A few aggregated facts about our impact on the planet earth that should have jolted us from our business-as-usual mindsets but hasn’t:
At this moment, there are roughly 1 billion people who walk at least a mile for drinkable water every day. In 15 years, 40% of humanity will directly experience the effects of water shortages, and 20% of humanity will be severely effected. The popular consensus pushes this down the road at least 50 years, but the most recent studies point rather convincingly to far sooner.
50% of humanity’s soil will no longer exist in 30 years. In 60 years, humanity will not have enough soil to grow food. Read the dirt if you dare… and tremble. 
If you care to take pride in the deracination our species continues to self-inflict, check out the ever expanding Collapse Data Sheet… Just pour yourself a triple first, because it’s a sincerely sobering read.
The most frightening truth of all is that “renewable energy” won’t come close to tipping the scales back in our favor. The numbers are decisive. We’ll figure it out in time, says the consensus, just as we have throughout our miraculous history. But the issue this time, is time itself. Though it doesn’t appear as such quite yet, we’re discovering precisely how unlimited our time is.
What is clear is the concerted effort of multiple organizations to begin the inevitable colonization of new horizons, specifically, Mars and the Moon. The Moon is a stone’s throw away at 230 thousand miles. Mars is a tad further at nearly 34 million. The good news is that plans to colonize both are well underway, and since the majority of both planet’s resources are already “dead”, there’s little left for our species to destroy.
It’s been almost half a century since the Apollo mission introduced humankind to the lunar surface, and with the global cooperation achieved in the creation of the International Space Station– fifteen nations in all– we could begin setting up shop sooner rather than later. Over 60 nations are now endeavoring to venture into space with the moon at the top of the list.
The moon contains a deep well of resources– metals, minerals, even Lunar water, discovered in 2009– that could be used for the creation of a permanent colony, saving us the herculean effort of transporting terrestrial materials through space. Building would also be a breeze in less gravity.
It would be best to colonize nearer to one of the poles, and on the side of the moon in constant sunlight for growing food. But there are benefits to being close enough to zip over to the dark side, too. The goal is to put our most powerful telescope there, to search for other moons and exo-planets to exploit, and perhaps open a casino.
Micro-meteorites, extreme temperature swings and cosmic radiation are a few of the minor nuisances to life on our earthly satellite. But rumor has it that Thermal Uggs, titanium umbrellas and a Coppertone sun block with SPF 10,000 are already in the works.
All we’ll need to haul over is a few trillion tons of our planet’s fast eroding soil, so as to skip the human manure process Matt Damon so inelegantly indulged in during The Martian. Not sure what all the hubbub is about, really. The shelves at Home Depot are currently stacked with bags and bags and bags of it. And their website claims they deliver…
(For short answers to hard questions, click here.)
