26 Comments
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EDWARD GARDNER's avatar

Maybe we should name the new satellite constellation Burglar's Torch

Ian Ogard's avatar

Thank you, Edward Gardner, for a hearty laugh. I imagine Elon Musk has his minions calculating trajectories that will align the satellites so they create an image of his smirking face looking down upon us from the heavens.

edith fusillo's avatar

It's not just the night sky that is affected: our water supply, our energy bills, our neighborhoods--data centers suck in sooo many ways. AND see NYT article today predicting that A1 will go bankrupt sooner rather than later, in spite of the massive push to support them by those very billionaires Mr. Hightower lists. Fair warning.

Joanne's avatar

I am terrified. And not looking forward to paying for electricity to run these monstrosities

Linda Leee E E's avatar

Corporations are a moving money fantasy, money is a government fantasy empowered by people who believe that it will shape the future into their imagining. Killer bankruptcy is the usual end of Corporate folly and the life of the planet suffers from the pecuniary greed inherent in the corporate economic system repeatedly. Journey to zero.

Neil Rankins's avatar

If the greedy oligarchists want to do a lasting legacy, how about they sacrifice themselves now, and launch themselves into orbit in a solar-powered sparkly reflective mummification suit. Then they could orbit the earth in shiny perpetuity for us all to see.

Ian Ogard's avatar

My son and I used to lie on our backs on a trampoline in the backyard and stargaze in wonder. Meteor showers were the best. We snuggled up in sleeping bags when it was cold. My son's grown and gone now. I take the dog out every night, and if the sky's clear I give the stars a long, luxurious look. Staring up into space beats the hell out of staring at a screen.

Sandra M. Watson's avatar

One of the huge tourism selling points of coming to the Adirondacks is the pristine aspect of our night skies. It's disappointing enough when mother nature obscures the stars with her clouds, can't fathom clouds of a corp reason

Got to get proactive here

John Kumm's avatar

Suggested reading: The End of Reality by Jonathan Taplin. After reading it, I concluded that it should be subtitled: Beware the Four Horseman of Arrested Development.

Linda Leee E E's avatar

Protect and Preserve our National Parks and Federal Lands! Not for sale or Lease! Don't work for a data center future. Money has power because people believe that it does, corpracats speak the number speak, then expect US to go with whom so ever sanctions the largest number of dollars, the ultimate bad spirit basis for deciding to do something. That's the corporate way. Watching "Cloud Atlas" with Jim Sturgis

Christine Taraskiewicz's avatar

Love the CorpRaCats. Is that like the Demicans and the Republicrats?

Brian Elvin's avatar

On the bright side, space is freezing cold so they wouldn’t be spoiling our ground water, and they could use alternative renewable energy out of our sight instead of producing CO2 from Methane. While they are spoiling our view, they are giving us a view of their hypocrisy. We are currently fighting to stop data centers in Leon County , Texas.

Paul thomas's avatar

God bless the amish

Mike Kossow's avatar

The earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses.

~ Utah Phillips

clinton & susanne hollister's avatar

Thank you for the timely warning, Jim. We had not heard about this one. But we know, of course, that to that crowd, money is God. Welcome to the Twilight Zone.

Robert's avatar

I will circulate this to a few contacts that I have in Physics and Astronomy, though I'm sure they know about it already.

Christine Ulrich's avatar

Surely EarthSky News will publish loudly on this issue??

George Robertson's avatar

We all have an equal interest in the night sky. Everyone who thinks they can do more than their share of utilizing the night sky space is going to have to pay some serious perpetual space rental payments to the 8 billion night sky space holders, if they do that. Not to mention punative fees if they do that without prior permission.

David Balfour's avatar

I'm not opposed to AI,however,like nuclear power,it needs to be controlled,monitored and overseen by citizens committees before it's abused.

Christine Taraskiewicz's avatar

Excel Energy, our energy provider, knowing this would happen asked for, and got, a rate hike. Four years ago, they knew. I hear people show up to their city councils to stop this eartly and startly rape.

Al Dynarski's avatar

Don't worry Jim. With Musk's record of exploding rockets, they will never get enough space junk up there to make any difference...