There seems to be a large amount of overlap between people who say things like "It's hubris to think that humans can change the atmosphere of the earth enough to make a noticeable difference in 400 years" and "we can make Mars inhabitable by humans in 50 years"
It's not about prime real estate, it's about increasing the redundancy of humanity's survival. Two planets are better than one.
There seems to be a large amount of overlap between people who say things like "It's hubris to think that humans can change the atmosphere of the earth enough to make a noticeable difference in 400 years" and "we can make Mars inhabitable by humans in 50 years"
What the fuck, no there isn't. Are you actually implying most people that are interested in a mars colony are climate change deniers?
More the other way around, I know a surprising amount of climate change deniers that think we need to colonize Mars to save the human race.
I'm not trying to say it can't or it shouldn't be done, but it has to be both. We have to find a way to live sustainably and also expand.