Barack Obama calls for “investing in the care” of Earth rather than in the colonization of Mars

“The environment on Earth must be preserved, well before humans even think of colonizing Mars, which will never be as livable,” underlined this Wednesday March 13 in Paris Barack Obama, exceptional guest star of a conference on the energetic transition.

The former US president spoke of “the tycoons of Silicon Valley, many of whom build spaceships (…)

“I love space exploration, and I look forward to seeing us get to Mars and beyond (…) But when I hear some people say that the plan is to colonize Mars because the environment on the Earth could deteriorate, that it would become unlivable… But what do you say?!”

“Even after a nuclear war, which I am not minimizing, Earth would be more livable than Mars!” launched the former tenant of the White House.

“We were designed for Earth”

“Even if we did nothing against climate change, it would still have oxygen, and as far as we know, Mars does not,” he explained, in front of an audience made up in particular of professionals renewable energies, gathered in the amphitheater of the CNIT of Paris-La Défense.

“I would prefer that we invest in taking care of this planet here. The reason why we go into space is for its discovery, its knowledge, not because we are going to create a better situation there. We were designed for this place and it would be good if we preserved it, so that it remained livable,” he said.

For an hour on stage, the former head of state, interviewed by a journalist, spoke about his action at the White House for the climate, ecological transition (standards for industry, support for renewable energies in the midst of the 2008 crisis -2009), the preservation of natural areas…

However, he did not mention that of his successor, Donald Trump, who in 2017 took his country out of the Paris climate agreement, signed by Obama two years before. “The facts speak for themselves,” he simply said.

Barack Obama opened with this evening a meeting called Power Earth Summit, organized by two renewable energy entrepreneurs and bringing together French players on the subject on Thursday and Friday.