I love all the efforts humans put towards trying to understand and tame the wilds of space, but it makes me immensely sad that we choose not to put the same efforts towards vastly easier & simpler problems that would have a much more immediate positive impact. Food insecurity, medical access, climate change, etc. are all problems we know how to solve - but we don't.
While I think the idea of colonizing Mars is a fantasy, I also disagree that your problems are “easy”.
Because all those problems are human problems. Humans are short-sighted and selfish. Climate change stands out here. Sure, we know to fix that. Now make it happen. Get politicians to tell the fossil fuel extractors and refiners in their districts are out of a job. Now get people to give up their cars. Now tell people they can’t eat meat.
Oh, those are extreme examples, you might say. There are economic incentives and taxation that could ease the transition and provide incentives. We can develop better photovoltaics and a host of other green energy tech. Sure, we absolutely can! Now create those taxes so they don’t create perverse incentives, and we can have reduced tax spec…ah, and now it is way way way beyond easy.
