Moving on.
Let's start off by closing our eyes (Wait up! Not yet! I've yet to deliver the rest of the instructions). Breathe in, breathe out. Now picture Earth, third rock from the sun, that beautiful blue marble, streaks and puffs of clouds hovering over patches of blue and green. Earth, floating in the endless blackness of space accompanied only by Luna. Done? Now click on the link. Yes, this blue thing is the link.
Ah! Your mind says. It's planet Earth! Or rather, that was at first glance. Two seconds in, it doesn't look like pretty ol' Terra anymore. Likely you saw the word "Mars" at the start of the video and was a little thrown off when you saw a green-blue sphere, expecting to see a dead red ball of said name.
But yes. That rotating rock you see before you is Mars.
Or more specifically, how Mars will appear once fully terraformed. Terraformation is a hypothetical process in which a planet or moon is transformed, engineered, to be much like Earth, with vegetation and streams and lakes and seas and animals.
At this point, you're probably asking, "Okay, cool, but why on Mars should we?"
Innumerable reasons, to both why and why not.
Supporters argue that the red planet presents remedy for the growing demand and population, particularly because of its proximity to the asteroid belt, which contain metals and minerals that would otherwise be rare and depleted on Earth, and to become human habitat to prevent population overload on the basis that Earth can only efficiently support a few billion people (studies are unable to reach an agreement on Earth's carrying capacity, but estimates vary from 4 to 10 billion humans). Also, terraforming the planet will be less expensive and far safer than simply colonizing it in enclosed fragile domes.
However, on the anti-terraforming side of the debate, it is argued that there is no guarantee that the altered Martian environment will remain. Certainly, the amount of time it will take to fully terraform Mars is anybody's guess. Perhaps a few hundred years, perhaps a couple thousand. The cost could outweigh the gains. Besides that, the Martian land is dangerous, battered sometimes by solar radiation due to its very thin atmosphere, occasionally covered by planetwide dust storms, and the effects of its low gravity (only 38% that of Earth's) on humans and other animals are unknown. Others simply argue that humans do not have the right to change whole worlds for their own use.
Hmm, Indeed. Take a few minutes to think, and then let's talk! Is it worth it? Is preserving Mars' and other planets' natural landscapes more important than ensuring the long-term survival and spread of humanity? Should humans stay on Earth? Do humans have the right? Who has the say-so in colonization and terraformation of other worlds?
Are you a Red (against), or are you a Green (for)?
19 comments:
Firstly, I'd like to say that i really enjoyed how the information is presented. It is more conversational, rather than solely informative. It makes for a more lighthearted piece which is easier to read.
As for what side I'm on.. it's kind of iffy. It is a neat idea, however I think I'm more of a Red. I think there needs to be much more research done with how the terraforming would happen. I can only imagine how costly this process would be even though it would be cheaper than enclosing it in domes. Though it may be worth it, it may not be.. It's a big risk! The planet wide dust storms also prove as a huge problem. There would be extra costs in providing a solution or prevention method for them.
However, an interesting thing to think about is if this happened in the future.. how would it be decided who lives on Mars and who lives on Earth. Would it be by class? By who is willing? or another method? Also would the two planets stay in contact? Would it be possible to travel between the two in a costly manner?
It's a really interesting concept :-)
Same as Brook, I am a Red since this proposal seems to be rediculous.
First, is the living condition suitable for earth people? We need air we can breathe, water we can utilize, comfortable sunshine and temperature for people's living. But can the Mars qualify these? Although there are signs showing the existence of air and water, there far cannot meet people's basic needs.
Second, we should rethink the motivation of our desire to terraform the Mars and move there. If it is because of the aggravating environment, then I want to ask what if, after maybe hundreds of years, the Mars' environment is also deteriorated? If it is because the heavy burden of population, then it is a great problem to reckon who leave on earth and who leave for Mars and how we contact with one another. We now have internatioal telephone call, so then we will need inter-planet call? Seems kidding.
