SERPENT7

Oz,
The advertising driven Mass Media (Ie, t.v. and cable) is damaging to us in that it shortens our attention spans, and keeps us misinformed. (Read 'Manufactured Consent by Noam Chomsky for more on this effect.)
I never mentioned forcing anyone to do anything, let alone the egg-heads. While on the one hand, i do not think the state of the world is the fault of nor the sole responsibility of these geniuses, i also do not think they give much thought to the moral implications of the things they create. (Most computer science people i know cannot wait for AI to be a reality, even though they all recognize the folly of giving physical power to a cognitively independant being that possess no self restraint or morality.)
I agree w/ you that the moon job would be alot more exciting, but this is only because the environment is such an unknown and nearly unquantifiable endeavor. (The moon produces tangible progress and rewards, whereas how do you measure environmental success?)
I also agree w/ you that space should not be ignored, and that it is all a matter of political will. However, I also think that the earthly issues should not be ignored either.
As for being dishonest about how much damage is being done to the environment, no one knows how much the earth can take, because we have never killed one before! Unfortunately, many environmentalists make the mistake of trying to illustrate things through fear. This is (imho) because the damage done is hard to see, or quantify, or understsand, or communicate effectively.
The environment is important, but it is not the only important thing out there. So yes, i see your frustration.

Pragma,
I never faulted anyone for not 'dropping out to join the peace corps.' I never even blamed any one group for screwing up the earth. Mostly i was trying to encourage people here to acknowledge collective responsibilty for caring for thier own backyard, rather than worrying about what is over the horizon.
'Future' is a self-fullfilling prophesy. (People believe our future is in space, so they bend thier energy to that end, and ignore fixing things here. Therefore, space colonization becomes not just possible, but vital, and therefore inevitable.)
I never said 'going to space was an entirly useless venture.' to quote myself, "(BTW, I never advocated ignoring space. More on that later.)"