this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
1030 points (98.5% liked)

News

23275 readers
4515 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

SpaceX’s Starship launches at the company’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica, Texas, have allegedly been contaminating local bodies of water with mercury for years. The news arrives in an exclusive CNBCreport on August 12, which cites internal documents and communications between local Texas regulators and the Environmental Protection Agency.

SpaceX’s fourth Starship test launch in June was its most successful so far—but the world’s largest and most powerful rocket ever built continues to wreak havoc on nearby Texas communities, wildlife, and ecosystems. But after repeated admonishments, reviews, and ignored requests, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) have had enough.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] index@sh.itjust.works -4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Guess what, sending rocket in orbit is one of the most polluting business out there and most of it it's done for business

[–] FilthyShrooms@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Is it? As far as I can tell rocket launches don't cause that much pollution compared to a coal powerplant, or the hundreds of daily airline flights.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Cargo ships are probably up there as some of the worst. They burn copious amounts of really dirty fuel.

[–] PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yup. They burn heavy bunker fuel - the sludge that is too bad to be used for anything else.

Considering the amount of shipping, it's horrendous.

But - and there's always another view - I don't know how much energy you'd need to use to haul that much cargo by other means like rail and trucks. One container ship carries as much as a thousand trains could carry. Vessels are really, really large, which make them quite effective.

[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 2 points 3 months ago

And trains can't cross Oceans. Even tho that cargo ships need a shit load of fuel it isn't that much per ton of cargo due to the efficiency and sheer mass they are carrying

[–] index@sh.itjust.works -5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Oh you are right coal is worst we can keep blowing up rockets and send them in orbit so that billionares can have their nice trip to space

[–] llamacoffee@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If a rocket gets to orbit, it most certainly hasn't blown up ;) Furthermore if it is reusable (which only SpaceX has) then it doesn't even crash into the ocean.

Let's be very clear on what rockets generally do. Last year, there were just over 200 launches worldwide (a world record, btw). ~10 of these sent professional astronauts to space stations. The rest deployed satellites that do all sorts of amazing things, including astronomy research, weather and earth observation, and communications. If 1 or 2 are a tourist flight, what's the big deal?

[–] index@sh.itjust.works -2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

what’s the big deal?

Here's the big deal, are you paying attention?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink#Military_applications

[–] llamacoffee@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Personally, I think it's a great thing that the US arguably has the best military surveillance and communication satellites. Certainly I prefer money going there than into literal bullets. In any case, doesn't this have nothing to do with space tourism?

[–] index@sh.itjust.works -4 points 3 months ago

Personally, I think it’s a great thing that the US arguably has the best military surveillance

Nobody should have it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010s_global_surveillance_disclosures