I have to agree I'm red, there's too many unknowns in the article that make it more of a fantasy than a reality. First off humans currently don't possess the technology that's required to execute such a feat. I'm not saying it's impossible but it wouldn't be within this century. Also it would take too long to get to Mars with our current transport technology. Being able to communicate between Earth and Mars would take more than just issuing Mars a area code. On a deeper level I feel that until we as a race learn to take responsibility for our own planet, we shouldn't try to harvest another.
The first word come to my mind after reading is "why". Why human beings are always tend to neglect the reasons and core of issues and are looking for ways to shift real contradicts instead of finding the origin of problems? Why do we need terraform ohter planets? Bucasue of the environmrnt pollutions, high population density and so many irreparable harm by human, the Earth is fragile now and may not be suitable to live in anymore someday. Briefly, the nature terraforming is the combination of negletion of serious issues on earth and finding anther new ”earth",where people might move out in thousands of years,the same situation as now.
In addtion, our human is just one kind of species in the universe,we have no power to change the other habitats for other creatures arbitrarily.
Last and more realisitc,things are changing every moment and some of them are unpredicatable Even though with the most advanced technology,we can't gurantee how Mars will transform to in several years.Or as Brooke said, how to allocate people to two planets if terrasforming happedned, who wants to be trial to settle in Mars fisrt? Funny though but reveals more deeper about the natur of human.
Firstly, I appreciate the fact that you went through this piece of information put up by Ilai and found it intriguing.
In response to your arguments, I'd like to stress on the fact that this theory is still being speculated and therefore classifies as a hypothetical process.
Ofcourse it required detailed and groundbreaking research, however, it will be interesting to see how things shape up as we move on with time.
Human beings(we) have caused disturbances to the environment through multiple activities which we undertook for our benefit and comfort. But, dont you(Zhihan) think it is our responsibility to conduct research in this field?
I am not against you on the fact that we need to find solutions to the problems that exist at the moment. However, research needs to go on. We need to find answers to new questions everyday. Besides, who knows what we might find on these other planets.. solutions to our current problems maybe?
Well, I have to say it's hard for me to simply choose side on this matter, so I'm neither a red nor a green.
Almost everybody above raised some really compelling arguments against terraforming Mars, and I totally agree with them, since there's simply no way human beings can achieve something even close to terraforming another planet in the near future. But since this is the case, does it mean we could just rule out the thought of it completely?
So I agree with Karan.kareer that research must go on. We shouldn't stop working towards the goal of terraforming Mars or other planets because there are too many unknown factors. On the contrary, it is because of all the unknown factors that we need to explore and discover all the potential possibilities that lie in the outer space. There could be so many surprises along the way, who knows what our scientists could find out? Maybe at the time when we were able to pull off such a feat, we would have already came up with a better idea to take advantage of the other planet, or even better, our own.
So my point is, terraforming another planet may not seem to be a rational solution to all our problems on Earth, but we should never cease the effort to study the possibility of living on another planet, since the process can bring us more in depth knowledge of our neighbors, and possibly other benefits that we can't even imagine right now.
Anyway, great material, interesting to read, and the casual ethos makes it easier for readers to take in all the information and generate creative thoughts.
It seems like some people have been touching on the issue of environmental problems. One being overpopulation and the other mistreatment of Earth. Making another planet livable just seems like a temporary solution. What kind of permanent solutions can we be striving for on Earth to prevent this?
This article is raising some very important and controversial questions and topics that really effect life now and the future. For examply all the enviromental issues as well as overpopulation problems mentioned in the comment above.
I like the fact this article and these ideas are working towards finding solutions to issues in unique ways. However I also do agree with the Red side, while this idea is creative, it would be nearly impossible at this point to make happen. Like many others brought up, the money, time and technology needed for this task, are all things we simply do not have enough of.
With all that being said, I don't believe this solution and other ideas like it should be entirely ruled out. They have possibility and are all on the right track to the perfect answer. This idea just needs some work! Hopefully in the years to come, as technology improves, ideas like this one will become more realistic.
Before reading this article, I would have never in a million years thought about making another "earth" in another planet. I think the idea is completely ridiculous and the fact that somebody came up with this idea just shows how humans are selfish. Us humans are already slowly but surely destroying earth. I'm not talking about 2012, but more about global warming and how because of us, things are only getting worse on earth. This idea of converting mars into another earth seems like a ridiculous excuse for running away from the problems we ourselves have caused.
