When humans faced extinction

"This means that, for a while, humanity was in a perilous state, vulnerable to disease, environmental disasters and conflict. If any of these factors had turned against us, we would not be here."

Yes, there is strength in numbers . . . but how much safer are we now? A global population of a vanishingly small 2000 definitely puts humans on the endangered species list -- but those 2000 long-gone humans wouldn't have had access to biowarfare factories or nuclear power. They would have been spared the industrial toxins and atmospheric pollution we take for granted.

The world population is now so staggeringly high that scientists realize we can't go on unless we radically minimize our birth-rate or colonize space; one estimate demands that we colonize the equivalent of two new Earths or else Earth's resources will be impoverished in a mere 50 years. If we fail, humans (among countless other species) may find their numbers decimated by food and energy shortages.

Wisely, China is beginning to lurch spaceward, with plans to mine the Moon for energy-rich Helium 3. The Western world will follow, but perhaps only at the last possible moment.

The culture that triumphs over the coming eco-debacle will inherit a new world, perhaps even a newly accessible solar system. But at what cost?