https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/de/Terraforming_of_Mars.jpg/800px-Terraforming_of_Mars.jpg
<sup>[Image by D Mitriy - Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terraforming_of_Mars.jpg)</sup>



Leave the Earth? or Save it?? Before you attempt to answer this question, you should pause and first just consider the arguments that are available. In my previous post, I have discussed possibilities of interstellar travel in search of a more habitable planet that can support human life, and recently I had to ask myself this question: _Why should we leave our home planet - Earth?_ 

In 2017, Theoretical Physicist Stephen Hawking, alas, presented to us the end of our days on earth, if we do nothing about it. In his thesis, in about a **100 years to come**; climate change, overpopulation, and disease will get worse. 

### Global Warming
<br>

<div class="pull-right"><center><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Climate_change_carbon_cycle.png/795px-Climate_change_carbon_cycle.png"/><br/><em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Climate_change_carbon_cycle.png"><sup>Image - Wikimedia Commons CC0</sup></a></em></center></div>

This is perhaps the most possible and feared outcome of our future - many scientists would say. Climate change is the rate of change of earth's climate system determined on a century scale or relative magnitude. We have been watching and there is solid evidence that the entire earth is increasing in temperature. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on climate change (IPCC) announced that our most recent activities on the earth have greatly contributed to this sad story since the beginning of the mid 19th century our behaviour towards the earth has lead to the release of colossal Greenhouse gasses like Methane, Carbon dioxide, and Nitrous oxide. As time passes different parts of the world will now get hotter and others will follow. 


<div class="pull-left"><center><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Global_climate_change.jpg/800px-Global_climate_change.jpg"/><br/><em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Global_climate_change.jpg"><sup>Image by Wiki - Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)</sup></a></em></center></div>

When this happens to the earth, sea levels will rise to cause oceans to spill into the terrestrial planet, it will increase the size of deserts we have in the tropics, the earth will become full with rare disasters like heat waves, and drought will rain in the land. Picture how some places may luckily receive rain, but the rain will be in excess; causing storms, floods and sometimes hurricanes. It would be a horror, the snow will be too much, our oceans will get acidic and a lot of creatures will go extinct, not just because of our acidic oceans but remember: the heat will affect organisms on land first. People in the more icy areas will also suffer due to overpopulation because if we do nothing about our position then people may want to move to cooler places for comfort, nevertheless, even they will begin to suffer the heat soon. All these will inevitably lead to the scarcity of food and good water. 


When all this happens the climates inertia will cause it to last not just for a few decades, years or centuries, it will continue for tens of thousands of years, the earth will become practically hostile to man. 

### Overpopulation
<br>
<div class="pull-right"><center><img src="https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2013/11/23/23/52/vancouver-216595_960_720.jpg"/><br/><em><a href="https://pixabay.com/en/vancouver-british-columbia-canada-216595/"><sup>Image - Pixabay CC0</sup></a></em></center></div>

We have been scared of this evil since the 18th century - the house is getting too full. The thing is, even if our earthly climate is fine and will support us for a million more years, overpopulation will still be considered a factor that will bring doomsday. Overpopulation will reduce availability of resources and opportunities, unemployment is steady on the rise, especially in developing countries with vast e.g Nigeria. 

The solution as many have attempted (e.g Thanos) may really not be to order mass death to some humans for the sake of reducing the human population in half, it will only give the earth a few thousand years to escape overpopulation, the problem will just keep repeating itself. But **the earth is dying now!** What shall we do about it?

### To save the Earth
<br>

While chatting with a friend sometime ago, we briefly discussed about the subject of the post, and we explore some reasons to support **if humanity should leave the planet** or **if we should stay back and try everything within our capacity to save the Earth**. Should we colonize another planet for our survival and start a fresh start or stay back on the Earth and do our best to save it? Interestingly, whenever this conversation comes up, people always believe the government have a bigger role to play than scientists. It seems that in some way we already have the tools to save ourselves, do we? At least we may be able to create more time for us in order to come up with a more lasting solution. 


