243
Without question, uncontrolled population growth is a problem and presents a
substantial burden to the environment. As societies mature technically and economically however, birth rates tend to fall, which has actually become worrisome in
places like Japan. We do need to control human population, but this can be done by
improving living standards around the world, not by going extinct as a species.
Rather than doing ourselves in, a better idea for clearing a substantial number of
people off the Earth is for humanity to begin colonizing other worlds. Moving from
our ancestral home into space will relieve pressure on the terrestrial ecosystem,
allow manufacturing processes to operate off-planet without fear of damaging the
environment, and let commerce and industry use free, clean, 24-h energy from
sunlight.
So where do we go? Is there an Earth 2.0 someplace, a nice clean planet that
hasn’t been wrecked by humanity? Well, there probably is at least one of these
somewhere in the galaxy, but it’s not close enough to reach with current technology.
Even if it was, there is the moral issue of transferring our current society with its
rapacious capitalism, obsession with money, greed-driven industries, and disregard
for environmental consequences to another habitable planet. If we transfer that
behavior, we will just as surely destroy any new planet in a few short decades as
well. Human behavior is hard to change, especially when motivated by the desire to
accumulate wealth. The only real answer is to carry out these ecosystem-destroying
activities someplace where there is no ecosystem to harm.
Orbiting space colonies that incorporate 1970s “high frontier” ideas (O’Neill
1977) have been a long time in coming (Gerard O’Neill himself expected them by
the 1990s) but could still provide a viable habitat for humanity in space. O’Neill
envisioned such habitats as long cylinders with a series of mirrors and windows to
allow enough sunlight inside to grow crops, and with an axial spin to provide artificial gravity. If a colony of such habitats was positioned at one of the Lagrangian
points in the Earth’s orbit, it would be in a stable location with an abundant and
uninterrupted supply of solar power. These habitats could be constructed at a relatively low cost if they were built in space using materials manufactured in space,
perhaps on the moon or mined from asteroids.
An asteroid called 16 Psyche with a diameter of about 140 miles (226 km) orbits
between Mars and Jupiter. Psyche is metallic rather than rocky, and may be the
remainder of the core of a former protoplanet. It is said to contain up to $700 quintillion in usable metals at current prices. This is far more metal than has been mined
on Earth throughout the whole of human history. To understand just how much
wealth $700 quintillion is, if divided equally among every human being now living
on the planet, each person would receive $93 billion. Of course, once we are awash
in gold, silver and platinum, these metals will be cheaper than steel. NASA plans to
send an unmanned satellite to 16 Psyche in 2026 to explore and analyze the chemistry of the asteroid (source: NASA websites).
O’Neill’s vision for the income to build his space colonies was to orbit a series
of solar power satellites that would use microwaves to beam power down to receiver
stations on Earth, thus also solving the fossil energy problem at the same time. From
a climate change perspective, which was not on the proverbial radar screen in
12.2 Preserving Earth
Without question, uncontrolled population growth is a problem and presents a
substantial burden to the environment. As societies mature technically and economically however, birth rates tend to fall, which has actually become worrisome in
places like Japan. We do need to control human population, but this can be done by
improving living standards around the world, not by going extinct as a species.
Rather than doing ourselves in, a better idea for clearing a substantial number of
people off the Earth is for humanity to begin colonizing other worlds. Moving from
our ancestral home into space will relieve pressure on the terrestrial ecosystem,
allow manufacturing processes to operate off-planet without fear of damaging the
environment, and let commerce and industry use free, clean, 24-h energy from
sunlight.
So where do we go? Is there an Earth 2.0 someplace, a nice clean planet that
hasn’t been wrecked by humanity? Well, there probably is at least one of these
somewhere in the galaxy, but it’s not close enough to reach with current technology.
Even if it was, there is the moral issue of transferring our current society with its
rapacious capitalism, obsession with money, greed-driven industries, and disregard
for environmental consequences to another habitable planet. If we transfer that
behavior, we will just as surely destroy any new planet in a few short decades as
well. Human behavior is hard to change, especially when motivated by the desire to
accumulate wealth. The only real answer is to carry out these ecosystem-destroying
activities someplace where there is no ecosystem to harm.
Orbiting space colonies that incorporate 1970s “high frontier” ideas (O’Neill
1977) have been a long time in coming (Gerard O’Neill himself expected them by
the 1990s) but could still provide a viable habitat for humanity in space. O’Neill
envisioned such habitats as long cylinders with a series of mirrors and windows to
allow enough sunlight inside to grow crops, and with an axial spin to provide artificial gravity. If a colony of such habitats was positioned at one of the Lagrangian
points in the Earth’s orbit, it would be in a stable location with an abundant and
uninterrupted supply of solar power. These habitats could be constructed at a relatively low cost if they were built in space using materials manufactured in space,
perhaps on the moon or mined from asteroids.
An asteroid called 16 Psyche with a diameter of about 140 miles (226 km) orbits
between Mars and Jupiter. Psyche is metallic rather than rocky, and may be the
remainder of the core of a former protoplanet. It is said to contain up to $700 quintillion in usable metals at current prices. This is far more metal than has been mined
on Earth throughout the whole of human history. To understand just how much
wealth $700 quintillion is, if divided equally among every human being now living
on the planet, each person would receive $93 billion. Of course, once we are awash
in gold, silver and platinum, these metals will be cheaper than steel. NASA plans to
send an unmanned satellite to 16 Psyche in 2026 to explore and analyze the chemistry of the asteroid (source: NASA websites).
O’Neill’s vision for the income to build his space colonies was to orbit a series
of solar power satellites that would use microwaves to beam power down to receiver
stations on Earth, thus also solving the fossil energy problem at the same time. From
a climate change perspective, which was not on the proverbial radar screen in
12.2 Preserving Earth