From the article and Musk's mouth > Musk has said that he believes Mars could be a “back-up drive” for humanity in the event of catastrophic global warming, an

From the article and Musk's mouth > Musk has said that he believes Mars could be a “back-up drive” for humanity in the event of catastrophic global warming, an asteroid strike or a nuclear winter, and believes that the planet could be warmed by nuclear weapons. If a dinosaur killer fell on earth after nuclear Armageddon the ruins would be more habitable than Earth where we have massive resources to build a "back-up drive" People often fail to credit just how inhospitable Mars is or how difficult it is to actually make a fully self sustaining society that could sustain itself if Earth stopped sending resources. This doesn't mean we shouldn't strive it means we have to accept that if we don't succeed in more earthly endeavors we're going to fucking die. It is important that we don't overstate the utility of such "back-up" plans lest we undervalue the more immediate risks. > The ivory tower "scientists" are just not really scientists anymore. A scientist is someone who cares about proof. Outside of fiction lots of scientists are rather boring folks who spend decades on the minutia of their corner of their field. Both Musk a capitalist and the Astronomer are operating outside their fields however the former is a moron and the later is a realist. At least if you disagree on the public policy you and the astronomer could have a fact based discussion on the respective options.