34
No cities on the Moon: a billion tons of water is not enough for sustainability
(www.frontiersin.org)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2026
34 points (94.7% liked)
Science
22493 readers
109 users here now
Subscribe to see new publications and popular science coverage of current research on your homepage
founded 7 years ago
MODERATORS
Currently we are destroying a formerly perfect environment.
That formerly perfect environment could not support the current human population. And I'm not saying we're doing a good job in terms of long term planning here. I'm merely pointing out that we have the ability to shape our environment, and that's what allowed for our civilization to exist in the first place.
Great at shaping our own environment for the immediate stuff like shelter, temperature, food, logistics. But the more foundational long-term stuff, like an atmosphere or a local ecology? We don't have a great track record.
To be fair, there was no evolutionary driver for that kind of large scale and long term planning. Humans evolved in an environment where it was important to prioritize immediate survival over long horizon goals. So, we're notoriously bad at making any sacrifices in the short term for the benefit of the long term. And on top of it all, capitalism makes the whole problem a whole lot worse by rewarding the most destructive and wasteful behaviors.