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Khanstant · 4648 days ago · link · · parent · post: Is it responsible for us to consider inhabiting other planets?
My issues is with the idea that the planet is being "ruined" and that we don't "deserve" it. The planet happens to be one of the ones capable of supporting life like ours. No matter what we do, it has a finite life span and a maximum amount of time before it stops being useful for any life form. Our biggest responsibility as an intelligent life form would be to do whatever we could to preserve ours and other species beyond this doomed planet. Maintaining a sustainable Earth is important in the short to medium term, but in the long term none of it matters if we never leave the planet. It is extremely unlikely that humans will last long enough and co-operate strongly enough for us to ever actually leave and colonize space, but I can't think of anything more important for us to try.
Also, if we ever were a galactic species, I'd imagine there would be a great deal of strip mining of planets and asteroid belts and things like that. That isn't irresponsible or unethical, it's raw material that should be used by whatever forces choose to use them. It is literally nature.