Cody Toney-Griffith

Cody Toney-Griffith

Professor Belli

Archive Write-Up Draft 1

12/12/16

Cover letter

Currently I’m in the process of finalizing an annotated bibliography of all the sources ill be using to complete my paper. I have also begun to flesh out my paragraphs polishing my topic sentences and providing quotes to back evidence within each body paragraph. I haven’t currently worked on my conclusion as of yet because I don’t quite like how the body of my essay is shaping out. I will focus in the beginning on the history of terraforming, where it came from and how it made its way into the real world. After I shape out its history I want to provide a thorough explanation of what terraforming is, and provide at least one example on how it could possibly be done in real life. Its theoretical application will lead into the ethical issues surrounding the topic, giving an explanation on the sides of the idea and what each side stands for. With the ethical and unethical aspects fleshed out, I will work on why humanity wants to terraform and why our need for our own survival usually leaves damage done behind. My conclusion will be based around if the idea of terraforming is ethical or unethical and why it should be heavily studied for the preservation of mankind and extraterrestrial kind alike. During the essay I will also raise a few questions which I will personally answer in the conclusion bringing questions raised throughout the essay to a close.

Science fiction has a long history of inspiring people to create many of the amazing inventions that have shaped and defined our world and the way we live our daily lives. Scientist and engineers alike have taken concepts from the fictional worlds these authors have created and made many of them a reality. One concept starting to become a reality straight from the works of science fiction is terraforming. The concept of terraforming was first introduced to the world in Olaf Stapledon’s fictional tour de force “Last and First men” in 1930, and was given its name by Jack Williamson in a short story called “Collision Orbit” in 1942. It wasn’t until 1976 that the concept of terraforming was taken from the works of fiction into the world of reality when James Oberg published the proceedings of a workshop examining the possibilities of terraforming mars.With the idea of terraforming now a reality the notion of weather its ethical or unethical comes to light when it’s under discussion, to understand if its ethical or not first there must be an understanding of what exactly terraforming is.

Terraforming which literally means “Earth Shaping”, is “a process of planetary engineering by which the extant environment of a planetary body is transformed into an environment capable of supporting human inhabitants” (On the moral permissibility of terraforming, Pg. 1). To terraform a planet is to change itshostile environment (i.e. too cold, too hot, and/or has an unbreathable atmosphere) and alter it in order to be suitable for human life.This could involve modifying the temperature, atmosphere, surface topography, ecology – or all of the above – in order to make a planet or moon more “Earth-like”.There are many different theories on how to terraform planets based on the condition they are currently in, and the distance it is from the current sun they revolve around called the “safe zone”. The most practical theory would be the construction of domes around the planet and the use of orbital mirrors to redirect sunlight into the domes which would gradually raise the temperature. The water icetrapped on the planet’s surface would then melt, and when combined with organic molecules and finely ground sand, soil could be made. Plants could then be grown to produce oxygen, which combined with nitrogen gas, would produce a breathable atmosphere. In other words, we are basically destroying another planets ecosystem and creating our own so we can thrive on that planet. “Humans have demonstrated that they are capable of altering environments on planetary a scale” (Christopher P. Mckay, Pg 2227). We have already altered the planet earth’s environment over our tenure on this planet, by “inadvertently changing the climate of the earth by enhancing the greenhouse effect” (Christopher P. Mckay, Pg2227). Using this knowledge, we can seek more realistic theories on how to terraform other planets and moons.

In many science fiction textthere are many examples of altering planetary environments to be more suitable to human life, many of which predate the scientific studies by many decades. And in these texts usually deal with an alien element trying to terraform earth for their own survival, trying to destroy humanity and take its planet or its planets resources. In Olaf Stapleton’s “Last and First Men” (1930), it describes how humanity’s descendants terraform Venus after Earth becomes uninhabitable; and in the process, commits genocide against the native aquatic life. These are where the ethical issues arise in the topic of terraforming another planet, we would be invading and possibly causing the extinction of another species for the purpose for preserving humanity.

The ethical issues dealing with terraforming are based in four ethical theories Anthropocentrism, Zoocentrism, Ecocentrism, and Preservationism. Anthropocentrism states that only human beings have rights, people have a right to exist, and are entitled to their dignity and freedom from injustice. Zoocentrism expands these rights beyond just humanity and grants them to animals, “assigning intrinsic value to animals that are considered sentient” (Martyn J. Fogg, Pg. 5). Ecocentrism values all life stating that all life is scared and has a right to exist and flourish. Perservationism also known as Cosmic Perservationism, states that nature should be respected as it is. “The cosmos has its own values, they claim and its mere existence gives it not only the right to exist but the right to be preserved from any human intent” (Martyn J. Fogg, Pg. 6). With terraforming another planet, we will be invading another world that could possibly have sentient life. If that planet has sentient life it will be wiped out when we start our processes of making it “Earth-like”. Each ethical thought on terraforming is based in one of these four ethical theories, stating an argument for or against terraforming another planet. In order for it to be ethical the planet has to be devoid of all life, but planets devoid of all possibilities of life prove to be the hardest or near impossible to terraform to fit human existence. This raises the question does the survival of humanity outweigh the extinction of another species.

“Human civilization has survived for 5 millennia. If it is to persist for timescales that are orders of magnitude than this, then we will be faced with anthropogenic and natural environmental changes that will require active geo-engineering to reverse” (Christopher P. Mckay, Pg 2229). Mckay states that in order for humanity to keep surviving we must figure out how to reverse what we have done to our own planet. For our own survival we must learn from our mistakes and repair what we have done, other scientist state otherwise. In an interview with Bigthink.com Stephen Hawking states “I believe that the long term future of the human race must be in space. It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million.” He goes on to state that “The human race shouldn’t have all its eggs in one basket, or one planet. Let’s hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load”. Hawking believes in order for humanity to survive long term we must leave earth and look to space to colonize. He also believes the future existence of humanity is “fairly bleak”, calling humankinds survival “touch and go”. The major takeaway from Hawking’s comments during the interview is that earth will likely become uninhabitable for mankind and in order for us to continue to survive we must find another planet to not “have all our eggs in one basket, or one planet”.

Paragraph 6-7: The real reason why we study terraforming. Discuss why terraforming is needed to preserve earth. Provide examples from text to back statements.

Paragraph 8: Brief explanation on humanities will to survive as a factor in making decisions sometimes leading to the extinction of other species.

Paragraph 9: Conclusion, Bring the questions posed in each Body paragraph to a close and summarize the reasons why we terraform, and why humanity needs this topic in order to survive as a species.

Works Cited

Schwartz, James S. J. “On the Moral Permissibility of Terraforming.” Ethics and the Environment, vol. 18, no. 2, 2013, pp. 1–31.

Slotnick, Rebecca Sloan. “EXTREMOPHILIC TERRAFORMING.” American Scientist, vol. 88, no. 2, 2000, pp. 124–125.

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,

"The Ethical Dimensions of Space Settlement" (pdf). Martyn J. Fogg. Probability Research Group

FREUDENRICH, CRAIG C. “SCI-FI SCIENCE: USING SCIENCE FICTION TO SET CONTEXT FOR LEARNING SCIENCE.” The Science Teacher, vol. 67, no. 8, 2000, pp. 42–45.

PAK, CHRIS. Terraforming: Ecopolitical Transformations and Environmentalism in Science Fiction. Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2016,

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