The modern environmental movement is tackling these problems head-on by promoting energy efficiency, recycling, and renewable resources. While these strategies and technologies are vital, they will be woefully insufficient to provide for a prosperous, long-lived global society with a moderate-to-high standard of living. With the rapid industrialization and increases living standards in formerly underdeveloped countries, the strain on the Earth's environment will increase despite our best efforts at conservation.

The laws of physics prohibit recycling from being 100% efficient - there will always be wasted energy and a loss of materials after the recycling is complete. Increasing energy efficiency will reduce the rate at which our energy consumption is growing, but it will nonetheless grow - eventually outstripping the ability of terrestrial resources to meet the demand.

And renewable resources will undoubtedly contribute to reducing the overall strain on the environment; but they, too, will be net consumers of energy. What then, shall humanity do when the inevitable depletion of Earth's resources occurs? Our civilization will either collapse (through wars, economic decay, or gradual social anarchy) or, if we take advantage of a currently untapped INFINITE set of resources, we may prosper and thrive.

Where are these untapped INFINITE resources? They are all around us - we merely have to move a few hundred kilometers straight up into space to access them. Once there, a literal universe of energy, raw materials and real estate is the province of humanity.

A future in which the environmental movement embraces space exploration, space resource utilization, and eventually space settlement will not only preserve humanity, but potentially all the life forms and habitats that make the Earth our home - and the only place in the known universe that supports life of any kind.

Can we access these resources today? No, unfortunately, we cannot.

But we know how to build the systems that can. In 1962, the goal of sending a human to the Moon seemed impossible. But after 7 years of national determination and lots of engineering talent, Neil Armstrong secured his place in the history books by being the first to tread its surface. This goal may not be so easily achieved, perhaps taking decades to see fruition - but if we don't soon begin to figure out how to access the abundant resources of space for the betterment of humanity and all the denizens of Planet Earth, it may soon be too late.

Gregory Matloff is co-author of the new book, Paradise Regained: The Regreening of Earth that describes how the resources of space can be used to help solve energy and environmental problems here on Earth. C Bangs, an artist who merges art and science did the chapter frontispieces, applying her experience as a former NASA Faculty Fellow.

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