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Should we spend valuble resources such as money on space exploration? Other than space exploration we could use valuble resouses on things to help our earth and the people on earth in many ways before exploring a whole other place.

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We should not spend valuable resources on space exploration because of things on earth that need to be fixed and the people and animals on earth that need to be helped. Also because of how dangerous it is to go to space.

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Space exploration is too dangerous for the human brain and they have not figured out how to travel to space without it being too dangerous for the human brain because of radiation,ect.

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Trip to Mars could damage astronauts' brains

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Experiments in mice suggest the high-energy particles that would zap astronauts on a mission to Mars could leave the explorers with brain damage.

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There are more things we should spend the space exploration money on. The earth needs money to be taken care of and the people on earth are struggling. We should use space exploration money on helping rainforest, animals, starving people, people getting kicked out of there homes, ect.

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Shouldn't We Fix the Earth First? So Many Problems Here, Why Go To Space?

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The Space exploration money should be used on people struggling with food, forests  getting cut down ( deforestation), homeless people needing help living, animal extinction, health problems , and many more things.

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Earth's forests are emptying.

Half of their inhabitants have disappeared in the last 40 years, according to a new report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The report tracked populations of 268 species of forest-dwelling birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles worldwide between 1970 and 2014 (the most recent year for which data is available). The results showed that forest animal populations have declined by 53% worldwide, and humans are to blame.

More than 80% of all terrestrial animal, plant, and insect species call forests home. However, a combination of habitat destruction, hunting, the spread of invasive species, climate change, and disease are killing off forest animals, the researchers said.

Without those animals, forests can't perform the functions we rely on, since animals pollinate forest plants, disperse seeds, and nourish the soil with their waste.

"Forests depend on an intact animal world to perform functions essential to life," Susanne Winter, a program director at the WWF, told EcoWatch.

Forests help us fight climate change

One of the most critical roles forests play is in mitigating climate change. Trees suck enormous amounts of carbon dioxide out of the air and embed the carbon in their wood and the soil. A recent study found that planting new trees over an area the size of the US could suck away two-thirds of all the carbon dioxide emissions that humans have pumped into the atmosphere.

"Without animals, it is harder for forests to absorb carbon, as tree species important for protecting the climate could be lost without animals," Winter said.

In South America and Africa, for example, many of the tree species that absorb the most carbon rely on large birds and primates to eat their fruits and spread their large seeds, according to the report. Without them, those trees would have difficulty reproducing and forests would lose their best carbon-storing trees.

"Forests are our greatest natural ally in the fight against global warming," Winter said. "If we want to reverse the worldwide decline in biodiversity and prevent the climate crisis, we need to protect the forests and the species living there."

Forests also filter water - as water makes its way to reservoirs or groundwater reserves, the roots and soil in forests separate it from sediment and pollution that it collects along the way. What's more, forests regulate the global water cycle, since trees' leaves, branches, and roots store or release water vapor.

Climate models show that deforestation in Central Africa could lead to a 15% drop in rainfall in the US Midwest, and Amazon deforestation could cut Texas rainfall by 25%.

Humans also get food, wood, and medicine from the abundance of plants and animals in forests. Worldwide, 1.6 billion people rely on forests for their livelihoods, including 70 million indigenous people, according to the United Nations. About 300 million people live in forests, according to WWF.

The Earth's 6th mass extinction

A growing body of evidence suggests that the Earth is in the middle of a mass extinction event - the sixth of its kind in the planet's history.

More than 27% of all assessed species on the planet are threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List. Currently, 40% of the planet's amphibians, 25% of its mammals, 14% of its birds, and 33% of its coral reefs are threatened. A February study found that 40% of the world's insect species are in decline.

Human activity, specifically deforestation and greenhouse-gas emissions, are to blame: Overall, extinction rates are 1,000 times higher than they would be if humans weren't around, according to a 2014 study.

The new WWF report highlights the impacts of human activity on forests specifically. According to the research, the disappearance or degradation of forests accounts for 60% of the threats to forest animals. Animal populations have suffered the most in tropical forests, which are home to 75% of the declining species analyzed in the report. Those forests support over half of the species on all of Earth's land.

Worldwide, humans have cleared 30% of all forest cover, according to the World Resources Institute. The planet has lost 9% of its tree cover since 2000.

Hunting, too, is a major culprit for declining animal populations - more than half of the species threatened by over-hunting, according to the report, are African primates, since they're hunted in the bushmeat trade. In total, the researchers found that 40 of the 112 primate species analyzed were threatened by over-hunting.

Climate change poses the third big threat to forest animals. Many forest species are struggling to adapt to rising temperatures and more extreme weather. For example, more frequent droughts threaten Asian elephants, which rely on daily access to fresh water. And rising sea levels destroy coastal habitat, adding stress to already threatened species like the Bengal tiger.

Meanwhile, bird populations in the western Amazon have dwindled since 2001, likely because of the area's unusually high rainfall, the WWF researchers suspect. Dry conditions in other parts of the Amazon have increased the risk of severe wildfires.

Humans also move invasive species across the globe, and the newcomers can take over ecosystems and gobble up resources that sustain native animals. Invasive species are the second biggest driver of extinction worldwide, according to the IUCN. They're the primary cause of island extinctions, since many rare species are only found on one island or archipelago.

Most forest animals face multiple threats from this list, the report found.

The report doesn't capture the full extent of the problem - but there is still hope

The WWF analysis isn't comprehensive: It took the most thorough look at bird and mammal populations in Europe and North America. Over half of the species in the report are from the Americas, while less than 10% of known species in other forest regions were represented. Africa had the fewest species analyzed in the report.

