There's no climate scenario in which Mars is more habitable than Earth. Even if a Texas-sized asteroid crashed into Earth, Earth would still be more habitable than Mars.
I think this is true in almost any scenario. A Mars base is a second chance in the same way that a single potted orchid, suspended by a gossamer thread over a roiling vat of acid is a second chance for your lawn. If you humanity completely wiped itself out on easy mode, it will not last long on Mars after that.
While I’m convinced we’re going to screw this planet up, the gap between “as bad as we can make Earth” and “as good as we can make Mars” is pretty huge, right? And not in a way that is optimistic for Mars.
True it's probably easier to survive on earth in some luxury bunker than on Mars no matter how much we destroy earth. Alternative theories: billionaire space tourism, it was never really about mars but about asteroid mining, it was never about mars he just wants the government subsidies
> True it's probably easier to survive on earth in some luxury bunker than on Mars no matter how much we destroy earth.
Definitely, and by a large margin.
If I said Mars combines the warmth of Antarctica with the moisture of the Sahara, the air pressure of the peak of Mount Everest, the environmental quality of a superfund cleanup site, the surface illumination after the 1883 Krakatoa explosion and subsequent volcanic winter, and the UV radiation from a completely destroyed ozone layer…
…if I said all that, I'd be understating how harsh Mars is.
The most positive thing I can say about colonising Mars is that the mere ability to actually do so will mean being able to recover from any possible catastrophe that comes our way.
