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We're not even self-sustaining on Earth.
by cafebabbe 8y ago
We're not even self-sustaining on Earth.
- worldsayshi 8y agoFair point. Perhaps forcing us to be on Mars can teach us something about sustainability here on earth. Here's hoping.
- Cthulhu_ 8y agoWe already have sustainability on Earth; it's just that it's expensive. There's no new science or knowledge required, just a lot more investment. But, profit margins.
- Balero 8y agoScience and knowledge can help make it cheaper, make those profit margins look better, and have it happen more.
- Aardwolf 8y agoWe also have significantly more people on Earth though. If anything, more planets makes us more self sustainable in the future.
- Cthulhu_ 8y agoNot likely; the population will grow, becoming interplanetary just means we'll have more places to grow. It won't move the problem, not unless there's more emigration than population growth, and you can already see how that works on earth.
- bayesian_horse 8y agoMost experts say the Human population will peak at some point. The project to put even a couple of people on the mars surface, let alone let a couple of hundred live there, is currently too demanding to even attempt. Only vague plans exist.
- alex_duf 8y agoThat's one of my arguments for space colonisation. In the process of colonising other bodies and planets we'll learn how to be more sustainable here. In other words we would use the promise of new resources and exciting new worlds to learn how to avoid destructing our own.
- slfnflctd 8y agoI'm with you on this one. Along the way on the amazing expansion into space, we'll rediscover the critical importance of maximizing efficiency in meeting our basic needs. It would serve us well to get everyone associating that level of efficiency with our greatest feats of technological progress. Also, what better way to get kids on board from a young age? "Susie, if you really want to be an astronaut, you must learn to manage your downstream recycling better!"
- EForEndeavour 8y agoI don't understand human psychology well enough to be sure, but I could see it easily going the other way for some people. "We've got a self-sustaining colony on Mars! Finally, we can stop obsessing over such petty terrestrial details like CO2 and plastic waste that we once thought were so important to our species."
- TeMPOraL 8y agoI can easily see it going both ways at the same time. Space colonization will be a strong forcing function for developing high-efficiency technology. Hell, it'll force us to comprehend the energy budgets to much deeper levels. I could see this resulting in a lot of new products and new ways of doing things. At the same time, if on the social/cultural level, people start to feel that Earth is just but one place available to people, I can imagine them naturally care less.
- bayesian_horse 8y agoSolving just about any of our sustainability problems on earth will be easier and less work than establishing a self-sustaining colony any place else.