Look. Earth won't be around forever. Resources are being consumed at a rapid clip by an ever growing population. The climate is heating up. No one wants to pay the Piper. Even if world leaders eventually wake up and take action, it may be too late. What should we do? Well, to be blunt, we should bail out. Those of us with any common sense should cut and run. Get the hell off this seething ball of blazing consumptive madness.

In a word (okay, maybe five), we should go into space.

If that's not enough for you, consider our need to explore the unknown, to satisfy our curiosity, to venture out of our own backyard and check out the rusted old car hulks in other backyards.

Curiosity didn't kill the cat. Curiosity is key to the evolution of any species. Without it, it's dodo time.

That, really, is why we should go into space.

Then there's the technology angle. We've gone to all the bother of designing spacesuits, right? And spaceships too. Should we just toss away that technology? Don't we have a responsibility to use it, expand on it, push back the horizons of where humans can dwell? That, too, is why we should go into space.

Oh, hell. Come if you want. Stay if you will.

But remember. The future has rebounded off the end of time and is headed back towards us full tilt. The least we can do is meet it halfway -- don't you think?