Then again, investment to mitigate these kinds of risk could lead to profitable advancements even if the original cause does not happen. It's a matter of priori

Then again, investment to mitigate these kinds of risk could lead to profitable advancements even if the original cause does not happen. It's a matter of priorities. After all, there were many important and also generally useful advancement due to space program. In my educated opinion, we should focus on climate change first, especially securing cheap food, water and electricity for everyone. Additionally, prepare for the catastrophe that would be 5 C warming since it is likely in our lifetime. The same approaches to survive this lesser ecological problem may prove useful for space travel or terraforming. I don't particularly care under which budget this research is done as long as it commences.