@elaterite @mike I'm a big fan of the carbon offset idea (understanding that carbon offsets are not perfect). As a rocket fan, I know a lot of rocket people will point out that the airplane industry pollutes magnitudes more.
But, the focus should really be on solving problems not trying to assign blame. The rocket industry should be offseting all of the environmental harms it is creating, and so should the airline industry.
There is no offsetting environmental harm anymore.
The harm and damage just keeps accumulating and accumulating.
@504DR @chris_hayes @elaterite @mike yeah, offsetting turned out not to work anyway, and even if it had we’d still have to stop extracting fossil fuels.
We don’t need fossil fuels for rockets, they can run on simpler propellants, no need to stop. (But we should slow down a little, and address some of the other problems)
@ShadSterling @504DR @chris_hayes @elaterite @mike
What human problem do rockets solve ?
@the5thColumnist @504DR @chris_hayes @elaterite @mike I don’t know that I would characterize it as “solving a human problem”, but weather satellites and the modeling they’ve enabled have saved countless lives. So has GPS. And communication satellites have done a lot of good. (Not StarLink, but the ones that last decades and don’t ruin the view.)
@ShadSterling @504DR @chris_hayes @elaterite @mike
Certainly GPS and communications satellites have been good for humankind but much of the funds for the space race, even if they indirectly gave us useful technologies, could have been better spent directly on human problems. Probes to explore space probably worthwhile but all he manned missions just human vanity stuff.
@the5thColumnist @504DR @chris_hayes @elaterite @mike the lack of funding for human thriving isn’t really related to the presence of funding for the space race. We could do both, if we gave political power to people who would do it.
Manned missions don’t have the kind of short-term value that GPS etc have, but they do have value. Living in space is a lot harder to learn than rocketry, but we could afford that too, if we chose.