I suspect we are now approaching the point at which we reach a crossroads, and have a decision to make on how to preserve our species. That decision will likely be broken down to the choice of saving mother earth, or fleeing to another planet.
Unfortunately, as glorious as Capitalism may be, it will be our undoing if the elite in charge (that is the oil cartels, banking cartels and "shadow governments") don't wake up and realise we need a massive paradigm shift in how we live to ensure our survival. Although I'm skeptical of the "man made climate change" argument, you don't have to be a genius to know that industry is increasing faster than the rate of natural greenery and large areas of forest.
A very brave man spoke out against this and said in longer and more detail what I have said above, if you're interested look up Canadian UFO disclosure speech on YouTube. (Yes, it's relevant, and it's about how the NWO has evidence and is covering up what is believed to be means of clean, free energy, that if released would cause the collapse of the oil cartels).
Our air quality will continue to get worse and natural resources will continue to be exploited as long as the current system goes on along with war, espionage etc. If we are to survive this all has to change - not only that, but dragging this kind of political douchebaggery out into the wider solar system or even to another altogether would be incredibly shitty of us. One has to consider that we are in a world where many (all?) of the major world powers operate a policy of peace by MAD - mutually assured destruction. Basically the premise that if country A nukes country B, country B will have fired in retaliation and mutually destroyed that who fired upon it. How sad that we've come to this stage - and they say the cold war is over??
Do I have high hopes for Mars? Not in the near future, but as always I am willing to learn and be surprised. Looking quickly at some numbers it's bloody far away 228 million KM vs earth's 150million KM - the distance gap widens even more as you get to the gas giants. The atmosphere is not at all breathable, there's much less gravity than on Earth and it's quite a bit smaller. A martian day is similar to Earth's, and there's possible rumblings of the ice at the poles being useful (melt them all a la "Total Recall" to form an atmosphere??). But other than that there's absolutely nothing, and to say that the situation as a whole is tenuous is IMO being generous.
Currently I don't think there any alternatives other than to keep on plodding on as we are. I don't see any evidence that the masses are ready for change but I also don't think change is ready to happen yet. I mean, I'd happily drive an electric car (there's even an electric version of the one I currently own) but not until they come down in price and have regen systems that actually make them capable of doing big distance. I think that sets a precedent for the fact that we need to sort our affairs at home before trying to run the rest of the solar system.
