Thats the first thought I always have when terraforming is discussed, we can't even fix earth, how would we fix another planet.
Mars has 0 people living on it, and is already uninhabitable. We literally cannot make it worse for anybody, and are in no danger of wrecking anything we need to survive by trying.
I would much larger we try planet-scale geo-engineering on Mars, then try planet scale geoengineering on Earth (and we're already flirting with that because of climate change).
There is a wealth of information to be gained from attempting dramatic changes to a planet's condition, and establishing a biosphere, which would be extremely important for any attempt at large scale Earth biosphere repair.
How does it work?