I don't know about that. Plenty of things discovered through space research end up being very useful for things down here on earth. They didn't intend or expect for it to be blown up. I'd argue that NASA or equivilant programs worldwide, are one of the best things a government can put money into.
If anything we need to put a lot more money towards NASA and other space programs. We gotta get on the whole "colonization of other planets" thing quick before we fuck up Earth to the point of no return. Gotta have a backup plan.
Most space travel these days is by private companies, and you cannot transfer rocket scientists and rocket materials to some other arbitrary task you deem useful. NASA gets half a percent of the United States budget.
Well, I don't know about the rainforests, but the ozone is recovering and there was a fungus found in the Amazon that eats plastic, so it looks like we're recovering, though I don't know much about this stuff, but still, yay...
Reliable source please? I looked it up and one of the first results was the Daily Mail, so I'm feeling a bit iffy on the validity of this one.