Mars 1AC
Contention One: Inherency
1. There is no current US government planned mission to Mars
Mars to Stay, 11 Marstostay.com (Mars to Stay, “Why isn’t it being done?”, http://www.marstostay.com/#/why-isnt-it-being-done/4545841259)
But sadly people would … Apollo missions of the 1960’s.
Text: The United States federal government should provide the necessary support for the deployment of manned missions to Mars.
Contention Two: Infinity & Beyond
2. Numerous credible existential threats to the planet – resource depletion, disease, droughts, famine, climate change, asteroid strikes
Popular Science 11 (Ben Austen; March, “After Earth: Why? Where? How? When?” p. 46, Vol. 278, No. 3)
Earth won't always be … the Earth than on it."
3. Every second we delay expansion costs 10 to the thirty-first power lives
Bostrom 3(Nick, Director of Future of Humanity Institute and Faculty of Philosophy & James Martin 21st Century School at Oxford University, 2003, Is Cosmology Relevant to Transhumanism?http://www.nickbostrom.com/astronomical/waste.pdf)
Suns are illuminating and … human lives per second.
For the science, for the challenge, and for the future of all life on Earth, a Mars mission must be attempted.
Zubrin 11 (Robert, former Chairman of the National Space Society, and President of the Mars Society; The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must; 2011; http://io9.com/5812255/the-case-for-mars-the-plan-to-settle-the-red-planet-and-why-we-must)
Where there is no … Let's do it.
3. Valuing human survival does not mean devaluing other moral concerns
Matheny, 11 (Jason Gaverick, research associate with the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University, “Ought we worry about human extinction?”,http://jgmatheny.org/extinctionethics.htm)
This paper supports … enough to colonize space.
Contention Three: In Bad Waters
4. Over-abstraction in low water level regions causes destructive exploitation of groundwater and water tables on Earth.
EEA No Date Given (European Environment Agency; Water Resources: “Impacts due to over-abstraction”; http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/water/water-resources/impacts-due-to-over-abstraction)
Water availability problems … facing overexploitation problems (MIMAM, 2000).
5. Groundwater exploitation destroys coastal ecosystems
NRHP 1 (National River Health Program; E N V I R O N M E N T A L F L O W S I N I T I A T I V E T E C H N I C A L R E P O R T: “ Environmental Water Requirements to Maintain Groundwater Dependent Ecosystem”; Copyright 2001; Author: Sinclair Knight Merz; http://www.environment.gov.au/water/publications/environmental/rivers/nrhp/pubs/groundwater.pdf)
2.2.3 Estuarine and near shore … marine communities being smothered.
And coastal ecosystems are critical to overall biodiversity
Burke et al 1 (Coastal Ecosystems: Lauretta Burke, Yumiko Kura, Ken Kassem, Carmen Revenga, Mark Spalding, and Don McAllister, Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems: Coastal Ecosystems, World Resources Institute, Washington D.C.; April 2001; http://pdf.wri.org/page_coastal.pdf)
Coastal and marine … have yet to be realized.
Biodiversity is key to check extinction
Watson 6 (Captain Paul, Founder and President of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, has a show on Animal Planet, Last Mod 9-17, http://www.eco-action.org/dt/beerswil.html)
The facts are clear… of massive human destruction.
Water has been discovered on mars and can play a critical role in a shift away from water exploitation
Chavis 11 (Jason C. Chavis, Senior Writer at Bright Hub; Bright Hub: “Are We Alone? How Water On Mars Can Help Us Find Out; August 31, 2011; http://www.brighthub.com/science/space/articles/124174.aspx)
The search for water … on science fiction at this time.
Solvency:
US stewardship is key to avert extinction
Oberg 99 Space Writer and former Space Flight Engineer (James, Space Power Theory, http://www.jamesoberg.com/books/spt/new-CHAPTERSw_figs.pdf)
We have the great gift … more than our country.
12. Tech is feasible now – talking about future action hinders what we can do today. Must at least solve the idea of exploration
Austen 11 (Ben, a contributing editor of Harper's Magazine; March 2011; Popular Science Magazine: “AFTER EARTH: Why? Where? How? When?”; http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-02/after-earth-why-where-how-and-when-we-might-leave-our-home-planet)
None of the threats … readiness to leave immediately.
Attempts to colonize the Moon are insufficient, we must reach Mars in order to access untapped resources and create a sustainable civilization
Zubrin 96 (former Chairman of the National Space Society, and President of the Mars Society, Robert, Ad Astra, “The Case for Colonizing Mars,” July/August, http://nss.org/settlement/mars/zubrin-colonize.html)
Among extraterrestrial bodies … grow crops for export.
And we must be willing to accept that just as in any new exploration, there will be failures and death. But only through the pursuit of Mars and the acceptance of this fact can we reify the “give us liberty or give us death” sentiment that is now lost. Only then will we truly create the possibility for expansion. ( we do not condone the gendered discourse in this article)
Burke 10 (Ray, MSc from University College London – The Mars Society Member - former Arts and Humanities Channel Manager at Helium.com; May 25, 2010; “Going to Mars”; http://www.helium.com/items/1843314-going-to-mars-what-if-astronauts-die?page=1)
There are always … awaits its new life.
Framework:
No risk of nuclear war – deterrence checks
Walsh 85, Lieutenant colonel in Air Force, Edward, “Nuclear War Opposing Viewpoints, p. 48
The most difficult keynote … unfeasible and untenable technically.
Even irrational leaders understand a nuclear war would be devastating – no risk of war
Rauchhaus 9 Robert, Department of Political Science University of California
Sage Journals, “Evaluating the Nuclear Peace Hypothesis: A Quantitative Approach” 2/5/2009 http://jcr.sagepub.com/content/53/2/258.full.pdf+html [Lockwood]
From the early days of … a rather unambiguous prediction.8
And even if it did occur, global nuclear war kills less than one billion people – no risk of extinction
Martin 82 (Brian, Professor of Social Sciences in the School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication at the University of Wollongong and a physicist whose research interests include stratospheric modeling, former faculty at the Department of Math and Science at the Australian National University, “The global health effects of nuclear war” http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/82cab/index.html)
A major global nuclear … ozone, climate and fires.
Prioritizing war over environmental destruction is regressive – only a new ethic of environmental concern can solve
Kendall 92 (11/19/92, Henry W., former chair of the Union of Concerned Scientists; “World Scientists' Warning to Humanity”,http://www.worldtrans.org/whole/warning.html)
Human beings and the … us in this task.
Environmental degradation makes extinction inevitable.
Kangas 94, Steve, editor of Liberalism Resurgent, The environment heals slowly -- we are destroying it rapidly.
There are two types … inevitably become permanent.
Space exploration is inherently linked with positive environmental benefits – plan is a step towards a new-found environmentalism.
Cockell et al. 2 ( Charles Cockell a,b, *, Don White c , Douglas Messier d , M. Dale Stokes e a Earth and Space Foundation, 86 Catharine Street, CB1 3AR Cambridge, UK b Earth and Space Foundation, Mountain View, CA, USA c Earthtrust, 25 Kaneohe Bay Drive, Suite 205, Kailua, HI 96734, USA d 1400 South Joyce Street, Arlington, VA 22202, USA e Marine Physical Laboratory, 0238, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 8820 Shellback Way, La Jolla, CA 92037, US; Earth and Space Foundation; Space Policy 18 (2002) 301–306: “ Fostering links between environmental and space exploration: the Earth and Space Foundation”; http://www.mpl.ucsd.edu/people/gdeane/outreach/pub.pdfs/earht_and_space.pdf)
The community that focuses … by spacefaring civilization.