>To me it feels deeply wrong to use Mars as some sort of testing ground when it is currently pristine. Huh? It's essentially dead and not from the 'big bad hum

>To me it feels deeply wrong to use Mars as some sort of testing ground when it is currently pristine. Huh? It's essentially dead and not from the 'big bad human'. I don't consider a lifeless sand planet pristine and apparently neither do you since you've concluded Earth would be ruined if it got to the point of needing terraforming. Things will continue dying and suffering regardless of whether we involve ourselves in them. Your misanthropic argument just seems strange to me and you falsely appear to believe that everything will be fine/better without us. I would conclude the opposite and prefer improvement over just giving up.