There appears to be a well-hidden point, however. If we're trying to get away from the beasts that are destroying our habitat, the ones killing off native life, the ones spewing pollution, the ones who invented nuclear weapons that might kill us all, the ones who slaughter humans by the millions over petty arguments, etc... Well, we are those beasts. We can't get away from ourselves by taking ourselves to another planet.
It's possible that an asteroid might take us out, but that's unlikely enough that it wasn't even worth mentioning in the article. More likely that we are the greatest threat to our survival, and "Wherever we go, we'll take ourselves with us."
That's what I got from it anyway.
Either way, we do things off Earth for the same reasons we do things out of our towns and countries. It has been working out pretty well for us so far.
This has probably be linked too many times on HN but here are Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger's words again. http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/08/why-explore-space.html
Too bad too. The headline had potential!