Preface. The idea that we can go to Mars is touted by NASA, Elon Musk, and so many others that this dream seems just around the corner. If we destroy our planet with climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, soil erosion, aquifer depletion and more, no problem! We can go to Mars. Or float around in space on hoverchairs like in the movie Wall-E, where people have escaped to outer space after Earth became a giant garbage dump from rampant consumerism, corporate greed, and environmental disasters.
Though with world peak crude oil production likely by 2027, there may not be enough fuel to get there. Or need to go there. As Ugo Bardi pointed out in his book Extracted: How the Quest for Mineral Wealth Is Plundering the Planet we already have gone to another planet by exploiting Earth so ruthlessly:
“The planet has been plundered to the utmost limit, and what we will be left with are only the ashes of a gigantic fire. We are leaving to our descendants a heavy legacy in terms of radioactive waste, heavy metals dispersed all over the planet, and greenhouse gases—mainly CO2—accumulated in the atmosphere and absorbed in the oceans. It appears that we found a way to travel to another planet without the need for building spaceships. It is not obvious that we’ll like the place, but there is no way back; we’ll have to adapt to the new conditions. It will not be easy, and we can speculate that it will lead to the collapse of the structure we call civilization, or even the extinction of the human species”.
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U.N.Total fertility rate projections
