survival of the species

[http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert]

I absolutely cannot believe that your guest (the NASA Space Historian) sited "
survival of the species" as the most important reason for space flight and 
exploration.  Should we on Earth just admit that all is lost and there's no 
point in conserving the environment and preventing war?  Should a select set 
of people be granted the ability to live on another planet while Earth mires 
in its own problems and eventually becomes uninhabitable?  If there is a 
choice, it is not space flight that should be saved, but rather an Earth 
available for all to live.