There Is No Ecology on the Moon
Against Sarah Laskow, I feel pretty okay with the idea of strip-mining the Moon for helium-3.
Gerry Canavan
the smartest kid on earth
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Whatever you want to say about mining the moon, itself, transportation of minerals to and from the moon isn’t exactly resource neutral, Gerry.
Alex
July 12, 2011 at 2:16 pm
Sure, but with continued research and some sort of space elevator it could likely get pretty efficient — and probably on balance better for the environment than consumption of earth-based resources for energy will ever be.
I don’t think *pure* resource neutrality is a practically achievable goal, so given the choice I think I’d much rather be using the Moon’s resources than our own planet’s fossil fuel reserves.
gerrycanavan
July 12, 2011 at 2:26 pm
If it works! If it doesn’t work then obviously we shouldn’t do it.
gerrycanavan
July 12, 2011 at 2:26 pm
It depends on so many factors, more than just “working.” In principle, I agree with you. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with mining on the moon. But then comes the issue of transportation, like I said, and then the problem of having to use people to actually mine the moon (or do we just use robots?). If the mining industry in lush tropical forests full of natural resources is an exploitative industry, I can only imagine what it would be like in a landscape with no natural food sources, no natural water sources (processing it from rocks doesn’t count), and harsh temperatures.
Alex
July 13, 2011 at 3:56 am
Oh, it’d have to be robots. I saw that movie — using human workers on the Moon does not end well.
gerrycanavan
July 13, 2011 at 9:25 am