Economic growth is being constrained by resource scarcity. The environmental cost of ripping minerals out of the ground is also probably becoming too high a price to pay. In addition to this, the vast amounts of energy needed for mining, extraction and refining of minerals makes a significant contribution to the carbon added to the atmosphere.
It is likely that the Moon contains an abundance of valuable minerals, including rare earths, It also has a vast amount of totally predictable solar energy, There is therefore a pressing economic imperative to go back to the Moon, and soon. The minerals required for our economic well being could be mined and refined on the Moon using solar energy. It is likely that there is sufficient water for the manufacture of rocket fuel which would be needed to send the refined product back to the Earth.
All of this would be done with very little environmental impact on the Earth.
