Society has long debated on governments prioritising their resources looking for life on other planets, or shift their focus to problems on earth first. While it may be a great solution for climate change, there are some considerations to be aware of.
Locating life on a new planet will be a stepping-stone for hummanity to relocate. As climate change brings irreversible effects alone with population overgrowth, it serves as a restart solution to prolong our species. In addition, we can potentially bring in a source of food which can grow, such as livestock, agriculture, and maybe fish farming – given that we can regrow our resources.
In contrary to finding an eco-friendly utopia by moving to another planet, the shortcomings exist. Aside from the unguaranteed likelyhood of finding a habitable planet in our Galaxy, we must consider how long the process of finding one takes. Since we are completely new to this idea, the money spent on research over decades or centuries, may end up dwindling the economy which is already facing many problems. To add on, with our current technology on transport and logistics into space, we do not possess enough energy in the world to take the entire population of hummanity to a different place with our resources and belongings. Furthermore, we lack the tools to predict danger such as asteroids collisions or deadly-radioactive gamma ray blasts from other planets. In the end, only civilians with enough money will be able to afford flying off, giving an unfair advantage to the rest.
In conclusion, searcing for life on a different planet is a preferred solution to compensate for climate change. However, with the current situation we are facing in the world as of right now, focusing on internal affairs is the priority, before we can take off.