[space] Planetfall isn't the best option.

[Morrus]

Don't say that! The starting premise of the campaign I'm working on is that a bunch of people are fleeing a damaged Earth to an exoplanet that will probably need a bit of work.

If you can alter the environment there, you can do it much easier at home!

 

[Zardnaar]

Don't say that! The starting premise of the campaign I'm working on is that a bunch of people are fleeing a damaged Earth to an exoplanet that will probably need a bit of work.

Leavings not so much of an option for us.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

And the colony dies when they run out of people willing to go on Pepto-Reapplication-Duty. The Pink. The Wintergreen. It was just more than a person can be expected to take.

Orrrr...like the Klingons, they find a way to make the duty seem glorious- and/or high paying- and the colony structure is covered in the bodies of Pepto-Reapplicators

 

[Umbran]

If you can alter the environment there, you can do it much easier at home!

That's not necessarily true.

It is possible, for example, for Earth to be set on a route to runaway greenhouse conditions, which no power mankind has can stop.

You can compare this to a planet that is currently of decent climate, but has too little oxygen in the atmosphere, that really only needs introduction of oxygen-producing plants to turn it over.

However, really the best argument for colonizing other worlds is not about man-made climate change. It is about things farther out of our control. Asteroid strike is an excellent example, though we've had volcanic events on Earth in the past that would also do the trick - a thing that causes such destruction on the Earth such that, if all humans are on the Earth, the ability to recover is destroyed.

 

[MarkB]

If you can alter the environment there, you can do it much easier at home!

On the other hand, if your environment-altering techniques are experimental and unreliable, it's best to test them elsewhere first if that's an option.

 

[Len]

However, really the best argument for colonizing other worlds is not about man-made climate change. It is about things farther out of our control. Asteroid strike is an excellent example, though we've had volcanic events on Earth in the past that would also do the trick - a thing that causes such destruction on the Earth such that, if all humans are on the Earth, the ability to recover is destroyed.

"The Earth is just too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in." - Robert A. Heinlein