Yes, and no. We're still very far from achieving anything close to space colonies not dependent on earth, so no, we can't afford to no longer care about the ear

Yes, and no. We're still very far from achieving anything close to space colonies not dependent on earth, so no, we can't afford to no longer care about the earth. Climate change, biodiversity loss, topsoil loss, and whatever are serious environmental issues that require solving on a relatively short scale compared to colonizing other planets. But it doesn't have to mean we put a full stop on all space activity. But rather that we research what the effects are, and take measures to reduce those effects to the extent they can be done at reasonable cost. Say, if alumina and chlorine compounds from solid rocket boosters are bad, maybe we should use liquid fueled rockets. If soot from RP-1 is a problem, maybe think about switching to, say, methane.