Abstract
Depletion of resources on Earth, super-exploitation and climate change challenge human survival on Earth. As far as humans are a single-planetary species, our further survival seems to be seriously threatened by these on-going pressures. In this paper, we discuss ethical issues arising from the possibility of space exploitation and space colonisation as remedies for a forthcoming climate catastrophe. We argue that it would be unwise to presume that in the time span required humans will change their behaviours and/or develop new technologies so that irreversible, harmful climate change on Earth is averted. Space exploration and exploitation are considered as a natural continuation of the human attempt to explore and exploit. We conclude that space colonisation may provide a path to the sustainable development of humanity and that it would be remiss of humans not to explore this possibility seriously.
Published Version
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