---
title: "Ethics of terraforming"
chunk: 3/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_terraforming"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:29.448939+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Ethics of terraforming in fiction ==
A fairly thorough non-fictional analysis of the ethics of terraforming is also presented under the guise of the fictional Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, particularly between the characters Ann Clayborne and Sax Russell, with Clayborne epitomizing an ecocentric ethic of non-interference and Russell embodying the anthropocentric belief in the virtue of terraforming.
The idea of interplanetary colonization and its ethical implications are also explored by C.S. Lewis in the first book of his Space Trilogy Out of the Silent Planet published in 1938.
The plot of the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is based around the use of the so-called "Genesis Device" to create the conditions and organic building-blocks for life on previously lifeless planets. In debating the ethics of the device, Dr. McCoy, Spock and Admiral Kirk reflect on the Device's ability to replace any existing lifeforms with "its new matrix". McCoy describes the ethics of the Device in the following terms: "According to myth, the Earth was created in six days. Now watch out - here comes Genesis! We'll do it for you in six minutes!" The technology is shown to be flawed in the 1984 sequel, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
Star Trek: The Next Generation dealt with terraforming. In the episode "Home Soil", terraformers are causing harm to the native lifeforms on Velara III, with disastrous consequences.
In the novel Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds, there was a political dispute in the human colony of a fictional planet called Resurgam between a faction who were in support of terraforming the planet and another faction of archeologists who were against terraforming due to the discovery of the remains of an extinct alien civilisation on the planet and due to the fear that any attempt to terraform the planet would destroy the valuable artifacts that still might be buried underground.
The ethics of terraforming, as well as deep space colonization, are recurring themes in Firefly, in which they are compared to the issues of expansionism and imperialism in the American Old West.
In The Outer Worlds, the moon of Monarch is a planet that is improperly terraformed, which leads to the native fauna becoming bigger and more dangerous.

== See also ==
Space ethics
Suffering risks

== References ==

== Further reading ==
Sparrow, Robert. "The Ethics of Terraforming." Environmental Ethics 21.3 (Fall 1999): 227(1).
Otto, Eric. "Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy and the Leopoldian Land Ethic." Utopian Studies 14.2 (Spring 2003): 118(19).
Pinson, Robert. "Ethical Considerations for Terraforming Mars," 32 Environmental Law Reporter 11333 (2002).
Schwartz, James. "On the Moral Permissibility of Terraforming." Ethics and the Environment 18.2 (2013): 1-31.
York, Paul. "The Ethics of Terraforming." Philosophy Now: A Magazine of Ideas. (Oct/Nov 2002).
Cathcart, R.B., Badescu, V. with Ramesh Radhakrishnan, MACRO-ENGINEERS' DREAMS (23 November 2006), a cost-free downloadable 176-page exposition made available at http://textbookrevolution.org Archived 2009-01-05 at the Wayback Machine in its engineering selection of textbooks.