Marsification. Noun.
The expansion of colonial fantasy beyond the atmosphere of the Earth. 'Manifest Destiny to the stars'. It is an extension of the phenomena of colonizing ‘new lands’ often accompanied by narratives of starting life anew, a civilizational reset, an apparent freedom from the social and political problems colonizers believe they are 'leaving behind.'
The various cultural, political and economic processes through which techno-utopian fantasies divert our attention from the dominant global economic system’s erosion of the life-support systems of Earth.
The drive to turn relatively lifeless Mars into a new Earth while effectively turning biodiverse Earth into Mars. The process of making Mars habitable while Earth is being rendered increasingly inhabitable.
The delusion that the blank slate of the red planet will be an escape from inescapable problems on our home planet. For example, the idea that humans could escape to Mars if we destroy our own climate.
— Zara Zimbardo & Patrick Reinsborough, in collaboration with the Bureau