If you heard somebody proposing that if we can’t find a place for data centers on earth we should put them into orbit above the planet or that since energy demand typically surges when darkness falls that we should put thousands of mirrors into space to shine sunlight down onto solar panels you might think the person was perhaps deluded and the ideas far-fetched. But these are actually real proposals from the tech industry, both established companies and start ups.
At the same time that the billionaire CEOs and their companies are causing climate and environmental harms - air pollution, massive emissions and light pollution - from their private company pursuit of the space race they put forward these seemingly altruistic and climate friendly initiatives. This prompted space researcher Marissa E. Yingling to introduce a new term - starwashing - in a recent article in The Conversation. This is a play on the term greenwashing that The Grist describes is“used to critique companies that highlight small sustainable investments to divert attention from the pollution their businesses cause.”
Yingling points out how companies like Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’s Blue Origin downplay the negative consequences of their company’s operations “while trumpeting the message that space operations can make life better on Earth.”
Read more in The Grist article here.