A Princeton-led team has built a tabletop device that generates voltage directly from Earth’s rotation through its magnetic field. While the power output is orders of magnitude too small for practical electronics, the breakthrough suggests Earth’s spin could someday provide constant, fuel-free energy if the effect scales up. The team is now calling for independent labs to reproduce the results.
I think there’s hope as long as we don’t nuke ourselves back into the stone age. If we keep a steady pace of progress and take good care of our only habitable space ship, we should be able to figure out how to thrive pretty much anywhere in space. Self inflicted extinction events are the biggest threats at the moment.