Environmentalism - Key to the Cosmic Quest
The wise environmental stewardship which results in a successful ecology on earth is the same mindset that will assure survival of life beyond our planet. Cockell's thesis is "that environmentalism and space settlement can be viewed as one and the same objective - the sustainable existence of humans in the cosmos." Respect for life forms on earth because of their unique evolutionary quality may lead to respect for life on other planets and moons for the same reasons. Wilderness preserved on earth, space or other planets would be natural places untrammeled by human activity except as visitors who do not remain.
Space Trash
 The mass of space debris currently orbiting the earth arose from nations launching objects into near earth space while ignoring environmental consequences. These consequences can be severe indeed. Unless we rigorously follow a no waste, no dumping procedure in earth orbit, the functioning of satellites and space stations in orbit will be increasingly threatened by impact from our space trash. A procedure for removing obsolete objects from orbit or enabling them to burn up in the atmosphere will become mandatory. This requirements will be especially imperative in the most valuable orbital locations, such as the geostationary orbit synchronized with earth's rotation.
The bottom line is that removing this rubbish will be more difficult than preventing it from being deposited in the first place - a particular egregious example being the blowing up of a Chinese satellite in 2007.
Whether in earth orbit or elsewhere in space, "where humanity goes, its pollution will follow, and we will need to decide what to treat as pollution and what to treat as wonderful artefacts of our history... Environmentalism must follow us to the stars, like it or not."
Living Green
Living a green lifestyle will be key to survival in the extreme space environments far from the advanced industrial civilizations on earth. Recycling will be an absolute requirement in space-based habitats - clothes, glass, metals, appliances must be reused in new forms when the original becomes wornout or obsolete. Space residents will by necessity work in a paperless environment - all records, communication and information being produced in a digital format. The throwaway culture would be untenable. No unnecessary packaging will be permitted.
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These forest fires observed from space are slowly destroying the Amazon forest. Not what you would call 'green living' or wilderness protection.
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Agriculture, using ecologically balanced 'greenhouses', will be required to produce food and air in space. Food waste will be used as an ingredient for composting soil as the basis for organic farming. Nitrates produced by bacteria will feed plants who, in turn together with photosynthetic bacteria, will produce the oxygen for the human crew to breathe. The human's carbon dioxide waste will be consumed by bacteria. These closed systems in space would fail miserably without the green lifestyle.
Practice on Earth
Environmentalists, in alliance with space advocates, could develop communities and concept housing on earth to be used to test out new technology for green living on earth and space. On earth we can start practicing manufacture of machines with a long lifetime and relatively maintenance free. Machines and appliances could be designed so that they could be disassembled into component parts and reused. Such a green approach would reduce costs of space exploration and herald a revolution counter to the throwaway culture so ubiquitous on earth today.
Experience dealing with isolation at earth locations, such as science stations in Antartica, can provide knowledge of key requirements for a viable human social environment during periods of much greater isolation associated with the exploration of space.
Wilderness Preservation
Special natural places on earth like Antartica, the Arctic, meteor craters, deserts, Yellowstone, ocean floor heat vents help our preparation for space exploration by providing analogue environments for testing ideas and technology. Different life forms resident in earth's varied ecological habitats provide models for understanding, and ecologies to make habitable, other places with similar characteristics encountered during the exploration of space. Preservation of these wilderness regions should be a mutual goal of both environmentalists and space enthusiasts.
Space - Savior of Earth's Environment
 The most commonly accepted reason for the dinosaur's demise was earth's encounter with a large asteroid some 65 million years ago. Mapping of all asteroids and comets in orbits which cross that of the earth, together with the development of methods to redirect asteroids that may actually impact the earth at some future time, are crucial to protecting our home planet's fragile environment. Sticking our heads in the sand regarding this possible danger will only guarantee a fate similar to our predecessors.
Satellite Imagery
 It was through space satellite imagery that we first discovered in the 1980s the hole in the protective ozone atmospheric level over the poles. Satellite detection can accurately identify new economically valuable resources, thereby reducing environmental impacts associated with the more random and destructive approach associated with earth based prospecting. Adverse environmental impacts on earth's natural areas (such as the Amazon rain forest illustrated above) can be more clearly and quickly determined through space imagery.
Learning Place
Space exploration has opened our eyes to the beauty and tenuous quality of our biosphere on earth and what happens to potentially life-bearing planets like Venus (too much carbon dioxide) or Mars (no ozone shield, magnetic field or sufficient atmosphere) when conditions are not right.
 Future knowledge of earth-sized planets around other stars would tell us how common or rare is an earthlike environment. Such knowledge can help us learn what might happen in the future and the extremes to which life can be pushed before it becomes untenable.
Economic Resource
Asteroids are a rich source of ores containing iron, nickle, titanium, cobalt, magnesium, sodium, silicon, water, hydrogen, oxygen and other materials necessary for advanced industrial economies. The high quality material is relatively easy to obtain from low gravity asteroids. Avoiding poorer quality ores on earth will eliminate the environmental devastation associated with mining and processing. Manufacturing products from the processed materials in space will eliminate the air, soil and water pollution associated with factory production on earth. The success of such an approach will be dependent on future economics of space or moon based processing and manufacture.
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Solar Power Satellite (SPS) and processing of a small Near-Earth asteroid provide energy as well as material resources for further space development.
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Non-polluting Energy Source
There is a great benefit associated with satellites in an orbit synchronized with the rotation of the earth. Solar power satellites in such orbits that are built using materials mined from the moon could beam power back to the earth, replacing earth-based fossil fuel power sources.
For such power satellites to succeed, research will need to develop efficient solar panels that are abrasive resistent and easy to maintain. Development of such improved solar panels for power sources in space can also be used on the earth's surface. Solar panels could be manufactured to be interchangeable in different systems, applicable to various environments, and resistant to breakdown. Cost and environmental benefits would apply wherever the products are put to use.
Energy efficient appliances used on the moon would be equally useful in earth-based homes. Helium 3 relatively abundant on the moon can potentially be used as an efficient nuclear fusion reactor fuel.
A Caveat
As a caveat, there is the potential danger of new space based resource and power sources supporting a greater and environmentally destructive population on earth. To minimize such an occurence, it is imperative that life in space and other planetary bodies be made attractive to human beings. Advanced societies where individuals have increasing opportunities for achieving a satisfying life appear less susceptible to unrestrained population growth.
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