Space, the final frontier

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Space Junk Is Invisibly Polluting Earth, And We Only Just Found Out. "Metal vapor in the stratosphere is only predicted to increase." (www.sciencealert.com)

submitted 1 year ago by ragica@lemmy.ml to c/space@lemmy.ml

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[–] Cruxifux@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

For the millionth time, artificial pollutants are not the same as natural ones. They create different chemical reactions that cause different things to happen to our environments. And just because something occurs regularly in nature does not mean it’s okay to add to it and expect everything to turn out the same. Forest fires occurring naturally doesn’t mean we are fine to tear down the rainforest. Volcanoes going off and putting carbon into the atmosphere doesn’t mean we have no affect on the environment when we put pollutants in the atmosphere. And just because meteorites burn up in the atmosphere doesn’t mean space junk we’ve thrown up there has no effect. I’m so sick of seeing this shit man.

[–] xkforce@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

The amount of pollution matters and I can think of a dozen human sources of the same types of pollution that should garner more attention. Oil spills, burning plastics and tires, slash and burn agriculture, illegal dumping, all the poisonous shit people threw in the landfill the list goes on and on. Articles like this that ignore the relative scale of things unintentionally shift peoples' focus away from the most damaging sources of pollution toward less significant ones which makes it more likely that the main causes of pollution arent dealt with.

So is space junk burning up bad for the environment? Yeah technically. Should other sources be worried about more? Yes. One tanker ship burning dirt cheap high Sulfur fuel will fuck up the environment a lot more and theyre essentially unregulated. Theyre allowed to spew pollution equivalent to millions of cars and nothing is done about it.

[–] Cruxifux@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah you’re right about that. I’m just feeling frustrated and hopeless every time I see headlines like this man.

[–] arin@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There could be meteors made of lead or mercury, natural doesn't mean non-toxic.