Terraforming Mars

[kenfrequed]

24. These are fairly reasonable arguments

I would point out though that solar power would not have been as advanced had it not been for space exploration. Nor would LED lights exist. Pollution reclamation would also have been set back significantly.

The attempt at colonization and terraforming would teach us so much that it might be worth the effort.

Besides I don't think that we would be wasting that much more than we currently waste on Defense, Bank usury, advertising, mindless entertainment, propping up pollution based industries. etc.

I think that due to the existence of these actually wasteful and terrible influences we are provided with a magnified false choice fallacy. Honestly, not making the attempt is not going to garauntee our survival or prevent those forces that are destroying our planets life sustaining capacity.

Making the attempt prompts scientific inquiry and forces us to consider the world as an entire planet. It at least acknowldeges that "yes, we can alter the conditions of the planet" and goes much further than that.