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TerraForming
Cody Toney-Griffith
ENG 2420
12/05/2016
What is Terraforming?
• Terraforming is the process whereby a hostile environment (i.e. a planet that is
too cold, too hot, and/or has an unbreathable atmosphere) is altered in order to
be suitable for human life.
• Concept appeared in “Olaf Stapledon’s fictional tour de force “Last and First Men”
in 1930”.
• Coined by Jack Williamson In the science-fiction story(Collision Orbit) in 1942.
Is it Possible?
• Humanity has already demonstrated that they are capable of altering
environments on planetary scales.
• Enhancing the greenhouse effect.
Why Terraform?
• Survival
• Learning more about Earth through researching how to make another world
Earth like.
• Resources.
• Expand Humanity beyond Earth providing one solution to over population.
• Awakens the sense of progress for humanity.
Is it Ethical?
• Terraforming becomes unethical/ethical under specific circumstances.
• Can lead to the genocide of another Lifeform.
• It’s the invasion and conquering of another planet.
• Humanity is known for bringing other species to the brink of
extinction or to extinction for our own needs.
Conclusion
• Terraforming is a future possibility, science fiction brought to life.
• Humanity is coded to survive by any means necessary.
• That need makes us want to expand beyond our planet.
• With the right steps Ethical Terraforming can be done.
• Through Terraforming we may be able to reverse the damage we have
done to earth.
• If there’s a will there’s a way.
Works Cited
• Schwartz, James S. J. “On the Moral Permissibility of Terraforming.” Ethics and the Environment, vol. 18, no. 2, 2013, pp. 1–
31. www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/ethicsenviro.18.2.1.
• Luke, Timothy W. “Environmental Emulations: Terraforming Technologies and the Tourist Trade at Biosphere 2.”
Ecocritique: Contesting the Politics of Nature, Economy, and Culture, NED - New edition, University of Minnesota Press,
1997, pp. 95–114, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.cttts574.9.
• PAK, CHRIS. Terraforming: Ecopolitical Transformations and Environmentalism in Science Fiction. Liverpool, Liverpool
University Press, 2016, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1gpcb56.
• Brunn, Stanley D., Martyn J. Fogg, and Christopher P. Mckay. Engineering Earth: The Impacts of Megaengineering Projects.
Dordrecht: Springer, 2011. Print
• Robert M. Zubrin, Christopher P. Mckay. 29th Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit: Technological Requirements for
Terraforming Mars. 1993
Thank you