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D2AEFEA1 comments on Is there math for interplanetary travel vs existential risk? - Less Wrong
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One of the things I've found useful when doing that comparison is figuring out which existential risks will actually make Earth less livable than other planets. If, say, the worst-case CO2-based climate change scenario comes to pass, Earth will still be a better place to live than Mars, and easier to terraform to human-optimal than Mars will be.
Again, when considering something like nuclear war, I believe a post-apocalyptic Earth would be better than an untouched Mars.
Against other existential risks- like UFAI- I don't think fleeing helps. There's probably one or two where it does- but even for stuff like gamma ray bursts or asteroid strikes the back of the envelope calculations I've done in the past have suggested fleeing Earth is a bad plan.
While Earth would be easier to terraform due to available resources and global conditions already closer to something inhabitable, it would not be safer, as mistakes in the terraforming process are not going to be as catastrophic when you try to terraform a backup, uninhabited planet.
Toying with complex, poorly understood processes at a time when we wouldn't even have our current resources, manpower on a ravaged Earth whose environment might just be one wrong step from becoming much worse, could destroy a majority of what remains of humanity, the economy and valuable resources, making it impossible for us to ever recover.
(I am however assuming we were talking about global terraforming of the whole planet, not making minute changes to local spots)