If you had to either give up your current way of life to stay on Earth, or leave Earth for another planet, which would you choose? With new technology and increasing global warming, traveling to another planet has become a more realistic and appealing option. Some groups advocate that becoming interplanetary organisms is a serious way to combat climate change (Shaw 2022), while others believe we must focus our resources on fixing problems on Earth (Tabas 2020). There appear to be two options: focus on slowing climate change and making our way of life on Earth sustainable, or dedicate Earth’s limited resources to getting humans established on another planet.
Brad Tabas (2020) coined the term “post-planetary culture” to describe the belief that humanity is destined to live on planets beyond Earth. People who share this ideology prioritize research and technology necessary to escape Earth over climate action. Many billionaires, such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, agree with this culture, and have formed private space companies with the goal of multiplanetary existence. Critics such as Tabas (2020) and Shaw (2022) have suggested that these billionaires benefit from letting climate change continue. Halting climate change would require decreasing the number of goods that are produced and sold, shrinking profits. Focusing on the potential to acquire resources from other planets allows for the current rate of consumption to continue (Shaw 2022).
In the long term, expanding to other planets is not an inherently bad idea, as Earth could be damaged by events unrelated to climate change, such as asteroid strikes or a nearby supernovae (Buchanan 2017). However, there remain many unsolved challenges for simply getting humans established on Mars, one of our closest planetary neighbors. Scientists would need to somehow increase the average temperature on Mars to melt the ice in the soil, creating liquid oceans and helping plant growth (Buchanan 2017). Mermel (2024) discusses a wide variety of human health concerns, including immune system dysfunction and radiation exposure. Leaving Earth for another planet serves as a ‘get out of jail free’ card when it comes to climate change, but due to both the technical challenges and the element of human risk, this should not be our first approach for ensuring humanity’s well-being in our changing climate.
Even if we could leave Earth for another planet today, the majority of Americans are not interested. Only 42% of survey respondents wanted to orbit the Earth as a space tourist (Funk and Strauss 2018). When asked to rank NASA priorities, the three topics related to humans leaving Earth were considered the least important (see Figure 1).
So if humanity wants to stay on Earth, what is necessary to stop climate change? The global average temperature increase is projected to reach 2.5 °C to 3.5 °C by 2100 (Koomey and Monroe 2022, 38-9). Actions which reduce greenhouse gas emissions need to be implemented immediately, such as closing fossil fuel plants and rapidly expanding renewable energy sources (Koomey and Monroe 2022, 46). At least in the short term, this will make life less convenient. Picture shortages of electricity, walking or biking everywhere, and recreational air travel grinding to a halt. If we want to remain on Earth, immediate climate action is necessary, but some of these actions will negatively impact our quality of life, and dramatically change our current consumerist economy (Koomey and Monroe 2022, 45). Perhaps the question from the beginning is better phrased like this: Are you willing to make the sacrifices necessary to save our planet, or will you abandon Earth in search of a new home?
References:
Buchanan, Mark. 2017. “Colonizing Mars.” Nature Physics (London) 13, no. 11 (2017): 1035–1035. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys4311.
Funk, Cary, and Mark Strauss. 2018. “Majority of Americans Believe It Is Essential That the U.S. Remain a Global Leader in Space.” Pew Research Center. June 6, 2018. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/06/06/majority-of-americans-believe-it-is-essential-that-the-u-s-remain-a-global-leader-in-space/.
Koomey, Jon, Ian Monroe. 2022. Solving Climate Change : A Guide for Learners and Leaders. First edition. Institute of Physics Publishing, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1088/978-0-7503-4032-8.
Mermel, Leonard. 2024. “Human Evolution, Microgravity, and Challenges Colonizing Mars.” Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance (United States) 95, no. 9 (2024): 720–21. https://doi.org/10.3357/AMHP.6475.2024.
Shaw, Debra Benita. 2022. “The Way Home: Space Migration And Disorientation.” New Formations (London) 107, no. 107 (2022): 118–38. https://doi.org/10.3898/NewF:107-8.07.2022.
Tabas, Brad. 2020. “Hatred of the Earth, Climate Change, and the Dreams of Post-Planetary Culture.” Ecozon@ 11, no. 1 (2020): 63–79. https://doi.org/10.37536/ECOZONA.2020.11.1.3188.
