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From: sokay@cyclone.mitre.org (S. J. Okay)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Why bother? (was Re: Terraforming, sun shield)
Message-ID: <1991Mar8.185043.21138@linus.mitre.org>
Date: 8 Mar 91 18:50:43 GMT
References: <1991Feb22.164032.16901@zoo.toronto.edu> <1991Feb22.192438.26397@athena.mit.edu> <6956@harrier.ukc.ac.uk>
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In article <6956@harrier.ukc.ac.uk> sss3@ukc.ac.uk (S.S.Sturrock) writes:
>Nice idea this terraforming, why can't we make lots of new worlds for people
>to live on, then we don't have to worry about contraception, or the population
>problem, excellent plan guys.  We make a mega mess of this world, get all
>green and caring but still we don't consider the one all important green issue,
>our propensity to overpopulate.  OK, so it's a tangential argument but what the
>hell, I'm a tangential sort of chap :-)

As I've pointed out to several others on this newsgroup, the one thing most
people fail to consider is time.  We will either have solved or hopelessly
failed to solve our problems in this area by the time we have gotten deep 
enough into space to actually have to worry about this. If we can keep
the planet livable to all life that currently inhabits it, then we will
obviously have found the solution, and will know well enough to carry our
wisdom with us as we expand in a controlled fashion through space.

If not, then it will most likely be due to the fact that we have screwed our
current world up so much, that we can only concern ourselves with eeking out 
what meager existance we can scrape from the remains of our planet. In this
case, we won't even have to worry about whether or not we deserve to expand,
we'll be too busy choking to death in our own decay.

One way or another, we'll have the answer by the time we actually have to 
worry about it.

---Steve


>Toodle pip.
>
>Shane Sturrock, Biol Lab.  Canterbury, Kent, Great Britain.