Environmental justice, social justice, and the space sector – an ill-assorted combination?

Paper number

IAC-09.E3.P.7

Author

Prof. Lotta Viikari, University of Lapland, Finland

Year

2009

Abstract

While decades of space ventures have led to significant advances in technology for the benefit of humans, they have also witnessed increasing space-related problems, including environmental ones. The world space community has long known that space activities contribute to pollution and contamination of the environment. Nevertheless, utilitarian policies have disproportionately dominated space activities until today. This has gradually led to substantial environmental threats that constitute increasing hazards to the environment of outer space as well as to human space activities. 

Although environmental hazards in outer space already constitute a variety of threats, these threats often do not affect the particular operation which causes them but all space activities randomly. Combined with the typically high costs of curbing harmful effects in the space sector, it is no surprise that the entities active in space often are hesitant to take measures to prevent environmental degradation. This is a manifestation of the notorious “free rider” problem; the concept of “free riders” refers to states (and other entities) which benefit by the actions of others without sharing any of the responsibility or cost. The free rider problem intrinsically relates to all space activities, making problems in this sector even more complicated and difficult to resolve. As long as benefits of regulated development of the use of outer space accrue more or less equally to all actors irrespective of their behavior, some of them will feel little incentive to accept any restrictions. Of course, if most of the relevant stakeholders take such a stand, curbing the environmental problems will be impossible. 

Given that only the technologically advanced and economically relatively wealthy part of humanity is capable of conducting space activities and that the environmental problems in this sector are worsening at a pace which may render some Earth orbits unfit for use even in the not too distant future, various concerns of justice in this area of human activity are very topical. This includes those revolving around issues of technology transfer as well. But not only are the possibilities of many current populations to use outer space very limited: also the prospects for space activities by future generations may get severely compromised by the effects that the present way of using outer space entails. This would affect detrimentally all countries, irrespective of their level of technological and economic development.   

Abstract document

IAC-09.E3.P.7.pdf

Manuscript document

(absent)