Not a pressing need?

What if we are invaded by aliens! :p

Or not as bad but more probable what if China builds one first and starts throwing rocks. :know:

Go read "The moon in a harsh mistress" by Robert Heinlein if you don't get the "Throwing Rocks" refrence. ;)

So what if a space elevator is expensive. Nearly anything with a major benifit to socity is expensive. As the prevously mentioned Robert Heinlein put it TANSTAAFL.

Why is everyone considering that government would be doing this? Government doesn't advance society, private enterprise does. There wasn't a government on earth pursuing the hybrid automobile, the best antipollution and energy efficiency automobile propulsion so far. The ones who give us the change we seek and who "save the world" will be the evil corporations governments seek to punish.

If a major corporation decides a space elevator makes economic sense, no power on earth will stop it. Postulating some false "choice" between the space elevator and some irrelevent environmental concern, no matter how valid, is ridiculous. We are perfectly capable of saving some trees (are there any left in Europe?), building space elevators and going to Disney World too.