this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2025
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[โ€“] [email protected] -4 points 1 week ago (9 children)

I've always argued against this and always make light of it by pointing out that we're doing a terrible job of maintaining the living environment, ecology and atmosphere of the planet we are inhabiting here now.

If we are going to take billions of dollars worth of effort to try to colonize space, we should first apply our knowledge, expertise, time, energy and money maintaining the only livable habitat we know of in our tiny corner of the galaxy. I say that because we are degrading the one we have. We argue that we have to figure out how to leave the planet because we are degrading our own environment. A more logical solution to the problem would be change to our behaviour and make our home planet much more sustainable and livable for all its inhabitants. If we don't, then we will just be transplanting our problems here to any new colony we start somewhere else at great expense.

Once we figure out how to make our living environment manageable, stable and balanced, then maybe we can start venturing out safely into the cosmos.

[โ€“] MumboJumbo 4 points 1 week ago

This argument assumes that space travel and colonization as well as developing sustainable livelihood on Earth are mutually exclusive, but it could be argued that they are symbiotic. Living in space pushes our abilities to be completely sustainable, from energy conservation to complete resources recycling. Not only does being in space require us to better utilize our resources, but it also allows for easier access to resources that are burried deep within our planet. On Earth, we cause great environmental disturbances to acquire rare earth metals while many asteroids have them at or very near the surface. There's also a developing industry of zero-g (micro G) manufacturing that is much more efficient for composite materials and medicines. There's also the Overview Effect on a majority of people that go into space that mentally changes their view on both the planet and humanity.

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