This article is appealing but seems a little unrealistic. My biggest question is how would we get people from earth into mars to carry on life. I think there is a lot more research that needs to be done. I think we need to deal with our issues here on earth before we think about trying to find out how to improve another planet. But other then criticizing this article I believe it did a good job of keeping the reader interested and not just talking to the reader, but opening up questions and creating visuals for the reader as they read the article.
Though this is an interesting article that enlightens us about the science of terraforming, I can't help but wonder and be dissapointed in the human nature at the end of it. I agree with both Beatris's and Zhihan's views and I share their thoughts as well.
Why is it that the human mindset is always jumping to another solution when they have not done much to treat/solve the initial problem (caused by themselves) in the first place. Since overpopulation and environmental pollution are causing the highest distress to Earth, wouldn't it be better to channel the money towards solving environmental problems such as global warming, or finding ways to educate the citizens in overpopulated countries on better methods of family planning? I think this is a wiser solution in contrast to spending monstrous amount of money on trying to figure out if Mars would or would not be habitable and on fragile domes and the likes. I also don't think the question of whether we have the right to live on Earth should have arisen in the first place. It is like asking can I eat the apple after having eaten it already. In my opinion, instead of thinking of making Mars suitable for human occupancy, it would actually be a better and wiser idea to make Earth a better place to live in.
Here's a hypothetical question, suppose humans all moved to Mars, then what? Humans would pollute Mars instead and look for another planet once they deem Mars to be dying?
In a nutshell, I would say that I am definitely a Red because I think that we humans, owe Earth our gratitude for having used it(and continuing to use it) to build our civilization for generations (past and to come) and what better way to show our gratitude to our planet then by starting to fix the damage that we have done to it instead of leaving it to rot and moving on to Mars.
Haha, I like the humor thrown into this.
I appreciate the ambitious idea, but I'm a Red on this.
There's no gaurantee that terraforming will be fully successful since it's hypothetical. And the only way I can see humans inhabiting Mars is if they were born in such an environment. But then what would their lifespan be like with the added radiation? Would people even want to inhabit Mars at that risk? And how are we so sure if overpopulation is truly an issue if a more accurate estimation of the Earth's population cannot be reached? There may be places on Earth that have yet to be ventured and could be inhabitable and could rake in a bigger capacity number. It sounds like more research should be done before coming to a conclusion that is so broad. Plus, have the costs of transportation been calculated also? Supplies for housing? Electricity to run? Water systems? A boatload of other factors to maintain a minimal, yet healthy lifestyle on another planet?
Also, personally, I don't believe we have a right to have such control over another planet, especially when we take our own for granted. Give it a million or so years, and then we'll move onto the moon or somewhere crazier. Like Venus.
Nicely done, Ilai! I really like the personal way in which this has been written.
Moving on to the article, I have to start off by saying something crazy, which is that I agree with every post above. So, I'm leaning towards neutral, greenish-red on this issue. The idea of terraforming sounds very very interesting and exciting, but only until you start thinking about the complications that are likely to accompany this process. As a lot of you guys mentioned above, it's definitely a big leap in time when terraforming is likely to be physically possible. And then there are a lot of major problems pointed out such as the thin atmosphere of Mars, the gravity of Mars along with the ones discussed in the above comments. Countering these problems in order to make Mars habitable for humans is going to be a very big challenge. For instance, lesser gravity could lead to bone degradation (check out this NASA page- http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/news/expandnews.cfm?id=988). That necessarily means that a human who lives in Mars's natural gravity for a significant amount of time would take a long time to recover when he comes back to earth, because he/she would have lesser bone mass.
As for the positives of terraforming, I'm just going to steal some of Matthew's lines (Sorry Matthew!), since I really like the way he has worded them.
"So I agree with Karan.kareer that research must go on. We shouldn't stop working towards the goal of terraforming Mars or other planets because there are too many unknown factors. On the contrary, it is because of all the unknown factors that we need to explore and discover all the potential possibilities that lie in the outer space. There could be so many surprises along the way, who knows what our scientists could find out? Maybe at the time when we were able to pull off such a feat, we would have already came up with a better idea to take advantage of the other planet, or even better, our own."
