BY SOFO ARCHON
This is the transcript of a video published here.
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 one is that to colonize Mars would require spending billions – if not trillions – of dollars, as well as a tremendous amount of human energy, both of which could be used to significantly improve the conditions on Earth in order to avoid ecological collapse. For example, they could be used to conserve and restore forests, to clean up the oceans, or to design, implement and promote environmentally-sustainable economic systems.
Of course, the conditions that we live in need improvement not because of Earth, but because humans are mindlessly destroying it. In fact, Earth provides us with the ideal conditions to live in, contrary to the conditions of Mars which are inhospitable to humans. If you didn’t know, Mars has only one third of Earth’s gravity, its atmosphere is over 100 times thinner than Earth’s, and is exposed to surface radiation roughly 50 times greater than the average on Earth.
Now, the second reason why I find colonizing Mars dumb, is that, without a change in their values, humans will be destroying Mars just as they’re 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 in case Mars becomes uninhabitable too?
The third reason why I think colonizing Mars is a terrible idea, is that it would cause immense harm to the already-damaged Earth. For example, consider the incredible amount of resources that would be needed to build and power the technology required to colonize Mars, such as spacecrafts, habitats and advanced communication systems. Also think about the monstrous environmental impacts that would have on Earth, including habitat disruption, soil erosion, water pollution, greenhouse emissions and space debris.
Again, Earth is the only planet we know of with the ideal conditions for us to live in. Yet some people think that colonizing Mars is a wise thing, when doing so is further destroying the home they 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?