When I was a kid I really wanted to be an astronaut and in those days, according to my dad (no internet to check in those days), I should first join the Air Force. My mother, who had decided before my birth that I would be a doctor, told me I was too tall to be in the Air Force. Again, no internet, so I took her word for it.
The point is that I really think the idea of colonizing the moon or Mars is an awesome idea. There's no arguing that our space program has brought a spectacular number of new inventions and other benefits to our race. And I loved the Red Earth - Blue Earth- Green Earth Kim Stanley Robinson trilogy, are you kidding me? Awesome.
But all I hear about on the news is about how current climate change will turn the planet into a fiery lava storm in the next 50 years (okay, I've only read the destruction of planet Earth scenario in a few particularly bonkers websites; at worst it would be an extinction event, one that would likely be survived only by cockroaches and Wonder Bread). So why is the message: "We need to colonize Mars because Earth will be uninhabitable soon" instead of, "Hey guys, let's fix Earth!"
Shower thought: Let's use the Mars money to cool the earth, THEN go to Mars later.
I realize most efforts are rightly spent now on prevention of man-made climate change (although according to Hank Green even if we all drop dead today the planet is still going to warm up according to ocean bottom sampling), why not work on a solution too? I've seen a few space-related ideas about cooling the planet like putting up webs in orbit to block some sun or encouraging plant growth to suck up carbon dioxide.
The main complaint about curative methods is they are expensive. But isn't terraforming Mars going to be expensive?
Maybe it's all because I am a mom: "Sorry, kid, but you can't go have fun on Mars until you've cleaned up your room."
PS: Here's an interesting graph (link) I found about the cyclic change of planetary temperature according to ice core samples. So if modern human Adam and Eve were born around 150-200,000 years ago, and the oldest hand cave paintings were 40,000 years ago, YAY HUMANS for surviving the super low temperatures. Go Team Caveman!
Pronounced: (yarn-ih-cheer-oolg).
(Translation: speed limit)
Exercise: Use "fartsgrensen" in a sentence:
Example: Fartsgrensen er tretti miles per time.
(The speed limit is thirty miles per hour)