We're Already Colonizing Mars (slate.com)

The author must be a LOT of fun at parties.

The author seems to say that Mars colonization is bad because colonization on Earth was bad, which seems like such a silly comparison it's not even worth addressing.

And then goes on to say that we should be focused on Earth... Can't we do both? Mars colonization is so far down the list of things killing our planet, and seems like a sane response to too-slow societal change.

I think the author has a point that a future world where Mars has been completely transformed by humanity will represent some form of loss. But it does seem awfully low on the priorities list if it does turn out that Mars has no existing forms of life. Comparison to colonization on Earth does seem quite the stretch.

It would be disappointing if Mars was home to some limited form of life and it all suffered the same bad fate as many Earth species. But everything is a tradeoff.

That being said, I personally don't see Mars colonization (or whatever you want to call it) a realistic solution to humanity's problems.

This article is everything I dislike about the postmodern perspective. It seems to start from a position of: humanity is bad. Then adds: any promotion of space exploration must be an covert attempt by the people involved to "normalize" their agenda. It can't just be an overt promotion of their idea to spread humanity to other planets, because surely everyone agrees with me that humanity is evil. See! I used the word "colonize" - that was a clue. Because what we're doing is exactly like what the imperialist Europeans did.