Save Earth or Humanity?

In the very long run, Earth dies. According to the best physicists, the sun dies and consumes Earth as it does. Of course, the process requires billions of years, so there’s no emergency.

Over the course of the next few hundred years, the primary two problems are an increasing world population and an increasing number of nuclear bombs. Both trends exist in a world that isn’t expanding. If the trends continue, the probability of catastrophic war increases, and that almost certainly means catastrophic environmental damage.

Unless those two trends are addressed, the “Save Earth” movement is probably futile even over the course of hundreds of years.

One key is to change the demographics of space and Earth. The space age offers over twelve billion light years of space for humanity. Obviously, current technologies don’t offer travel across such distances. But 110 years ago, humanity couldn’t fly to the other side of the planet overnight, much less to the moon.

Who knows what future travel technologies will bring! According to American wisdom, necessity is the mother of invention.

True, conservation of Earth’s resources is important. But it is no more important than increasing the percentage of people that lives in space rather than on Earth. Earth conservation becomes an easier task if more people move to space.

Currently, seven billion live on Earth. But if two billion move to space and leave five billion on Earth, planet preservation becomes easier. Five billion use less energy than seven billion.

More efficient propulsion technologies should be used. Electromagnetic propulsion is more energy-efficient than rocket propulsion. Better energy efficiency means less heat.

To attempt to Save Earth without promoting human expansion into space is futile. The population continues increasing. More people consume more energy. To shove humanity into an energy equation is useless and may prove disastrous.

The best bet is to conserve resources while promoting life in space. That will change the energy equation and best utilize the universe’s resources.