moon as “at risk”

ProCon debate: Should humans colonize space?

ProCon issue in the news: The World Monuments Fund (WMF) added the Moon to the World Monuments Watch list along with 24 other sites the organization deems endangered, including historic water systems in Bhuj, India, and the chapel of the Sorbonne in France. The 2025 list is the first that has included an off-Earth site.

WMF explains its inclusion of the Moon:

A recent resurgent interest in human activity on the Moon, including a burgeoning commercial space industry, welcomes an exciting new era of space exploration while posing novel risks to the integrity of historic landing sites [from previous lunar missions]. Exploitative visitation, souveniring, and looting by future missions and private lunar exploration could eventually compromise this truly unique cultural heritage, removing artifacts and forever erasing iconic prints and tracks from the Moon’s surface.

The WMF seeks to preserve more than 90 lunar sites, including Tranquility Base, the site of the July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 Moon landing, where Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon. Although being on the watch list does not confer any legal protection to the sites, the WMF notes that the list is “a proven tool for raising awareness about heritage places in need of protection and galvanizing action and support for their preservation.”

Discussion questions

1. Should humans colonize space? Why or why not?
2. Is the Moon an endangered place? Explain your answer.
3. What policies, if any, should be put in place to ensure the protection of extraterrestrial bodies such as the Moon? Explain your answer.

Sources

• Zachary Small, “World Monuments Fund Puts Moon on List of At-Risk Sites” (January 15, 2025), nytimes.com
• World Monuments Fund, “World Monuments Watch,” wmf.org (accessed April 17, 2025)
• World Monuments Fund, “The Moon,” wmf.org (accessed April 17, 2025)