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Yes sorry, FAA. I’m a Brit so not as familiar with the US institutions. My point is there is extensive and persistent oversight, debate and opportunities for i

• seadan83 3y ago
  I'll note that exploring space is very different from commercializing space. > You really honestly think you’re the first person, or this is the first time anyone has stopped to wonder about it? I don't think that, I didn't imply that, and wondering if I was the first person to ever wonder that for the first time is putting words in my mouth. My question is whether anyone that was in a position to know and was also not being payed off wondered this. Given the lack of science around this, the major players I think are more concerned with going further than they are in really studying exactly whether they should. That makes no sense for SpaceX to devout half of their budget to study why they should not be launching rockets. If they are not studying that, who exactly is? > Of course nobody should get a free pass to wreck the Earth. That’s a cartoonishly absurd caricature of what’s going on. There have been plenty of free passes to wreck the earth. Examples are subsidies going out to industries that pollute. These free-passes go back in time, recall the train companies giving free tickets to those that would shoot Bison from the windows of the train. We can also talk about deforestation, that most old growth forests have been chopped down and so many tree farms are now taking their place (tree farms grow overly dense, and very sickly trees that have nowhere near the same positive impact as old growth does). There are so many examples of free passes being given.. Why else are so many rivers toxic and unswimmable? The fact we have so many things and areas that are wrecked serves as counter-point. Beyond this, I think 'serf' responds pretty well, I will not add further.
• serf 3y ago
  >Of course nobody should get a free pass to wreck the Earth. That’s a cartoonishly absurd caricature of what’s going on. >My point is there is extensive and persistent oversight, debate and opportunities for input and objection. the point that other commentators have made, which has seemingly been ignored, is that being the person with the most wealth in the entire world allows one to ignore a lot of the checks and balances associated with any activity. A lot of the 'extensive and persistent oversight' comes from 1) internal employees and 2) government officials that have been 'taken out to dinner' enough times that they don't want to lose the opportunity to schmooze with what amounts to be the most and influential people in the world. this is essentially how all of American aerospace operates, and I speak from personal experience -- most groups don't have the luxury of being a cult of personality on top of the thick wallets, however. You can call CO2 harmless all you want, but the reality is that we have a tenuous grasp, if any at all, on what spilling hundreds of tons in a minute will add up to [0], and that's only a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the environmental accumulative 'unknowns'.[1] In effect Musk's pass to wreck the Earth was by no means free, he paid for it. The problem is that someone , anyone with money and pop interest, can do that. I'm by no means anti-space, but this trend of pretending that there isn't a sacrifice made on Earth to fuel these mega-ventures is absolutely naive, and the tragedy is that the every-person is going to be the one paying the bill; it won't be Musk's redirected billions. [0]: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220713-how-to-make-rocket-launches-less-polluting https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220713-how-to-make-rock... [1]:https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/astrophysics/greenhouse-gas-space-x/ https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/astrophysics/greenhouse-gas...
  • simonh 3y ago
    > which has seemingly been ignored I read comments like this almost every time SpaceX is mentioned here, and climate crisis extremists bang on about it endlessly. It’s impossible to ignore, it’s just that most people disagree. >you can call CO2 harmless all you want… I did not do so, thank you very much. I’m aware of the issues. Climate change is a real problem, but exaggerated histrionics aren’t going to solve problems. >Musk’s pass to wreck the Earth… pretending that there isn’t a sacrifice being made… He has no such pass, and nobody’s pretending anything of the sort. See above about exaggerated histrionics. They’re so obviously absurd it does the climate change cause no good whatsoever. To mainstream voters it makes extinction rebellion folks look like a fanatical cult dissociated from reality, and by association undermines the credible and important climate change cause. A cause Musk has probably done more to physically advance through direct personal action than all but maybe a handful of other human beings on Earth.