[chii]

that's an interesting proposition. If terraforming is really about engineering the right microbes to slowly (over several millenia even?) the atmosphere to habitable for humans, do we currently have the technology to actually accomplish it? Or is it still too advanced form of engineering?

[excalibur]

We can't even terraform the Earth.

[chii]

we are terraforming the earth - see how much co2 is being pumped out!

[k3liutZu]

Since we're trying to move _away_ from "terra", should we call the current state maybe "marsforming"?

[tsimionescu]

Terraforming refers to 'turning another planet into a second terra'. Marsforming would be 'turning the planet into a second Mars', which wouldn't be particularly useful, since we can't live on Mars anyway.

[flawi]

The joke they're making is that since we are in the process of turning the Earth into a second Mars, we should be calling what we are doing now marsforming.

[chii]

i think you'll find that venus is the place with the runaway greenhouse effect, not mars!

[tsimionescu]

Whoosh... Sorry

[scatters]

We're going towards Venus rather than Mars, though. So "veneraforming".

[thaumasiotes]

The combining form would be marti-. (Compare "Martian".)

[ncmncm]

It is being prepared for species better adapted to high temperatures than us.

[f6v]

I think biology-wise it’s a question of money. We might not be able to engineer such microbes just right now, but we could if we had more resources dedicated to it.

[ramraj07]

With concerted effort I’m sure we can do something about it in a couple decades at best.