Human-caused climate change, ocean acidification and species
extinctions may eventually threaten the collapse of civilization, according to
some scientists, while other people argue that for political or economic
reasons we should allow industrial development to continue without
restrictions.
In a new paper, two astrophysicists argue that these questions
may soon be resolvable scientifically, thanks to new data about the Earth and
about other planets in our galaxy, and by combining the earth-based science of
sustainability with the space-oriented field of astrobiology.