Comments
12 Responses to “Is Earth Worth Saving?”
I am personally really passionate about climate change and how people’s opinions on climate change are influenced by media. I decided to relate that topic to exploring other planets, which is something we will be discussing in our first RP. As we have been talking about different perspectives on science in Life Sci, I found it interesting to explore some of the different opinions people have about both climate change and space travel in this article.
Hi Laura!
This was a really interesting blog and is particularly interesting to me as a third-year since we are currently examining possible climate change solutions! A couple of suggestions that I have for you are the following:
– Make sure to center your figure and figure caption!
– I think it’s super interesting that you mentioned how our capitalist society contributes to global warming, and I think you should expand (if word count allows) on some of the environmental mechanisms that contribute to climate change to give more depth to your post.
– Make sure all your in-text citations are at the end of your sentences, as some of them are placed in the middle of sentences.
Overall, super cool post; I look forward to reading the final edits!
-Audrey
Thanks so much for your feedback! I have centered the figure, but I chose to expand on more of the potential solutions to climate change rather than on what is causing climate change, as I personally find that more interesting, and I want to focus on possibilities for the future in this post. I did change the position of some in-text citations, so thank you for the reminder, but I am keeping a few in the middle of sentences to show how the information in the first clause is drawn from one source and the details in the second part of the sentence are drawn from another source.
Hi Laura!
I really liked your blog post, the discussion of different beliefs and biases was really interesting. I had a few suggestions:
– The first sentence is a bit long, it would be better at grabbing the reader’s attention if you shortened it.
– I agree with what Audrey commented above, would you be able to add some more details about the science? Maybe talking about different conditions on planets, how we might be able to fix the climate instead of looking at space, or what a sustainable future could look like. Or if you want to continue the perspectives route, you could talk a bit about human tendencies to want to avoid fixing solutions and instead escape.
– Let me know if you want help shortening anything, I’d be happy to help you cut things down!
Looking forward to reading your final post!
Alice
Hi Laura,
I enjoyed reading your blog post, especially how you connected different perspective to space exploration
Some suggests include:
– Revising and condensing some of the sentences particularly within the second paragraph. Some of the sentences are on the longer side and can be condense to make the text flow better. For example when you wrote. “As technology has progressed and made traveling to other worlds a slightly less distant possibility, some groups are now advocating that moving to another planet should be considered as a serious option for humanity’s long term survival, especially when considering how to best tackle the global challenge of climate change (Tabas 2020)”, you could remove some unnecessary words like, “slightly” and “now”. In addition, I would suggest splitting this up into to separate sentences to make it more concise for the reader to understand.
– I am unsure what you mean when you said “hard science fiction novels” within your first paragraph and “private billionaires” within the second paragraph. I suggest explaining what this means within your paragraphs.
– I also agree with Audrey and Alice, you could enhance this post by taking more of a scientific approach. This could be done by explaining why humans may need to vacate earth and giving some examples to explain how the process of moving to another planet will be difficult.
Overall this was a very interesting read.
– Ava
Hi Laura!
I thought this was a super interesting blog post to read, and I really liked how you connected climate change with current discussion in the world. I have a few suggestions that I hope will help during your editing process:
– Your second paragraph is slightly larger than the other paragraphs, so I would split this one into 2 or 3 sections. I would suggest creating a break before the sentence “Critics such as Tabas (2020) and Shaw (2022) have even suggested that it is in these billionaires’ best interests for them to focus on leaving Earth and allow climate change to continue.”
– I found the sentence “As technology has progressed and made traveling to other worlds a slightly less distant possibility, some groups are now advocating that moving to another planet should be considered as a serious option for humanity’s long term survival, especially when considering how to best tackle the global challenge of climate change” a little hard to follow, so I would consider removing “a slightly less” so it flows better
– I think you could enhance your blog by adding a section describing how science/technology has developed to allow us to now view other planets as a potential solutions for the climate crisis with more specific examples
Best of luck with the editing process!
– Aveline
Hello Laura,
This was a very interesting read! I was hooked the moment I read the title. I just have a few comments to consider when editing your blog post:
1. I suggest changing “Critics such as Tabas (2020) and Shaw (2022) have even suggested that it is in these billionaires’ best interests for them to focus on leaving Earth and allow climate change to continue. The drastic climate action necessary to stop global warming would require people to buy fewer new items, ultimately resulting in these billionaires making less money (Shaw 2022). By expanding to other planets, the current capitalist economy that relies on rapid consumption of resources could continue, depleting reserves of materials on other planetary bodies once the ones on Earth were gone (Shaw 2022).” to: “Critics such as Tabas (2020) and Shaw (2022) have suggested that it is in the best interest of billionaires to focus on leaving Earth and allowing climate change to continue. Halting climate change entails a reduction in the amount of goods produced and sold, shrinking profits. Focusing on the potential to move to other celestial bodies allows for consumption to continue at its current rate.”
