Protect Earth, Not Colonize Mars: Barack Obama at Paris Summit

At the summit, Barack Obama discussed his climate record at the White House (File/AFP)

Paris:

Before dreaming of colonizing Mars, humans must protect Earth as not even nuclear war and unbridled climate change can make the red planet more habitable, Barack Obama said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a renewable energy conference in the French capital Paris, the former US president referred to Silicon Valley’s “tycoons, many of whom are building spacecraft that can take humans to Mars”.

“But when I hear some people talking about plans to colonize Mars because Earth’s environment could become so degraded that it becomes uninhabitable, I look at them like, what are you talking about?”

“Even after a nuclear war, Earth will be more habitable than Mars. Even if we don’t do anything about climate change, it will still have oxygen — and as far as we know, Mars doesn’t,” Obama said.

“I would rather we invest in taking care of this planet,” he continued, saying space exploration should be about gathering knowledge and discovery rather than creating new habitats for humanity.

“We were designed for this place, and it would be great if we kept the place in a livable way,” he concluded.

During the hour-long speech, Obama discussed the climate record from 2009 to 2017 in the White House.

As for his successor and potential future president, Donald Trump, a longtime climate skeptic who withdrew the United States from the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, Obama said, The facts speak for themselves.

Obama spoke as a special guest at the opening ceremony of the POwR.Earth Summit, organized by two renewable energy entrepreneurs and attended by industry figures.

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