6. Environmental and Ecological Impacts of Satellite Constellations
The primary authors of this section and subgroup members are:
- James Lowenthal (Smith College)
- Diana Umpierre (Sierra Club)
- Erika Nesvold (JustSpace Alliance)
- Sally Carttar (National Park Service)
The Environmental Impacts subgroup of the SATCON2 Community Engagement Working Group researched and discussed numerous aspects of environmental and ecological impacts of satellite mega-constellations, held a virtual listening session with the Sierra Club, held dedicated presentation and discussion sessions during the SATCON2 workshop, and reached out to numerous individuals with expertise in environmental conservation and related concerns. Here we report the main issues and themes that surfaced from those inquiries and discussions.
We offer three main recommendations, summarized here and expanded below:
- Earth-orbiting space should be considered part of Earth’s environment, legally and otherwise.
- Satellite constellations should not be exempt from NEPA review.
- Sovereignty should be respected with regard to space and the night sky.
6.1. Historical, political, and environmental context
Just as the SATCON2 conference got underway to grapple with the challenges posed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink and other mega-constellations of LEO satellites, news headlines around the world highlighted the race to space by two other billionaires, Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin and Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic. At the same time, much of the American and Canadian west was suffering from record-breaking heat waves and wildfires, as was Greece, while other areas, including parts of Germany and Belgium, saw massive and fatal flooding following unprecedented torrential rainfall, all exacerbated by anthropogenic climate change. Several members of the Community Engagement Working Group and people interviewed pointed out the ironic contrast between the dire material needs of the vast
