IMO we do ourselves a disservice by thinking of space colonization as a "back-up". A better way of thinking about it would be that a civilization that can build

IMO we do ourselves a disservice by thinking of space colonization as a "back-up". A better way of thinking about it would be that a civilization that can build these habitats, or terraform another planet, also has the technology and resources to fix environmental issues back home. These are of course not short-term goals - I'd consider a 500-year timeline for habitats like the ones pictured above optimistic. But I'd much rather we start now rather than wringing our hands over shorter-term issues like how we think of climate change now.