Congress hears options for asteroid defense: Pay now or pray later

[DRoseDARs]

8. You don't realize how hostile the universe is towards life, do you? We're not safe...

...no matter how many trees we hug. Remaining here is the single most stupid thing we could do, and there are a lot of stupid and avoidable ways to die as a species. And due to solar evolution, our current understanding is such that the Earth's biosphere most certainly does NOT have 6 billion years (aside, I think you mean 5 billion - we're roughly halfway through Sol's lifespan). It has maybe another 100 million years before the amount of incoming solar radiation is too much to effectively handle by higher-order lifeforms. Without significant technological intervention well-beyond our currents means, the deep future on Earth belongs to bacteria and fungi.

Hence the need to start taking these first steps towards spreading our civilization off-world.