Space is Complicated!
I think that asteroid mining is a threat to civilization. Consider how fragile is the asteroid belt. These space rocks are in precise orbits for millions of years. Before that it was literally a shooting gallery in here.
There were asteroids raining down on the earth surface. From the tunguska event to the Chicxulub impact. Wait till they start blasting gold out of these space rocks. Moving these objects out of their orbits, changing their mass. They run into each other and create a chain reaction that we wont be able to predict.
Everything else will perish in a tectonic cataclysm. What survives that will face a firestorm literally raining fire from space as the crust blasted out into the sky reenters all over the planet surface. Then comes a few million years long ice age.
It makes me sad because i really like the idea of mining asteroids for their resources. But the concern trolls that wring their hands about global warming would do better to be concerned about this really bad idea.
#18 The insectoids will then evolve and take over and start mining the asteroids and then be wiped out then repeat with whatever evolves after that.