BY SOFO ARCHON
Many people, including billionaires like Elon Musk, think that humanity should colonize Mars.
Why?
So that we can have a back-up planet in case Earth becomes uninhabitable.
But in my view, that’s a foolish thing to do. There are three main reasons for that.
The first is that colonizing Mars would require spending billions—if not trillions—of dollars, as well as a tremendous amount of human energy, both of which could instead be used to significantly improve conditions on Earth in order to avoid ecological collapse. For example, these resources could be used to conserve and restore forests, clean up the oceans, or design, implement, and promote environmentally sustainable economic systems.
Of course, the conditions we live in need improvement not because of Earth, but because humans are mindlessly destroying it. In fact, Earth provides us with ideal conditions to live in, unlike Mars, whose conditions are inhospitable to humans. If you didn’t know, Mars has only one third of Earth’s gravity, its atmosphere is more than 100 times thinner than Earth’s, and is exposed to surface radiation roughly 50 times greater than the average on Earth.
The second reason I find colonizing Mars dumb is that, without a change in our values, humans would destroy Mars just as they are destroying Earth. In other words, if we can’t deal with the problems of our own making here on Earth, how can we expect that we won’t create similar ones on Mars? And then what? Will we need another back-up planet if Mars becomes uninhabitable too?
The third reason I think colonizing Mars is a terrible idea is that it could cause immense harm to an already damaged Earth. Consider the enormous amount of resources that would be needed to build and power the technology required to colonize Mars, such as spacecraft, habitats, and advanced communication systems. Also think about the monstrous environmental impacts this could have on Earth, including habitat disruption, soil erosion, water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and space debris.
Again, Earth is the only planet we know of with ideal conditions for us to live in. Yet some people think colonizing Mars is wise, even though doing so could further damage the home we already have!
To me, that’s utterly stupid. So I’m wondering:
Instead of trying to flee from Earth, why not try to live in harmony with it?
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