there a flaw in your logic, there isn't any intent to "nuke it to oblivion" as a simple 5-8 megaton nuke on the tree could've solved the problem in fact, seeing as we are talking about the future they could use neutron bombs that do less damage environment wise (fallout)Wicky_42 said:Yep, pretty much. I don't think there's much of a natural ecosystem left on Earth, so there's probably a bit of political pressure there to, at least ostensibly, avoid destroying other habitable worlds. If you think about it, would you let, say, Virgin or Mircosoft get first dibs on interstellar travel, find an almost magically perfect planet with abundant resources, and then nuke it to oblivion? That limit makes sense to me.
plants may be die however there should be basic terraforming technology which even we could produce today.