Comment on Moon mining gains momentum as private companies plan for a lunar economy
Spzi@lemm.ee 1 year agoThe moon is essential for life on Earth.
Yes, but mostly by it’s mass, and maybe by it’s albedo. Is there anything else about the moon of relevance for life on Earth?
It’s mass of 7 * 10^22^ kg is so enormous, it wouldn’t make a dent if we add or remove hundreds of gigatons, which is far beyond our lifting capabilities at least for the next decades.
It’s surface is so huge, we cannot affect it’s albedo significantly.
So even if we approached the moon as a mere profit to be exploited, maximizing output and disregarding any concerns, how could this be detrimental to life on Earth?
majcurve@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The moon will be fine and the earth will be fine.
But for me the idea of some private company extracting massive amounts of profit from something like the moon just sounds wrong.
We all know they’re not going up there for the good of humanity or whatever. They want to turn their billions into trillions.
Personally I think they need to give up their wealth on earth first, and then we can think about how best to extract resources from the moon so that it will be beneficial to humans rather than a few bank accounts. We couldn’t do it with oil, but maybe we can with rare moon material? One can only dream.
I know I know pie in the sky right?
Spzi@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Yes, and necessarily figure out and establish lunar industrialization in the process. Depending on viewpoint, this can be a big argument in favor of the good of humanity.
I agree we need to fix our economic incentives and inequalities.
Though I don’t see how the Moon of all things should be spared from capitalist exploitation. It’s probably the one place where they can’t do much harm, no matter how hard they capitalist.
Theses worries are fully justified when it comes to rain forests, deep sea mining, child slavery, union busting and pretty much anything they touch on Earth. But on the Moon?
There is one interesting worst case scenario: A corporate monopoly exploits the Moon so ruthlessly, that it outcompetes terrestial production. Let’s say certain building materials or other things of value are suddenly much cheaper to import from the Moon than they are to make on Earth. Wouldn’t that end exploitation of people and animals in these industries on Earth, preserve ecosystems which would have been destroyed otherwise?