this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2026
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No Stupid Questions
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No. The deserts are not an empty void just waiting to be filled with more corn fields. There are species that are adapted to there, can only survive there, and would be driven to extinction if we eliminated all of Earth's deserts. The total biosphere per acre is not high in deserts, but the species that do live there have just as much right to live as any other.
This really gets to the whole point of space colonization. The Earth is a jewel. Every inch of it is covered in life of a wondrous variety of forms. And every time we as humans shape a biome to our will, we degrade or destroy whatever species was there before.
The great thing about space is that it truly is empty real estate. Maybe Mars has some bacteria living miles beneath the surface, maybe. But it is for all intents and purposes a dead rock. We can colonize it to our heart's content. We're not stealing any land from any natives by colonizing there. We're not wiping out native species by setting up vast agricultural plantations. It's a place that we can let our technology loose to the limits of its abilities, and we can do so without destroying a biosphere so complex that you probably have to scour a thousand galaxies before you find its equal.
In the very long term, I hope humanity greatly decreases its impact on the Earth. My dream would be for Earth to return to a mostly wild state. Most people would live in space. The only people living on Earth would be either:
a) Living in very dense towering cities built to be incredibly environmentally efficient and sustainable. b) People practicing extremely low-impact lifestyles like the Amish or people who willingly choose to live as neo-hunter gatherers.
The vast majority of the human species, and all of our industry, would move off of Earth. Earth would essentially become one big nature preserve.
Bro. The Sahara desert is over 9 million square kilometers. Let's say our wildest dreams could be realized and we managed to re-green half of the Sahara, it would still leave an area larger than all of India (~3.5 Mkm2) for your highly specialized mice and lizards. They'd be fine.
Now, let's talk space. My point is - if you think that you could use the "empty real estate" on Mars, then why don't you try it out on fucking Earth first, where you have shorter supply lines and access to manpower? A little demonstration of your incredible powers!
You know - if you think you can fly, don't jump out of a window. Try taking off from the ground first. Test your wings in a safe environment.
Oh, what's that, YOU FUCKING CAN'T? Okay then don't talk shit.
Frankly, there's no point. We already know how to green the Sahara. That fact is not in any doubt. You don't actually prove anything or accomplish anything by doing so. We have all the technology; there's just no economic reason to do so. Spam solar panels, desalination plants, and water pipelines. Technologically, it's quite simple. Performing such a thing would prove nothing about our ability to settle Mars. The technical challenges are completely different. Whether we can actually settle Mars is a different question entirely. Settling somewhere on Earth does not provide any useful information on whether we can do so on Mars.
And ultimately, the point of expanding off Earth is so we don't have all our eggs in one basket. You're just proposing that we more heavily exploit our current basket, rather than expanding out to another one.
And terraforming is hardly the first step here. You don't jump directly into something like that. You figure out how to build a city first. Once you have a billion people living on Mars, then you can consider something as grand as terraforming.
Lol okay no, there's no reason to continue this exchange any further. You'd have a billion people holed up on a dead planet flr what, "science"? Get the fuck out of here with that Mengele nonsense.