Earth has a population of more than six billion people. As this number continues to grow, the populated land masses fill up, and it seems that eventually they will all be overcrowded. Certain areas are already showing this overpopulation, such as large American cities including Los Angeles and New York City. Some countries do not suffer from overcrowding due to high population, but to a high ratio of population to resources. As the natural resources of an area are depleted, the quality of life of the people who live there decreases. If the human race is to prosper as a whole, there must be enough resources to support the global population. In order to support our increasing population, we must learn to harness new resources.
Some scientists are considering the possibilty of learning to inhabit other planets. This plan includes a process called terraforming, which is defined as "transforming a planet into something resembling the earth, especially as regards to human habitation." This is widely thought of as "Science Fiction" - but 50 years ago so was just about everything that is commonplace today.
What alternatives do we have? Are there any planets out there that are like enough to earth that they could be so transformed?
The body most commonly thought of in association with terraforming is Mars. There are several reasons Mars is looked upon favorably. The gravity on Mars is about 0.38 g, compared to 1 g on Earth. It is believed that humans could live in such a gravity without any side effects like bone shrinkage. The day on Mars is about 24.5 hours, compared to 24 hours on Earth. This means that there wouldn't be any agricultural problems relating to day length. There are large quantities of rust (FE203) which woul...
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...sing the temperature by 10 K to start this whole process wouldn't be enough to create a comfortable climate. The savage dust storms on Mars will still exist, as well as some carbon dioxide. It seems there are many different ideas for what sort of material would be required to construct a usable biodome. Over the years people have speculated over the use of glass, metal, plastic, etc.
It is speculated that once the process of terraforming is begun, it will take decades to complete. With the technology we have available to us today, the scientific community is divided as to whether it will ever be possible.
Works Cited:
On To Mars! http://www.geocities.com/marsterraforming
The Nine Planets http://www.nineplanets.org
Red Colony http://www.redcolony.com
Nasa http://www.nasa.gov
The Terraforming Information pages http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~mfogg
One of the qualities of the human race is that humans love to explore and find new things, like how Christopher Columbus found America. With most of our planet documented now, where do we have to go? The answer is simply one of the only places we haven’t yet (or may never) explore all of: space. Wars may be waged over land on earth, as there isn’t any new land to find there. So, we can go into space where unexplored land can be conquered and colonized. And while it may not seem like it, in the near future, it may be possible to colonize humans in space.
From Venus’s atmosphere, we can see that a stronger greenhouse effect would create a barren, volcanic wasteland unable to sustain life. Such a greenhouse effect could even be man-made through the human production of CO2 and Earth has already noticed a greenhouse effect forming, though it is much less damaging than Venus’. Similarly, Mars’ lack of an ozone layer shows us what our own thinning ozone layer could mean for hydrogen atoms within Earth’s atmosphere and water, and also demonstrates how a planet’s size and distance from the sun could have affected Earth and made life on it impossible. Through the thinning of our atmosphere, Earth could suffer from the same effects plaguing its neighbor, Mars
As a human race I could not with a good conscious say that we have all done that is possible to preserve our planet. I believe it partially should be blamed on our lack of knowledge on how we are actually affecting it. If you ask the common college student results prove that most would say they care to a certain extent. However, they also know that they are just one person in this world. Therefore, I believe this would be an excellent article for The Shorthorn. Geologist might say that it is too late to turn back from what has already been done. Simply buying a Prius or turning off the air conditioning won’t save our Earth. The fact of the matter is that “this civilization is already dead.” Now the key
"Earth Could be 'Unrecognizable' by 2050." DNews. N.p., 20 Feb. 2011. Web. 22 Feb. 2014. .
The question of colonizing Mars has become not a matter of ability, but one of ethics. Mars’s climate is much weaker than Earth’s. We should colonize mars but only in the right way – a way that does not alter the natural climate of Mars. While different people argue the different effects humans have had on Earth, there is no denying that we have made an impact on the environment that we live in. Many believe that if we set foot on another planet, we will affect its environment negatively. However, there is a fine line between disrupting the environment of a foreign planet and utilizing it. We should colonize Mars but going in with the knowledge we have of Earth and take measures to ensure that Mars can’t be deteriorated as easily and if
...easing population. Such research could include the search for other Earth-like planets in the galaxy. Already, NASA’s Keplar telescope has discovered three other planets capable of supporting life (Mike). Without expansion into outer space, humans might eventually destroy themselves as a result of a strain on resources, or infighting over land. This is the direction of aerospace research.
