Indeed. We could argue the tragedy of the commons as it pertains to climate change (it's a tough argument for both sides, honestly) but when colonizing Mars means bringing along colonists vetted by scientists and not politicians, keeping from wrecking the place would be a lot easier.

I do recognize that it wouldn't solely be scientists to choose colonists, I'm not that naive, but I'm confident that there would be enough controls in place to ensure that the right thing is the default answer to what do we do now?