Will post new useable link below.

This is an idea that accually makes sense.You can't find something if you don't know exactly what you're looking for.

Oh noes.

Link has been broked-ed.

Distant Spacecraft Scans Earth for Signs of Life

That really isn't a bad idea. Through studying ourselves we can improve upon techniques we already have... go from "good enough" to something more certain and definitive "this is the best we have" sort of things.
Perhaps we'll find pockets of humanity & life within our own planet that we weren't aware of. Long lost nomadic tribes, Atlantis, etc. even.

Though... personally I wouldn't mind our funding going to terraforming & colonizing other planets over this if I had to choose where our taxes & world funds are going...
Besides the fact of over population, there's a plethora of "natural catastrophes" scheduled to occur within our lifetime.