I have been a little apprehensive about writing this blog because I feel like I might be taken the wrong way. But at the same time I think it's an interesting enough question to throw out there and see what people think. So here I go.
Would it be ethically wrong to throw all our trash and nuclear waste into space?
I think it would solve a lot of problems such as pollution of water sources, the lack of space for landfills in urban areas, and the question of what to do with radioactive material. When I see photos of rivers in India and China choked with plastic bags and Styrofoam and little kids bathing in it it's just horrible. I feel bad for the people (even though it's their own fault) and for the flora and fauna that are obviously being devastated. Launching it out into the cosmos seems like a fine method to get it out of the way. But I have a hard time evaluating the impact all the trash on the planet would have on our solar system, or even if it would. I mean space is HUGE! The probability of us (or anyone else for that matter) accidentally running into a previously tossed bundle of trash has got to be really small. And the odds of finding again previously discarded interplanetary trash (without the use of GPS or calculations) seems like it would be impossible. I t just doesn't seem like the maximum amount of refuse we could produce here on earth for the next 500 or 1,000 years would "put a dent in space" so to speak. But maybe it would? And who knows maybe in the distant future some alien race would find one of our trash heaps floating past Proxima Centauri and come looking for us. Our bundles of plastic bottles and uranium could be like calling cards floating through the universe saying "Hey! We're here! And we're slobs!" It seems like such a good idea except for the fact it just sounds wrong doesn't it?
I get a nagging feeling that there is something wrong with the idea, like I'm saying "lets dump it in the ocean. No one will notice." (Except that space is MUCH bigger). I start thinking tossing our garbage into the cosmos is an "easy" way out of our problems, and that it's unethical somehow. Why bring re-usable bags to the store when plastic ones are easier and you can just send them off to Jupiter when you are done with them? It seems cruel. I mean what did space ever do to us? We made a mess of the earth, and now instead of taking responsibility for our mistakes we decide to make a mess of the entire solar system? (Again, if that's even possible.) Would it be less bad if we launched everything into the sun instead of just into empty space? Maybe it would give the sun extra fuel to burn longer. (OK I realize that was completely ridiculous, all of the garbage on the planet wouldn't do a darn thing to the Sun, but that's kind of my point...)
On top of that I wonder is throwing garbage into interstellar space more wrong than burying it beneath the ground? And if so, why? Every year the population is growing, and every year so is our waste production. Recycling and reusing are great, but the largest increases in populations occur where these methods are impractical and too expensive. You could argue that transporting all our trash into space would be equally as costly, and you may be right. I have no idea. But if it wasn't too expensive, do you think ethically, it would be OK to do it?
Tell me what you think!!!
This is an interesting question, and I have thought about it before, although admittedly, not to a great extent. My initial thoughts on it were "of course it is wrong, it is polluting!". But let us think about this a little deeper. Why do we oppose pollution here on Earth? I think the main reason is, or should be, that the pollution of an ecosystem or environment, can have a negative impact on the living organisms that are in that environment. Now we have reached a level of understanding about biology and the interconnectedness of ecosystems down to the level of bacteria and fungi and we now realize that even dumping waste in seemingly deserted places can still have adverse effects on the living organism that is our planet. Now lets look at space. It is quite clear that space itself is inhospitable to life and thus our trash would have little to no effect on it. So my conclusion is that it would not be ethically wrong to dump trash into space, though like you mentioned, I can't see it being cost effective. If we want to be certain that it would not somehow land on a planet in some other solar system and somehow effect whatever life might be there, then we could just launch in into the sun like you suggested. One could almost say that it would be unethical to continue disposing of waste on this planet, where we know it adversely affects the health of living beings, when we have the option of disposing it in a way that would harm no one. Again, I have not thought about this too deeply, but these are some of my preliminary thoughts on it. Hope you found them interesting.
ReplyDeleteI really like Jason's comment. I agree that the only ethical concern I can think of with tossing trash into space would be it's possible harmful effect on alien, or future space faring Earth-based, life. This seems like a poor argument against do so, especially considering, as Jason pointed out, the harm that we know it is doing to life here on Earth in the present, and the fact that we could mitigate pretty much all concern by sending it into the sun.
ReplyDeleteA second, scientific, concern with launching trash into space might be the possible contamination of other solar system bodies with Earth based life. This would make it difficult to determine if life found elsewhere in the solar system is truly alien, or just an adapted Earth-based organism that rode over on a Snickers wrapper.
Realistically of course, the price involved in transporting trash into space is prohibitively expensive for the foreseeable future. Right now the cost for sending 1 lb of trash to Low Earth orbit is ~$5,000. If you want to send that pound of trash beyond Earth orbit and say, into the Sun, you are probably looking at an order of magnitude increase (~$10,000 to $20,000). And if you want to kick that garbage into interstellar space, well, you get the idea ...