Space exploration has costs. But groups hoping to colonize the cosmos are not addressing the potential impacts. Starwashing, a spin on greenwashing, is when space companies “sell exploration narratives by appealing to a desire to expand humankind beyond Earth” while “downplaying or omitting the negative repercussions for Earth and the space environment,” said the University of Louisville’s Marissa E. Yingling at The Conversation.
Starwashing “takes attention away from actually solving the problems that are here on Earth,” Gregers Andersen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern Denmark, said to Grist. For example, Jeff Bezos “envisions building space habitats that could house billions as a solution to environmental catastrophes on Earth,” said Yingling, and Elon Musk has expressed interest in creating human settlements on Mars. But none of that will “fix pressing environmental crises such as wildfires or climate change in the near term.”
In fact, spaceflight can take its own environmental toll. It often leads to a “globally averaged depletion of the ozone layer and contributes to global warming,” said a study published in the journal Earth’s Future. “Other environmental effects,” said Grist, include the “loss of dark sky as satellites reflect sunlight and damage to wildlife habitats around launch sites,” plus the “enormous greenhouse gas emissions involved in building and launching satellites.”
If a “rocket, satellite network or lunar mining project is supposed to benefit everyone, companies should have to provide transparent accounting for emissions, land use, debris risks and impacts on communities,” said The Cool Down. There should also be “tougher oversight before new launch facilities, satellite fleets or data-center projects move forward.” |
