Socio-scientific issues

Fracking

pollutes water resources

economic potential of extracting oil

Looking for life on other planets

ocean acidification

Alternate energy sources

Mass transport /importation of people and products

causes shellfish and other calcium carbonate dependant organisms to die

We're running out of fossil fuels and need new sources

Lots of countries/cities are not self sustaining and rely on import of goods to feed the masses

Taking samples from other planets

Moving to another planet if earth becomes too damaged

Hydro, wind, thermal, geothermal, biofuel

Not as easy or convenient as fossil fuels, and they cost a lot to implement so we run into the issue of who is going to pay for it

Could end up damaging other planets or species with human intervention

Impacts food chain which means lots of loss of life and species which could cause mass extinction

decrease ph in the ocean

Affects economy and fishing industries for humans

Could introduce foreign diseases or bacteria that could potentially be deadly to life (on both earth and other planets)

Who gets to move, who gets a say, how will that effect trade and other social interactions

Finding out if it is suitable for life, and if not, researching how we could terraform the planet

How to move everything we need from earth to the new celestial body

Getting there would be hard since it would be far away

click to edit

What might happen to the celestial body in future - finding a suitable place to move

Who would get to move and how would we decide who gets to go. Rich people would pay to get to go and it would only benefit them not the whole of society

click to edit

Countries rely on tourists for their income

We don’t have eco-friendly transport methods for large scale transport

Our transport methods rely on the burning of fossil fuels

even small scale transport (eg ferrying from north island to south island) we don’t utilise environmentally friendly methods of transport (eg ferries that run on electricity)

Don't want to pollute water or anything by using it for energy

Hydropower that utilises sea currents is highly effective, but transportation of energy is difficult,
some countries wont have the means (eg they wont have the wind required to make wind turbines worth it) so how do we get energy to them?

Privacy interference - if wind turbines get implemented in more highly populated areas

Risk of contamination

Could introduce new bacteria to earth or to the planet which could cause loss of life

Hard to get samples and transport them

Could help us learn from other planets and better ourselves

What would we do after we found them - study them, keep them as pets, use them in some other way

Would be hard to do and probably cost a lot

Could use other species to help better ourselves and new ways to live

Where to find energy to do this, what energy to use, what energy could you find on other planets

Climate change

Too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which is causing the planet to heat up

Low lying islands vs rising sea levels

Gold mining

Deforestation

Burning the amazon

Good for fires and fuel

Loss of habitats and ecosystems

More CO2 and less oxygen

Why do we want to go to other planets and is it really worth the effort

Is it just curiosity that makes us want to do it or do we have something to achieve from it that can help us

What planets do we choose and why

The ethics of uncovering permafrost

We dig up samples of bygone single cell species-what else are we digging up?