### Clean Power Plans
<br> 

Power plants may still be allowed to operate in industries even if the government knows how incredibly bad they are for the atmosphere. These plants release uncountable amounts of carbon into the air every day. There is no serious law, no statement, no will to stand against the excess production of carbon everywhere! Carbon is a leading cause of global warming.  

The EPA has done a nice job by recognizing this problem and setting standards for control, but the urgency to reduce carbon pollution is still here, we may need real laws. You can find some interesting read [here](http://www.earthlyissues.com/greenhouseeffect.htm
)

### International climate negotiations 
<br>

On this end, the United States has taken serious steps in cooperating with other nations to help control emissions. Meetings like this help to call work into order, present are policy experts, scientists climate economists all brainstorming about this issue. Still, don't think this is worth worrying about?

Lets really think of something here...

We would really have to upgrade our technology (funds needed) so as to increase our use of clean energy. IPCC has announced that for us to even have a chance we would have to increase our use of clean energy **four times before 2050** and even after, we must keep going up - bringing it into our homes, cars, and industries. 


**We may have to extract carbon from the atmosphere!**

For now there is no technology that can do this, so far we have ideas like Carbon-negative: getting a site, growing a lot of trees which will extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to itself, burn the trees (for the production of fuel) and in the process suck all the carbon emission from the tree to a dumping site underground. The problem - IPCC knows - is that this technique is unproven and our present technology is not up to the task. It will cost us, economic modelling propose that: to completely take care of global warming will take about 11 per cent of global income. You think this is small money? Then you probably wanna check it out!


### Control over Population
<br>

You could take a minute or two to analyze this situation, if you want to, when you think about it what can you say about overpopulation? What’s your view on the matter? Because it is a very controversial issue and maybe more of a problem than the average person think it is. 

United nations published papers complaining about overpopulation back in 1990 and just forty years later (2000) they showed that since then the amount of people on the earth has increased by 30 per cent. If that's not bad enough, the estimate is that we would be about 9 billion humans in total by 2050. Although we have also understood that this type of exponential growth is constantly supported (unknowingly) mostly by undeveloped nations of the world. Nations with large population include India, China, many African nations and some Latin countries. China is the most populated of them all but even then they have taken serious measures to control their population growth, so drastic that some other nations admire but dread the style. 


The solution to overpopulation may not rest on some technology or some human virus… all we may need is information. 


**Creating Awareness for family planning** is important, it is a problem that there are still places in the world where girls are made to get married as teenagers, you can find these types readily in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Africa. This premature marriage deprives them of their education and **awareness** about how dangerous it may be for the earth because _we are reproducing too much_. Based on the issue the United Nations have insisted that countries should strongly adhere to marriage after 20 years of age as they are certain that do this will reduce population growth.


**Take Public health seriously!** Anthropological studies have shown that some natives choose to give birth to many children because they hope that if the kids die out of some unfortunate situation, they may still have a few to take care of them at old age. If only we can give these people a reason to think otherwise. 


**Strict policy!** I think we can all come to a compromise here, before taking overly drastic measures with a policy we can promote better education, better, and other advantages. To new generations, if they control their rate of birth. However, in some cases, we may actually need to use force, laws, and penalties. 


So going back to the original question…


Do we stay and fix the planet or try to leave it and make it work somewhere else? Remember according to Hawkins we have just about a 100 years to do something about this. Please share your comments below, they might help.


>It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, or million… our only chance of survival is not to remain inward looking on the Earth, but to spread out into space - [Stephen Hawking](http://www.azquotes.com/quote/889038)


“It's a very simple argument. If we have the power to convert Mars into something that looks like earth, then we have the power to fix our own oceans and our own atmosphere, right? If you have the power of Geo-engineering you don't have to leave the planet you're on, in hopes of turning another one into earth and move there. Just fix earth!”


Now you have seen some of the arguments, you have probably made your conclusion on the matter, so what do you think?


### References
<br>

[Wikipedia - Global warming](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming)


[Vox - How we cut emissions and avoid climate disaster](https://www.vox.com/2014/4/13/5610356/un-panel-heres-how-we-cut-emissions-and-avoid-a-climate-disaster)


[Wikipedia - Human overpopulation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_overpopulation)


[NASA - Global Climate Change](https://climate.nasa.gov)

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