Nowadays, there has been an increase in the number of people who pay attention to the issue of searching for a second planet to act as a last resort. It is well-noted that the ecological environment of the Earth is deteriorating at a rate that can not be overlooked. Consequently, some claim that there may be a need for the future generations to abandon the Earth and live elsewhere. Personally, I completely disagree with the statement, and reasons will be provided in this essay.
The first reason why I think inhabiting on another star is merely a theoretical construct is that there is a considerable distance between us and a potential home. Even with the most frontier technology in the world, it will take us thousands of years to reach the closest star system which is only a few light years away. As a result, the human species must conquer the issue of energy sources not only to travel a distant length but also the preserve the entire population for an amount of time almost equivalent to the total years that the species have existed. This sheer physical impossibility remains this idea in science-fiction fantasy rather than a practical method to save humanity from extinction.
Furthermore, the vast financial resources required for the migration could have been used more proficiently in resolving the Earth’s ecological crisis. For instance, this funding could instead be devoted in the development of carbon capturing devices or building electricity generators from renewable source of energy. Rather than attempting to create a sustainable bio-station from scratch, we should try to fix the existing environment that we have been living in. Therefore, the migration to a utterly fresh planet is financially impractical as more could be done with the same capital in securing a promising future on the original biosphere.
In conclusion, while the idea of finding a planetary new home sounds profound when facing environmental anxieties, it is fundamentally an unrealistic and impracticible imagination due to the vast distance between us and any possible habitat and the high opportunity cost of the investment. Our resource must be focused on restoring the deterioration on the one planet we know could support life.