Terraforming in the OTU

[Malenfant]

Originally Posted by Hans Rancke-Madsen

So you won't find any for-profit terraforming projects. I believe we've already established that. That still leaves not-for-profit projects.

Frankly, I think the justifications presented for terraforming here seem very keen to find reasons for its viability regardless of the realities of the process anyway (much like any "why would they do that?" problem in Traveller, to be honest).

That being the case, it's best to describe Terraforming as what it really is - one of the grandest follies imaginable. It's nothing but a pointless and extravagant waste of time to occupy a society that could have otherwise solved its habitability problems in a myriad of other, simpler, and more economical short-term ways.

Terraforming is not remotely an 'equilibrium' state for a society. The likelihood of its completion would be very low given the other pressures against it (internal politics, funding, physical issues, changes of heart etc). I would suspect that societies that tried this would completely bankrupt themselves (socially or economically) before the process was anywhere near complete and would inevitably settle back towards the equilibrium of saner, short-term solutions.