2. I would suggest changing the paragraph: “Although prominent businessmen may be enthusiastic to leave Earth behind, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center (Funk and Strauss 2018), the majority of Americans are less convinced, with only 42% of respondents saying they would want to orbit the Earth as a space tourist, let alone leave the Earth for another planet.” to: “Although businessmen may be enthusiastic to leave Earth behind, the majority of Americans are less convinced. Only 42% of respondents would want to orbit Earth as a space tourist or leave the Earth for another planet (Funk and Strauss 2018).”
3. I would suggest removing some adjectives and adverbs to shorten the length of your post, as well as some phrasing. This can help you fit in more information. For example, you could remove “Like Steven Hawking” in P2S2, “have gone so far to form” -> “have formed” in P2S4, and remove “now” in P1S2.
Overall, this was a very well-done and creative blog post! I found it to be quite an interesting read.
Happy editing,
Griffin Suk 🙂
Hi Laura,
This is an interesting topic. I like the hook you used in your first sentence. I just have a couple of suggestions for you.
1. This sentence: “Although less of a ‘solution’ and more of an ‘in-emergency break-glass’ escape option, there has nevertheless been a surprising amount of discussion on whether the future of humanity lies in the stars, both in the technical talk of researchers and space companies, and in the more public view of popular media.” I don’t think you need to add the ‘’ surrounding ‘solution’ and ‘in emergency break glass’.
2. For your figure, don’t forget to center it, and don’t forget to cite it.
3. In this sentence, “In summary, new space-based technologies open up a potential “Get out of Jail Free Card” for dealing with climate change, helping ensure the long-term survival of the human species, but building the infrastructure necessary to move humanity to another planet would be an enormous undertaking that is impossible in the immediate future.” I would cite it, and for the “Get out of Jail Free Card,” I don’t think it needs to be capitalized unless you are quoting something. If that is the case, I would definitely cite the sentence.
Overall, great job!
– Abbie
Great job with your blog draft Laura, I think that you chose a highly engaging topic. I just have a couple of suggestions, that you can use to potentially improve your final draft.
– I would recommend changing your title slightly and putting “The Earth” as well as capitalizing the rest of the words
– My second suggestion would be to take out “living” in P1S1 for better readability
– My last suggestion would be to make sure your Figure caption is italicized and making your References a header.
Nonetheless, you did a great job! Can’t wait to see your final copy!
Sayana 🙂
Thanks for all your suggestions! I’ve made edits based on your comments, but I am going to keep the title as “Is Earth Worth Saving?” instead of “Is the Earth Worth Saving?” because I believe that it makes the Earth feel more like a living thing and less like an object, increasing the emotional connection with the title. When referring to a named person, we do not put “the” in front of the name, so by not using “the” I am treating the Earth as a proper noun with a name, a unique being that is worthy of protection. It also makes the title shorter, which makes it a bit easier to read, helping to hook the reader.
Hi Laura,
I really enjoyed reading your blog! This is such a cool topic, I loved how you presented both sides of the arguement instead of immediately stating that space colonization is a bad idea. I just have a few suggestions that may help strengthen your blog:
1) I think the main arguement could be made clearer earlier on in the blog, so the reader knows your position from the beginning. I think this would also help grab readers attention sooner.
2) I really like the title ‘Is Earth Worth Saving?’, but I think you could reference that question more throughout the blog rather than mainly at the end. I also noticed in your title “worth” and “saving” are not capitalized. I think capitalizing them would make the title look more polished.
3) I think the blog would be stronger overall if you discussed some of the scientific reasonings as to why us as humans may eventually need to leave Earth.
Overall, I really liked your post!
Thanks, Audrey
Thanks for your feedback! I really appreciate the reminder to tie in the question of “Is Earth Worth Saving?” more throughout the blog post, and I’ve tried to do that in my final version. Focusing more on that question means that I am not stating my position from the beginning, as I want to allow readers to think about there own opinion on how we should handle climate change based on the evidence I present. I did change my introduction to try and both grab the reader’s attention and explain the main idea of the post near the beginning.