Wulfger

You mentioned in another comment that you were sick of a 9-5 job, what did you do before you joined the military? And how old were you when you joined up?

The problem is convincing people to spend that money on green technology. While it almost certainly going to be necessary for the continuation of human civilization on Earth without some sort of dramatic global shift away from capitalism I can't see the sort of massive investment that will be necessary coming about until it's already too late. Carbon capture and sequestration simply doesn't make money right now, and likely won't until we're in a crisis and it's required on a global scale. Unless governments can be convinced to develop the technology on their own dime (which will always face heavy opposition from denialists) it's simply not a realistic option right now.

Expansion into space, however, has the potential to be a massive wealth generator. The solar system is filled with completely untapped resources that could spawn a new industrial revolution if we ever manage to develop the technology to exploit them. An incredible amount of money can be made through space exploration and exploitation, which is why I think the industry will take off as space becomes more and more accessible.

The upshot of this is that technology useful in space is also useful on earth. Capturing and using C02 is of vital importance in sealed environments, and as more and more people live and work in space that technology should continue to develop. I fully expect that leaps and bounds will be made in this sort of tech not when we need to develop it to save ourselves, but when developing that technology makes people a lot of money - and I'm hoping that profit motive comes from space exploitation rather than an acute global environmental crisis.