According to the authors, these gaps are due to a lack of data, so they called for more efforts to monitor wildlife populations in underrepresented forests.

"The first step towards protecting threatened wildlife is understanding trends in their populations and what drives their decline," Louise McRae, a conservation scientist and a co-author of the report, said in a release.

The team also suggested that animal populations should be considered an important measure of a forest's health

Helping forest animals avoid extinction is not as simple as planting more trees, the report added, since it can take decades for animal populations to recover even after tree cover gets replaced. Additionally, since most animals face more than one threat, efforts to save them require more than one approach.

Mountain gorilla numbers, for example, are finally on the rise due to decades of conservation work in Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That's thanks to a multi-faceted strategy that involves "engagement with the local community, daily anti-poaching and anti-snare patrols, veterinary care, regulated eco-tourism and effective law enforcement," the report authors wrote.

Scientists once thought the mountain gorillas would be extinct by 2000, but the most recent estimates suggest there are over 1,000 of them worldwide.

"In order to reverse the decline of forest biodiversity, it is crucial to address the multiple pressures on forest species," the report authors wrote. But with the right strategies, they said, "the recovery of forest species populations is possible."

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We've killed off more than 50% of forest animals on Earth, a new report found - even more evidence of a 6th mass extinction

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Earth's forests are emptying. Half of their inhabitants have disappeared in the last 40 years, according to a new report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The report tracked populations of 268 species of forest-dwelling birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles worldwide between 1970 and 2014 (the most recent year for which data is available).

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Advocates of space exploration often get asked the question: "Why should we spend money on NASA where there are so many problems here on Earth?" Universe Today has been compiling a list of responses to this question by space-bloggers from across the web. Check it out, there are some great answers.

In response to Universe Today's call for answers, we decided to compile a list of our top reasons that space exploration is a worthwhile endeavor. I also encourage everyone to read The Case for Space Exploration, a collection of essays and articles put together by the Space Foundation.

Now, without further ado, our list:

1. Perspective - As our telescopes probe the depths of space and time and our spacecraft missions reveal the scale and diversity of worlds even within our own solar system, we are provided with a humbling sense of our place in the universe. Carl Sagan expressed the significance of this perspective in a beautiful passage in his book Pale Blue Dot. You can also listen to Sagan himself read the passage in this video clip. The world would be a better place if everyone watched that video.

2. Protecting and Understanding our World -

3. Inspiration - The Apollo missions inspired an entire generation of students to pursue math and science careers. As our society becomes more technology-dependent, the populace needs to become scientifically literate to keep up. Telling students that "You could be the first astronaut on Mars!" or "You could be the one driving the next Mars rovers!" is a pretty effective way of inspiring them to study science and math.

4. The Economy - NASA does not launch buckets of cash into space. The majority of the money spent on space exploration goes toward the salaries of thousands of skilled American workers who make NASA's missions so successful. For more on this, and its connection to the recent Mars rover budget scare, check this post.

5. Exploration - To be human is to be an explorer. It is part of who we are: since the first tribes left the African savanna and spread into Europe and Asia, we have had the need to explore the unknown. Now humans have visited or settled every corner of the globe. The instinct to explore is still active, but there are very few outlets. Some people seek out extreme or exotic places to satisfy this need, risking their lives to do so. Others look to the skies. It may be an old cliche, but Star Trek had it right: Space is the final frontier, and it calls to the explorer in all of us.

6. New Technology - Space exploration brings together a lot of smart people from many different fields and puts them to work on some very difficult problems. The result is not only fantastic scientific discoveries, but also many useful inventions. From healthier baby food to technology to better diagnose breast cancer, to farther flying golf balls, NASA technology is all around you. Check here for an extensive list.

7. Answering The Big Questions - How did life begin? How did the universe begin? How was our world created? Are we alone? These questions and others have been asked by every generation since the dawn of time. That we can even ask them is a testament to the power of the human brain. Now, because we are smart enough and bold enough to explore the universe, we are finding the answers. In the words of Carl Sagan, "We are starstuff contemplating the stars."

8. International Collaboration - Large space exploration projects are almost always the result of international cooperation. The International Space Station is the most obvious example, but the space shuttle regularly has astronauts from other nations, and many robotic missions include instruments built by teams in other countries. As NASA gears up to return to the moon, precursor missions from Japan, India, China and Russia are already in orbit, are planned, or are under construction. Future human Mars missions will almost certainly involve multiple space agencies to spread the cost among several nations.

9. Long-term Survival - As it stands, all of humanity's eggs are in one small basket called "Earth". It is only a matter of time before something happens to our planet that is so devastating that it changes the course of life as we know it. Whether the disaster is natural, like a rogue comet, or self-inflicted, like nuclear war, it is possible that our home will no longer be habitable. What happens, then, to all of the accomplishments of the last thousand generations of humans? All of our art, our music, our literature, our science, even our very genes could be wiped out. Unless, of course, there are a few humans living elsewhere in the solar system. Space exploration and colonization of the Moon and Mars are an insurance policy for humanity and all of our achievements.

That's what we came up with. We think that, based on the reasons above, it is certainly worth it to spend 0.60% of the national budget (just six out of every thousand dollars) on NASA. We're interested to hear what you think. Is the investment in NASA worth it?

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Nine Good Reasons for Space Exploration - Martian Chronicles

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Advocates of space exploration often get asked the question: "Why should we spend money on NASA where there are so many problems here on Earth?" Universe Today has been compiling a list of responses to this question by space-bloggers from across the web. Check it out, there are some great answers.

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In conclusion, we should not spend valuable recorses such as money on space exploration. If we did not spend valuable recorces on space exploration then on earth we might not have animals going extinct, Starvation, ect