The first thing that came to my mind when I finished reading the article was that this is too hypothetical for me to actually decide "red or green", because I'm pretty sure that there are a lot of unknown factors and things we are not aware of, and won't be aware of unless we go ahead and terraform the planet and start observing the post-effects of terraforming, because irrespective of how much we research and study, there will always be something we'll miss and there will always be something we won't know.
I wont believe in the idea of terraforming another planet until I see it. If it was possible to live on mars, there would be other life forms already present there. We cannot create an entire artificial world. There are too many uncontrollable factors. But hypothetically speaking if this happens, we would still have to build houses, schools,hospitals and set up entire governments. We would need to shift doctors and teachers there. Who is going to decide all this? Should one person be given this right? Should it be the people who live there or should it be controlled by people on earth? Who is going to organize them? It can only lead to war. Also we take so much of time to adjust when we move from one country to another, can you imagine the psychological effect of moving from one planet to another?
This in no way solves the problem of overpopulation because once we move some of the population over to mars, they will keep reproducing and probably have the same problem. The more we get, the more we take.
Like many before have said, I appreciate the way this information was presented, and it is an interesting concept. This is the first time I've heard of it, and the way the piece was written helps to make it informative and pique curiosity.
However, I am definitely a red in terms of this issue and I also ask what the relevance of this "debate" really is. Terraforming is hypothetical to begin with, and we have no idea when or if it would be possible, so it is hard to take a stance for or against it. I for one don't think it will be possible, and even if it is, I don't think it would be practical. The population has a lot to grow before we outreach the projection of what the Earth can handle, and given that we have never gotten to that point, we don't know what the limit to our population truly is. And even if we had the technology and resources to do this, the issues of developing another entire planet and who gets to do that and having a unified planetary approach to it still exist. So ultimately, I think way too many hypotheticals exist in this scenario, and it would be very difficult to be a "green" regarding terraforming at this point.
When Ilai first introduced the concept to me, I came back to my room and did a little research on the topic.
Guess what.. I thought it was pretty ridiculous too. However, the topic was compelling enough to keep my mind going and I realized that technology is advancing at a crazy rate.. and it wouldn't hurt to give terraformation the benefit of doubt. I mean, what if some Einstein Jr. worked it out?
Everything seems impossible till it actually happens one day.
I'm in total support of all the people who believe that humans are selfish and have harmed the earth to an unimaginable extent. But, we were learning weren't we?
We did come up with alternatives to all negativity eventually, didn't we?
I think we'd do a pretty good job if it were possible; we've got so much experience now.
So, dwell on the topic a little more. Lets keep this discussion going.
As cool and interesting as this sci fi type idea is I have to say i am red on this issue. First of all there are far to many unknowns in this idea of terraforming Mars. Right now the technology is not available to do anything like this. I am all in favor of research and space exploration as well, but the idea of terraforming in our current age is unrealistic. I think if this idea was presented to the people of the United States, say for funding purposes, it would be laughed at purely because there is no facts to support it. This article would definately need more scientific facts to compel me to believe it. It also seems that there no real need for this. Like others said in their comments, Earth has enough of their own problems that need to be taken care of here.
I love the way this was written! Generally, reading about terroforming a planet would not appeal to me as it is very scientific and theoretical. However, the style in which the information was presented completely changed my outlook. At first, I wasn't even sure that the article was non fiction. Being a fan of fiction, I was excited to read a cool sci-fi piece. As I continued to read, I discovered that it is actually non fiction, but I was not disappointed! By introducing the article in such a fun way, I had a positive outlook while reading and was interested in the prospective of changing a planet to be habitable and how it applied to my world and life.
In terms of content, I must say that I am a Red. Though this may not be the popular choice, I am a "rather safe than sorry" type and see too many possible repercussions of doing something so drastic. Even though I am a Red, I think that the idea is interesting and that the research that could come from it is still good!
I liked the way its written. I think we definitely have right and importance to think about the future. I dont find any harm in terraforming mars for future needs of resources.
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