6 ms·

If we expect humans can live on Mars and the Moon, I'd expect we could continue to live on Earth and besides, mammals have existed on Earth for over 100 million

If we expect humans can live on Mars and the Moon, I'd expect we could continue to live on Earth and besides, mammals have existed on Earth for over 100 million years, surviving even the extinction event the destroyed dinosaur species. I'm not saying I'm not worried or things would be ideal, I'm just doing some back of the envelope checking.

tiku 3y ago
But the hardships on Mars and the Moon are a lot less violent and different than what we see on earth already. I wonder if our future is under the sea or in more bunker like structures. It probably won't have to be very deep.
- georgeecollins 3y ago
  That is saying unable to support human life is better than sometimes dangerous. It would be easier to live in Antarctica or under the Ocean than Mars. The point is 8b people live on earth! You can't build that many biosomes.
- barbazoo 3y ago
  I’d recommend looking up temperatures (min and max), day/night periods, atmosphere etc on the planets you’re considering here. Doesn’t sound appealing to me but that’s just me, I have this thing where I enjoy living in between -15C and +35C with a pretty particular ratio of oxygen in the air and days and nights so I don’t go crazy. But again, that might just be me. Edit: I forgot about radiation, silly me. I also enjoy having that blocked by earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field, again, some people might actually enjoy that and find that to be a business opportunity or whatever.
proto-n 3y ago
Well, I doubt anyone expects 8 billion people to be able to live on mars in the coming years
- labrador 3y ago
  Having all 8 billion survive was not part of my calculation.
ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
Stating that some mammals and maybe some humans will survive the mass extinction is not encouraging to my mind.
wwweston 3y ago
We can't expect humans to live on Mars & the moon yet. At least I've never seen anything that leads me to believe humans can sustain themselves there without heavy ongoing (and expensive) support from earth. Antarctica is an outright friendly environment by comparison, & there is no self-sustaining human colony there. You might be correct that we won't change the climate on earth so much we couldn't adapt somehow, there's some reason to believe that. But attainable extraterrestrial colonization isn't one of them and probably won't be in our lifetimes. Also, it's far from guaranteed that we won't change the climate on earth so much it disrupts processes we rely on and possibly decimates the current population from production/supply issues.
- labrador 3y ago
  My point is it's generally assumed that it's possible that humans can live on Mars and the Moon. My assumption is that surviving on an overly heated Earth is orders of magnitude easier, not that moving to Mars is the answer.
- allemagne 3y ago
  Are there any places on earth that can sustain themselves without heavy ongoing support from other places on earth, to varying degrees of dependency? There are continually-occupied bases in Antarctica (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen%E2%80%93Scott_South_Pole_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen%E2%80%93Scott_South_P...) but they don't perform any function besides scientific inquiry. NASA has sent people to the moon and back multiple times with 1960s technology, multiple independent entities have sent cargo to the moon, and there have been people living in orbit on the ISS for a while now. We even have oil rigs out in the middle of the ocean. Nobody lives in any of these places permanently but as far as I know there's no technical reason they can't. It sure seems like if humans set their mind to it there could absolutely be bases or even cities on the moon (I don't know about Mars) with roughly current technology. The reason it isn't happening is that there is no real incentive compared to the costs required. That's why in lots of science fiction the moon has fuel for fusion or something. We know that we probably can colonize the moon, but it's an easy shorthand to explain why we'd bother.
  - 3y ago
lijok 3y ago
Humans will absolutely survive even the most extreme levels of climate change. Netflix, Starbucks and on-demnad hot water might not though
- labrador 3y ago
  My point exactly. Our current civilization isn't sustainable anyway, with or without climate change.

tiku 3y ago

But the hardships on Mars and the Moon are a lot less violent and different than what we see on earth already. I wonder if our future is under the sea or in more bunker like structures. It probably won't have to be very deep.

georgeecollins 3y ago
That is saying unable to support human life is better than sometimes dangerous. It would be easier to live in Antarctica or under the Ocean than Mars. The point is 8b people live on earth! You can't build that many biosomes.
barbazoo 3y ago
I’d recommend looking up temperatures (min and max), day/night periods, atmosphere etc on the planets you’re considering here. Doesn’t sound appealing to me but that’s just me, I have this thing where I enjoy living in between -15C and +35C with a pretty particular ratio of oxygen in the air and days and nights so I don’t go crazy. But again, that might just be me. Edit: I forgot about radiation, silly me. I also enjoy having that blocked by earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field, again, some people might actually enjoy that and find that to be a business opportunity or whatever.

proto-n 3y ago

Well, I doubt anyone expects 8 billion people to be able to live on mars in the coming years

labrador 3y ago
Having all 8 billion survive was not part of my calculation.

ndsipa_pomu 3y ago

Stating that some mammals and maybe some humans will survive the mass extinction is not encouraging to my mind.

wwweston 3y ago

We can't expect humans to live on Mars & the moon yet. At least I've never seen anything that leads me to believe humans can sustain themselves there without heavy ongoing (and expensive) support from earth. Antarctica is an outright friendly environment by comparison, & there is no self-sustaining human colony there. You might be correct that we won't change the climate on earth so much we couldn't adapt somehow, there's some reason to believe that. But attainable extraterrestrial colonization isn't one of them and probably won't be in our lifetimes. Also, it's far from guaranteed that we won't change the climate on earth so much it disrupts processes we rely on and possibly decimates the current population from production/supply issues.

labrador 3y ago
My point is it's generally assumed that it's possible that humans can live on Mars and the Moon. My assumption is that surviving on an overly heated Earth is orders of magnitude easier, not that moving to Mars is the answer.
allemagne 3y ago
Are there any places on earth that can sustain themselves without heavy ongoing support from other places on earth, to varying degrees of dependency? There are continually-occupied bases in Antarctica (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen%E2%80%93Scott_South_Pole_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen%E2%80%93Scott_South_P...) but they don't perform any function besides scientific inquiry. NASA has sent people to the moon and back multiple times with 1960s technology, multiple independent entities have sent cargo to the moon, and there have been people living in orbit on the ISS for a while now. We even have oil rigs out in the middle of the ocean. Nobody lives in any of these places permanently but as far as I know there's no technical reason they can't. It sure seems like if humans set their mind to it there could absolutely be bases or even cities on the moon (I don't know about Mars) with roughly current technology. The reason it isn't happening is that there is no real incentive compared to the costs required. That's why in lots of science fiction the moon has fuel for fusion or something. We know that we probably can colonize the moon, but it's an easy shorthand to explain why we'd bother.
- 3y ago

lijok 3y ago

Humans will absolutely survive even the most extreme levels of climate change. Netflix, Starbucks and on-demnad hot water might not though

labrador 3y ago
My point exactly. Our current civilization isn't sustainable anyway, with or without climate change.