Why Climate Change Means Fewer Satellites

The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers issued a memorandum with immediate directions to employees in the field clarifying what bodies of water can be regulated, consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision in the Sackett case. Federal agencies were told they have authority over only those waters that are navigable or are a permanent body connected to navigable waters. The new Republican administration saw former President Biden’s compliance with the Sackett decision as protecting too many wetlands and limiting the rights of private property owners.

The EPA’s move was criticized by the environmental group American Rivers for threatening reliable drinking water for tens of millions of people, which they view as a step back to the time when rivers were on fire.

The EPA administrator, former Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-NY), also announced that the agency will rewrite rules that currently limit air pollution from fossil-fueled power plants including coal. Additionally, they will reverse rules that restrict emissions from cars and trucks, which are viewed by the new administration as an electric vehicle mandate. The EPA will also target restrictions on industrial mercury and soot pollution including the “good neighbor” rule, which limits emissions that affect areas downwind with smog.

Among the 31 actions announced, Zeldin celebrated the intended recission of a determination made in 2009 that carbon dioxide pollution is a danger to public health, referring to it as the “holy grail” of what he called the “climate change religion.”  The finding has been the foundation for regulating emissions. As Inside Climate News explains, the dismantling of all these rules could take up to two years. The EPA will need to draft new regulations, receive public comments, and come up with some scientific record justifying their actions—but with fewer staff due to recent firings and budget cuts.

Five states, including Minnesota, California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, have sued the corporations, including Exxon Mobil, BP, and the American Petroleum Institute, a lobbying group for the industry.

Some of the claims allege that the fossil fuel companies have deceived the public for decades about the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on global warming. The Republicans argued that the states are trying to determine national energy policy and will increase energy costs.

It’s the second time this year that the Supreme Court turned away attempts to get the court to intervene in this type of case. In January, a majority of the justices rejected the appeal of a decision from Hawai’i allowing Honolulu to sue Shell, among others. The New York Times reports that there are dozens of ongoing suits against fossil fuel companies to recover damages.  

Last week, nearly 200 environmental groups sounded the alarm that the fossil fuel industry may try to get Congress to pass legislation granting them immunity from being sued, similar to what gun manufacturers have obtained. In a letter to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the advocates warned that the industry will use the chaos of the new administration to pass laws that shield it from liability.

The Guardian reports that the fossil fuel industry has tried to obtain immunity for years, and now the companies are likely worried about new state laws aimed at making them pay to clean up the climate. Vermont and New York have passed bills that are modeled on the U.S. superfund program, and ten other states are considering such legislation.

Suffice it to say, it’s getting crowded in the upper atmosphere, and there aren’t garbage trucks picking up dead satellites and other debris, ranging from old booster rockets, lost tools, and even paint flecks, which can cause severe damage to other spacecraft. Once out of commission, satellites are either catapulted into a so-called “graveyard orbit” thousands of miles above the Earth or allowed to fall toward the surface, burning up on their way down.

However, because of climate change, the number of satellites above the planet could be limited. MIT researchers have found that greenhouse gas emissions are causing the upper atmosphere called the thermosphere, (between around 60 to 600 miles above the ground), to shrink, leaving not only less space for future satellites but also making the ones already up there less able to fall to Earth. While greenhouse gases warm Earth's lower atmosphere, they cool the thermosphere and make it less dense. That decreased density reduces “atmospheric drag”—a force that pulls old satellites and other debris earthward where they encounter air molecules and incinerate.

Less drag means more space junk is going to pile up, reducing the areas to launch new satellites and making the likelihood of collisions even greater. The researchers predict that by the year 2100, the carrying capacity of the most popular locations to orbit Earth could be reduced by 50 to 66 percent.

The study was published in the journal Nature Sustainability.

The palm-size octopus, which lives in shallow reefs and tide pools on the east coast of Australia, needs to be calculating, not because the ladies are twice his size but because she plans to eat him after they mate. In her defense, lead author Wen-Sung Chung says eating males helps females to acquire the energy needed to produce eggs and then incubate them.

So, the male's strategy? Paralyze her before copulating. That’s according to researchers at the University of Queensland who observed a male biting the aorta of a female and injecting a venom called tetrodotoxin (TTX), causing her to turn pale and her breathing to slow. Within an hour she had returned to normal but not before the male had transferred his sperm and made his getaway.

The researchers note that the neurotoxin disabled the female only temporarily, but we should bear in mind that all octopuses are venomous to ward off prey. Humans should keep their distance—especially avoiding contact with a related species called the blue-ringed octopus—one of the ocean's most dangerous animals, whose tetrodotoxin venom can cause muscle paralysis, dizziness, vomiting, difficulty breathing, and even death. There is no known antidote. That said, this call to arms between the two sexes of blue-lined octopus is a bit confounding as both are believed to mate only once and die shortly after.

The study was published in the journal Current Biology.