Space Colonization: Preventing the Extinction of the Human Race!

Space colonization may be one of the only ways to prevent the extinction of the human race by avoiding exhaustion of natural resources, overpopulation, and the destruction of the Earth.

The famous theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Stephan Hawking, claimed that the human race would become extinct within the next thousand years if we were not able to establish colonies in space. Although renewable resources have become more common among the human race, natural resources are still being used up and a dangerous rate. Space Colonization would allow humans to access the vast resources in space which includes both material and energy. A key factor that is critical for making this a valid option is the mining of asteroids. Asteroids would provide water and resources for structures which would save both time and money by preventing the need to travel back to earth many times. Not to mention the use of asteroids is an essentially endless supply of resources.

Setting up new space colonies on other planets and asteroids would lessen the issue of overpopulation of the earth. Dr. Peter Vajk, a college professor at Cornell University, wrote a scholarly article on the negative effects of overpopulation and how space colonization would mitigate them. It has been shown with very populated cities like Tokyo that once the population cap has been reached, the population will start to decrease. However, even though the population slowly decreases, it doesn’t change the fact that the city is overpopulated and will eventually come to an equilibrium. The growth of humanity is limited by this equilibrium. With more advanced technology, life supporting habitats could be built and humans would no longer be limited in growth by the earth. The extremely large population has led to issues such as world hunger and fighting over the control of water. With less population on earth, the issues may linger for a while but eventually will be nearly diminished.

Humanity has taken its toll on the earth. Earth’s resources are constantly being used up and climate change has changed the environment all around the globe. With space colonization, we could begin the rehabilitation of Earth. As physicist Paul Davies puts it “a self-sufficient colony could ‘reverse-colonize’ Earth and restore human civilization”. By “reverse-colonizing” the earth, the environment could be saved from imminent destruction by moving industry into space. With the mining of resources off Earth, the resources would no longer be constantly exploited. In fact, most of the resources that would be used on earth would not come from earth, but instead be shipped in from the space colonies. The author and journalist, William E. Borrows, and biochemist Robert Shapiro, propose that space colonies are off-Earth “backup” human civilizations. The “backups” would be in place in the case of global disaster which could be environmental or manmade to save the existence of humanity.

Of course, all of the benefits would only be made possible with advancements in current technology. However, the investment into space colonization could prevent the extinction of the human race by preventing the exhaustion of natural resources, overpopulation, and the destruction of the Earth.