Should We Terraform the Earth? No!

Terraform is the process of modifying a planet, moon, or other body to a more

habitable atmosphere. We may think that we are making them more similar to
earth, but in fact we are terraforming the earth right now. We do not create a new
ecology out of inhabitable atmosphere like what we do in science fiction movies
we change the habitable atmosphere to serve our personal favor. We change the
physical properties of the earth, including terrains and the living organisms in it.
This practice has a lot of side effects and a disturbance to the nature. Therefore, I
believe that we should not terraform the earth.
While it seems to have a good prospect in the short-term, we must think further
beyond our generation. Changing our ecosystem to an easier one makes us less
vulnerable to disturbance. In a highly-controlled environment, there is very little
almost noneadaption needed to cope with the situation. When inevitable damage
is done to the ecosystem, those organisms chance of survival is pretty low.
To fulfil the demand of food, we nurture the plants we need, such as rice, wheat,
potato, fruits. We even engineer the genes to make them stronger, more productive,
and more loaded with vitamins. We duplicate this perfect genes and erase the
ones we see flawed. With tissue culture, it is highly likely that in years, we will have
the same exact genes across the species.
Problem comes when there is unexpected change to the environment, such as the
attack of a disease. Since all the plants have the same exact genes, this virus or
bacteria will transmit easily between one and another. When that happens, then the
outbreak will be unstoppable. We have to face the extinction of our major food
source.
This has begun even now on humans. We know more about health and hygiene than
ever before. We know how to treat them, yet we are more vulnerable to get them.
According to a study released in 2013 by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, food allergies among children increased approximately 50% between
1997 and 2011, especially in the developed country. Though the reason is not yet
confirmed, the highly-controlled environment of developed country is very likely to
cause the rise of allergy. Childrens adaptability has become less than their parents,
and still dropping.
A popular topic that is being researched by scientist right now is using terraforming
to slow down global warming. Global warming is caused by the increased amount of
carbon in the atmosphere. Therefore, scientist intends to develop new organism
that will be able to suck out carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere. Genetic
engineering will allow scientist to alter the DNA of microbes and alter them to make
them absorb carbon in the air.
The problem with this idea is that global warming is global. It happens around the
world, across all countries and nations. Even if the practice is a success and carbon
dioxide is successfully reduced by this organism, regulating this practice will be very
hard to do. It will need maintainingall-over the world.

To be able to do this, then we need a system to regulate all terraform being done.
Handing over the responsibility to each country is too risky since not all of the
country have the capacity and technology to do terraform. Making an international
agreement and organization can be a solution, yet there are no guarantee that this
will work. It is very difficult to make everyone agrees on something, especially when
the agreement may cause harm or not profitable enough for some party. For
example, League of Nation has been established to maintain peace, yet World War 2
still manages to find its way to come to the surface.
If something goes wrong, then developing countries are at higher risk. They must
wait until help comes from countries who has the capability of analyzing what has
gone wrong. They also have a lot more problem to think ofsuch as poverty,
jobless, crimes, corruption, drugs, and other more immediate circumstancesthan
an unknown organism releasing hazardous substances. This will likely cause them to
disagree to cooperate in this practice.
Doing a regulation of this system is too troublesome and risky due to the inequity of
the countries. With no assurance that everything will work out fine, there is just too
much at stake. There is no guarantee that it will not actually accelerate global
warming, and undoing this mistake is very hardif not impossible. There are far too
much area to cover, and far too much party to have to agree on one page.