Do we need Earth?

[cronus]

Looks like the planet is FUBAR with regards climate change, bio-diversty loss and so forth, and likely to be uninhabitable in due course. Do we need it though? Surely the singularity is approaching where we don't need to worry about Earth. Need to find a large vat of acid and melt it down for raw materials, or blow it entirely up to collect mineral assets? Do we need it? And should forward thinkers start to move beyond worrying about saving it? and simply figure ways of get away before the ship sinks?

[pErvinalia]

First we've got to get off it, and then create a liveable habitat on another planet. Up until that point we definitely need it. But, yeah, you've got to wonder if at that point we just cut our losses and abandon the place (or blow it up for fun ).

[pErvinalia]

Or we could make it a planet for free marketeers, conservatives and libertarians. That's the natural state of their world, so they should be perfectly happy there.

[mistermack]

Course we do.
That's where they'll bury you, Scump, when your wish comes true.

I can't see us getting off the planet any time soon, in a meaningful way.
Maybe if they all got together, and agreed a world government, they might find the cash.

The Chinese have got the right idea. Go back to the Moon, and this time, put it to use.
Getting stuff up from Earth will always be too expensive, for anything substantial.
Unless they can crack nuclear fusion. With cheap electricity, you can make cheap hydrogen and oxygen, so rockets might then get cheaper and cleaner to launch.

Barring a transformation of the economy through fusion, you need to mine the Moon for materials, to keep people in space.

[pErvinalia]

I can't see us getting off the planet any time soon, in a meaningful way.
Maybe if they all got together, and agreed a world government..

Marxist!!

[JimC]

I can't see us getting off the planet any time soon, in a meaningful way.
Maybe if they all got together, and agreed a world government..

Marxist!!

He worships the Black Helicopters!