Gosh, I had high hopes for this article, and yes, the issues you bring up are all real.

But the number one issue is that Musk and all these other people are planning this move to Mars because they think the Earth is doomed.

Let me be frank — the idea that destroying the only ecosystem we have ever known and then moving to a dark, arid, cold and lifeless desert is a good outcome is batshitinsane.

More, their plans are wildly, delusionally optimistic. In over 50 years of space travel, just 536 humans have ever been there, nearly all of them within 500km of the Earth’s surface. No one has ever been born in space or, as far as we know, conceived there. In fifty years, we’ve grown about 10,000 calories of food, a week’s worth of starvation rations for one person, all from seeds, soil and water brought from Earth.

Just twelve people ever walked on the Moon — the last one forty-five years ago. Mars is between 150 times and 1000 times as far away.

Sure, if we don’t kill ourselves then people will eventually walk on Mars. But 99.9999% of humans will lie and die on Earth, and that will never change.

And it’s not like we have plenty of time to fix things. The climate emergency is on us right now. If we spend trillions of dollars to get a few people to Mars, we’ve generated a huge amount of pollution, spent a huge amount of money — and for what outcome?

We have to solve our problems right here before anything else. Musk’s plan is like buying lottery tickets so you won’t have a job, except that lottery tickets have a tiny chance of paying off, and this plan has none.