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'Starwashing': The new space race has an environmental problem (grist.org)

submitted 1 day ago by technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world

18 comments fedilink hide all child comments

As Musk’s SpaceX, Bezos’ Blue Origin, and other companies expand into space, they risk causing more problems for Earth in the process: air pollution, climate effects, and light pollution. The practice of downplaying these negative consequences while trumpeting the message that space operations can make life better on Earth has a new name: “starwashing,” a term the space researcher Melissa E. Yingling helped popularize in an article published in The Conversation earlier this month.

It’s a play on the term “greenwashing,” used to critique companies that highlight small sustainable investments to divert attention from the pollution their businesses cause. Space companies are appealing to a sense of “cosmic wonder” and making promises to benefit humankind, along with promoting their environmental bona fides, Yingling wrote.

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[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 0 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I would argue everybody has benefited from the electric car revolution.

Air quality is better with more EVs. Before Tesla, EVs we're actively being suppressed by big oil companies, auto companies were being discouraged and disincentivised to make them.

But that's a different company from SpaceX, if the question is how has SpaceX made life better? It's probably a lot harder to find positives there. But there are some things that were definitely good. If not for the crew dragon we wouldn't have had a way to continue supplying the ISS, we almost certainly would have had to deorbit it years ago if the falcon 9 never flew (And in fact there were official plans to do exactly that).

Certainly some people have broadband through starlink in places where it was never an option before. I remember when I first went from dialup to cable Internet, it made my life better.

I'm not saying musk is a good guy, just that his companies have had a lot of effects, some of them positive.

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 1 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

Musk has built some EVs.

Musk has also built many data centers.

Many more than he needs, by the way, because that's the current business model of the xAI branch in SpaceX: to build data centers for rent.

I recently read somewhere that the total new pollution caused by data centers (more specifically, by the generation of the electricity they require) is now already significantly higher than the total pollution that has been avoided by all EVs.

So SpaceX has absolutely made the life of everybody worse who lives in such a country where these data centers are (mostly Usa, I assume).

[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

I recently read somewhere that the total new pollution caused by data centers (more specifically, by the generation of the electricity they require) is now already significantly higher than the total pollution that has been avoided by all EVs.

Well I'd love to see that source. I do care about actually understanding the relative carbon footprints of these industries. You can't make informed decisions without being informed, so that matters to me.

But that said, the EV industry desperately needed a kickstart, and it wasn't happening prior to Tesla. You can actually attribute that move to electric to Tesla, as other car companies felt they needed to compete with them or be left behind.

On the other hand, you can't attribute all AI data centers to Elon musk, he's not responsible for AI in general. It only really makes sense to blame them for the percentage of carbon emissions generated by xAI. I'm having trouble finding any source to pinpoint what percentage that might be, but it's very likely that xAI makes up for less than 10% of the global AI data center power consumption, probably much less.