Inventory of CO2 available for terraforming Mars
I love the idea of colonizing Mars, on a purely romantic level.  But on a more practical level, let&#x27;s compare Mars with Antarctica as candidates for large human populations.<p>Mars: no oxygen, atmospheric pressure essentially zero<p>Antarctica: breathable, oxygenated air<p>Mars: maybe a little salty ice below the surface near the poles<p>Antarctica: Covered with freshwater ice<p>Mars: 34 million miles away across empty space<p>Antarctica: a few hundred miles away by boat<p>I mean, Antarctica, or the bottom of the sea, or the peak of Mount Everest all <i>wipe the floor</i> with Mars on every metric you can think of.  And I know that various people have suggested that Mars might be a useful second home for humanity in case some event wipes us all out.. but really, if we get wiped out it&#x27;s going to be self-inflicted, and compared with the difficulty of setting up a viable colony on Mars, the difficulty of sending a few nukes over there is negligible.  It just doesn&#x27;t buy very much insurance.  Sorry to be a downer but this is pretty farfetched.