Quote:
Originally Posted by heusdens
Yes, but then why space?
Neither do we at the moment inhabit the Antarctic or the large desserts, so we have a lot of places to expand into.
Not to mention the oceans.
To my knowledge they are easier and less expansive to expand into, and can even be made into profit i.e. self supportive.
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Ehm, the last sentence is intended to be instructive. "We're trashing the cradle, its time to get out."
We can't even cruise on the surface of the oceans without causing major headaches for sea life (literally, read up on the new US Navy sonar project). Despite my feelings that climate change is simply something life on Earth is going to have to learn to cope with or face extinction, there are plenty of direct signs that human civilization's footprint is causing massive damage to the planet. The more we expand here, the more life we destroy. Not worth the price on our collective conscience.
In space, our worst enemy is the environment itself. At the very least, the choices we make in the means by which we'll learn to cope with its challenges won't be killing anything but ourselves should we succeed or fail. Staying here on Earth and continuing to grow is causing geometrically greater collateral damage with every passing century. Even the most ardent anti-tree hugger can see this.