From the extinction of the dusky seaside sparrow, which can be directly traced to the construction of the Kennedy Space Center, to the poisonous rocket fuel contaminating the soil in Russia and Kazakhstan, space travel and environmentalism have never really been happy bedfellows. But one of the strangest debates that involves both of these areas involves something that is only just now being considered seriously: terraforming.
Terraforming, in essence, is the process of making a planet more Earth-like. This is not yet possible using purely existing technology, but could well be in the relatively near future. The most common scenario for terraforming involves placing large mirrors into orbit around Mars, using reflected sunlight to melt its polar ice caps, and introducing Earth life.
If this sounds familiar, it should. It is little more than an "up-to-eleven" version of what we are doing to the Earth right now. This, of course, begs the question: if we rightly condemn the act of polluting our own environment here on Earth, how would we justify what is essentially causing deliberate pollution on Mars?
One could argue, of course, that since there is nothing (that we know of) living on Mars there would be no ecosystem to protect. However, it should be remembered that the environmental movement here of Earth grew just as much out of a sense of place as it did out of a desire to preserve spies and biodiversity. Natural wonders such as the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls are among the phenomena environmentalists have rallied around. Even if there is no life on other planets, would it really be right for humanity to recreate them in its own image?
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