Science!

tenordas said

That's fair, and we certainly should be making efforts at solving earth's pollution problems. However, we also have to acknowledge the very real future that humanity is going to become too numerous for planet earth.

We're going to need places to colonize. Mars is the most viable option currently, so the question of terraforming has to be addressed since currently it couldn't sustain life. The other nearest option is Venus, but we'll need to figure out actually how to correct global warming, and on a much larger scale along with being able to remove green house gasses to be able to make Venus viable.

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Overpopulation is a largely a myth. There's plenty of room and resources for the current population and future populations for the foreseeable future. The problem with "overpopulation" isn't the population itself but with how to use the land and resources we have available. And the problem with that is mostly who controls that land and those resources, i.e. the very powerful and wealthy. The terraforming of Mars at this point really just looks like it would only be accessable to those people. It's also worth noting that the problems facing the viability of life on Earth are also far and away caused by these people.

Really how I see the prospect of terraforming Mars or other planets is basically like an Elsyium type of scenario. The rich and powerful allowing the Earth to be degraded to the point of no return and hightailing it out of here. That's the big reason why even considering doing something this far out of our reach technologically at this point, foresaking plenty of better uses for our research and technological capabilities, is a fool's endeavor.