The Economic Development of the Moon

MarkWhittington writes "Andrew Smith, the author of Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth, recently published a polemic in the British newspaper The Guardian, entitled Plundering the Moon, that argued against the economic development of the Moon. Apparently the idea of mining Helium 3, an isotope found on the Moon but not on the Earth (at least in nature) disturbs Mr. Smith from an environmentalist standpoint. An examination of the issue makes one wonder why."

Comments

Re:Flawed Philosophy

[hardburn]

Would I care if the moon suddenly became less beautiful? Yes. Yes I would. If I have to look up and see the moon obscured in never-settling dust from mining, the childhood memories I had of looking at the craters in clear view with a 100x telescope could never be experienced by the next couple generations.

OTOH, many environmentalists don't care about light pollution, which absolutely kills the view of the night sky. Plus, the easiest way to get rid of light pollution is to use better fixtures, which increases the amount of light being directed to the ground, and therefore requires less powerful lights. So it's a win for both the natural view of the night sky and for overall energy usage. If environmentalists weren't just luddites in disguise, they would support this.