[wayoutthere]

It's also a fallacy to think that humans will be able to escape the gravity well in large numbers. And once we do, the ones in space will quickly become a new species as they adapt to a different environment -- assuming they survive at all.

Science fiction is fun and all, but even an ecologically ruined Earth is going to be a much more welcoming environment to live in than anything else the solar system has to offer. Meaningful exploration of the solar system will be restricted to unmanned probes and complex missions that require 100 Earthbound support staff for each human we send into space.

Continuing to live on Earth will require a big reduction in the amount of energy we use per capita. We're already above what the Earth can realistically handle, and the global population is still growing.