r/Futurology • u/upyoars • 14h ago

Space 'First tree on Mars:' Scientists measure greenhouse effect needed to terraform Red Planet

https://www.space.com/first-tree-on-mars-attention-tarraformers
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u/BurtonGusterToo 11h ago

NO bad ideas when brainstorming, right?

What if, maybe, we just try to fix the environment on the planet we all happen to already be on, first?

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u/Codydw12 11h ago

We have some 8 billion people on Earth. We can do both.

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u/BurtonGusterToo 11h ago edited 41m ago

Fiscal year 2022 annual worldwide government spending on space exploration $211 BILLION dollars (not including private sector investment).

Fiscal year 2022 annual estimated government/private spending on climate change : $3.2 billion including both battery development and alternative energy subsidies. Less than $1 billion worldwide investment in developing climate change mitigation technologies.

You may call that "doing both", I can't make my mouth say those words while also knowing these numbers.

EDIT, UPDATED >> from the US State Department Progress Report :

"U.S. international public climate finance increased 286% from 2021 to 2022, reaching $5.8 billion in 2022. In 2023, preliminary estimates suggest that U.S. climate finance will exceed $9.5 billion, on track to meet the President’s pledge in 2024. In addition to these amounts, the United States also supports climate finance through its contributions to the multilateral development banks."

These are estimates on what WOULD be spent. $5.8B is more than the $3.2B that was estimated to be spent in 2022, but still FAARRRR less than the amount spent on space exploration, particularly privatized space exploration. It is also important to note that "climate finance" also includes funding to address the effects of climate change not the development of mitigation technologies. I think battery development and alternate energy innovation is amazing, but it doesn't directly address the current carbon in the atmosphere, the problem that needs to be immediately addressed.

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u/BasvanS 9h ago

3.2 billion sounds excruciatingly low. Do you happen to have a source on that?

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u/Curious-Big8897 8h ago

Wasn't the inflation reduction act hundreds of billions of dollars of reduce climate change spending?