Protection of the Outer Space Environment

The first thing that comes to a person when one talk about ‘environment’ is the land we live on and the water we drink or the air we breathe. The value of these resources has only been considered in the context of human beings and their activity. Therefore there have been many environmental regulations focusing on the prevention of direct damage to the human interest and not on the prevention of the damage to the environment so to speak. Therefore there are much legislation on matters such as toxic wastes, clean air and water and so on. Protection of the sparsely populated environments, for instance the Antarctica, has only been recently area of legislations. This recent trend is one indication of the movement towards a broader long term view of human interests and a wider understanding of the term ‘environment’. However, the ‘environment’ is in reality surrounded by a much larger environment of outer space the importance of which is growing due to the stupendous growth in science and technology. The interrelationship of different aspect of the Earths environment becomes much clearer by placing the earth in a broader context.

This is a an excellent article on a subject that I seldom see discussed. It's now becoming a serious issue, in that our orbiting space junk has become so prevalent, that it threatens key communications and military satellites. To read the article, click here.