Space tourism triggering global warming and harming ozone layer

Friday, July 1, 2022

The mushrooming space tourism industry is expected to trigger considerable global warming and even reduce the protective ozone layer which is important for maintaining life on Earth. A new study has brought forth added concerns about the “billionaire space race” triggered by some of the richest men in the world.

A primary focus of the study consisted of release of black carbon or soot, from the burning of rocket fuel. Black carbon comes from flaming fossil fuels or biomass, and it absorbs light from the sun and discharges thermal energy. Hence, it is a dominant climate warming cause. At lower elevation, black carbon promptly falls from the sky, lingering in the atmosphere for just few days or weeks.

With rockets blasting into space, they give out black carbon into the stratosphere where it stays. There, it absorbs sunlight and burning heat, for up to four years before declining back down to Earth. Black carbon discharged in the stratosphere is almost 500 times bad for the weather conditions compared to similar discharge on or near the surface of the earth, as per the study. Black carbon discharge from all spacecrafts is at present comparatively low, but it has the chance to rapidly increase, if forecasts regarding the expansion of space tourism turn out to be true. Space tourism presents a risk to the climate by addition of particles of black carbon to the upper atmosphere.

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