The issue investigated in this essay is whether or not the planet Kepler-186f should be terraformed and colonised by humans. Kepler-186f is located in the Kepler-186 system, around 500 light years away from Earth. It is the first Earth-sized planet found in the habitable zone, meaning that it orbits its host star at a distance where liquid water would be able to exist (NASA, 2015). Considering this, the question of whether or not it would be able to sustain human life comes to mind. Not enough is known about the planet, so there is a possibility that Kepler-186f would be forced to be terraformed first in order to allow humans to colonise.
The title “Anthropocene” is officially a theoretical one as scientists are still debating upon its legitimacy. The earth has entered a new geological epoch dominated by humanity. This epoch has been coined the Anthropocene. The term is relatively new in the scope of things as it was suggested by Dutch chemist Paul Crutzen in 2002 that we had left the time period previously we thought to be in ,the Holocene, and had entered the now thought to be current time period, The Anthropocene (Zalasiewicz). The reason for this change in epoch is the ever increasing effect of mankind upon our environment and the seemingly impossibility to find something unobstructed by mankind’s extensive reach. The skeptical attitude toward the Anthropocene is due in part to the Earths vast size; consequently, it is difficult for changes that humans have made to be permanent(Brown). While permanent topographic changes are unlikely, due to unpredictable natural occurrences in addition to weathering and erosion, some changes have a much more prolonged existence such as radioactive matter. An occurrence of this would be uranium-238 which contains a half life of 4.47 billion years.(Brown) The explanation behind humans unparalleled effect on the earth is the exponential increase in population in recent history, the population has increased from under 1 billion in the early nineteenth century to over 6 billion (Zalasiewicz) .This...
A discovery based on deep-field images from the Hubble Space Telescope suggests ten septillion planets lurk in our observable Universe, and that’s only counting planets that are orbiting stars. Mankind has always looked towards the stars and planets; today we can reach them. Humans are confined to earth as of now, but that is all about to change. The red planet also known as Mars represents a landmark achievement in human evolution.
The pursuit of knowledge is a noble goal, but before fully committing to long-term space exploration, we must use all of the knowledge we currently have to determine if it is safe to do so. The economic benefits are clear and many, however the ecologic consequences are far more important. We do not yet have enough information about the long-term implications of space exploration, both on our planet and the rest of space, but before we continue is is important that we preserve the space in which we are exploring as well as our planet.
Earth has served as a good home for humans for many years, and will most likely
Terraforming is “the purposeful alteration of the physical environment to increase its habitability for humans.” (David, Leonard). The planet Mars could be terraformed more easily than other planets because it is believed to be the planet most like Earth. Hundreds of millions of years ago, Mars had an environment more like Earth’s, with a thicker atmosphere and more water. (Terraforming of Mars). Additionally, other similarities between the two planets are found in their temperature ranges, the presence of water, and the length of their days.
...ess can make you sick. Meaning that because humans are so adapted to the conditions here on Earth, such a drastic change will make them sick. Adaptation will have to occur, meaning that the stations on Mars might have to some how mimic the conditions of Earth.
Populating another planet could help solve the population crisis and climate change simultaneously. Though, it seems we are not at that point currently, which is exactly why it is imperative that the government increase funding for space exploration. Now, even if inter-galactic habitation isn’t possible, space research helps us protect ourselves from asteroids and other threats, and could also be used to find other planetary resources. Nonetheless, it seems space research is of utmost significance if we want to continue living as a species.
Overpopulation is a growing problem all over the world. This is a very important environmental issue and needs to be dealt with. This environmental problem is affecting many countries around the world, but mostly the poor and impoverished countries that don’t have the resources to help deal with these issues. It also affects the environment like plants, animal life and air quality. When the population of people expands we need more natural resources from the environment, so we consume more than we can produce.