Why is so much money ploughed into making other planets habitable, when we cannot even look after our own? Earth’s ecosystems are in crisis mode. Species are vanishing at rates that should make everyone afraid. Humanity dreams of terraforming Mars — enabling it to support human life — and building colonies on the moon, but until we prove that we can keep Earth alive, what chance do we have of constructing a habitable planet from scratch? We should be focusing money and scientific innovation on fixing what is broken at home first.
The IUCN reports that by 2050, nearly half of all species on Earth could be extinct. Coral reefs are bleaching, forests are collapsing and pollinator numbers are in freefall. It is cheaper, faster and more effective to save this planet than to engineer a new one — and doing so also teaches us the skills required to sustain life anywhere.
