EARTH DAY 2021

Pandemic lockdown brings down air pollution by up to 70% in some London areas

A black cab pumps exhaust fumes into the air in south London / PA Archive

ByRachael Burford

Local Democracy Reporter@RachaelBurford

Clean air campaigners today said lifestyle changes brought on by the pandemic could help us slow climate change, as figures show there was up to 70 per cent less air pollution caused by vehicles during the first lockdown

London pollution analysers yesterday estimated many areas, particularly in the centre and near busy roads such as the South Circular, had pollution levels between five and nine on the London Air Quality Network index- in the moderate to very high categories.


This time last year only one area reached more than a three, showing there were low levels of nitrogen dioxide in the air.

 

Estimated air pollution levels on April 21 2021 / Clean Air London


Simon Birkett, founder of Clean Air in London (CAL), speaking on Earth Day that promotes global climate action, he said: “What we saw last year was levels of nitrogen dioxide from road traffic fall very sharply.

“It was surprising how far it fell, at some point 60 to 70 per cent down on 2019, which shows how much diesel is contributing to air pollution.

Air pollution levels in London in April 2020 / Clean Air London


“People have suddenly experienced it is nicer to live in an area with less air pollution and we’ve seen people cycling and walking more, which can only be a good thing.


“Areas with better air also were less hit by Covid, there are so many health implications and the pandemic has really highlighted that.”

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Mr Birkett said that a new Clean Air Act should be passed, which would give local authorities more power they need to decarbonise areas to protect health.

This Earth Day year’s theme is “Restore Our Earth”, with people being urged to focus on reducing our impact on the planet following the Covid-19 pandemic and how we can repair our ecosystems.

US Sikh community traumatized by yet another mass shooting


BY CASEY SMITH AND LUIS ANDRES HENAO 

ASSOCIATED PRESS
APRIL 21, 2021 

A single bouquet of flower sits in the rocks across the street from the FedEx facility in Indianapolis, Saturday, April 17, 2021 where eight people were shot and killed. A gunman killed eight people and wounded several others before apparently taking his own life in a late-night attack at a FedEx facility near the Indianapolis airport, police said, in the latest in a spate of mass shootings in the United States after a relative lull during the pandemic. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) MICHAEL CONROY AP

INDIANAPOLIS

Ajeet Singh had to steel himself for a return to work at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis on Tuesday for the first time since a former employee shot dead eight people, including four members of Indianapolis’ tightly knit Sikh community.

“I've been scared to go back," Singh said. "I don't know why this happened still. Was it random, or was it because of who I am?”

While the motive for last week's rampage remains under investigation, leaders and members of the Sikh community say they feel a collective trauma and believe more must be done to combat the bigotry, bias and violence they have suffered for decades in the country. Amid intense pain, they're channeling their grief into demands for gun reform and tougher hate crime statutes, and calls for outsiders to educate themselves about their Sikh neighbors.


“We are time and time again disproportionately facing senseless and often very targeted attacks,” said Satjeet Kaur, executive director of the Sikh Coalition, a New York-based group that has urged investigators to examine bias as a possible motive in the shootings.

"The impact on the community is traumatic," she continued, "not just particularly the families that face the senseless violence, but also in the community at large because it’s community trauma.”

In the days since the shootings, the coalition facilitated a call with federal officials in which Sikh leaders in Indiana asked for the appointment of a Sikh American liaison in the White House Office of Public Engagement, among other requests.

A monotheistic faith founded more than 500 years ago in India’s Punjab region, Sikhism is the world’s fifth-largest religion with about 25 million followers, including about 500,000 in the United States.

Kaur said that as a relatively young faith with a low population in the Western world, Sikhism is generally not taught in schools to the same extent as other global religions or integrated in policy-making, resulting in misunderstanding and ignorance. Anti-Sikh discrimination can manifest itself in everything from schoolyard bullying to verbal attacks to shocking acts of violence.

Last year a man accused of running over the Sikh owner of a suburban Denver liquor store after reportedly telling him and his wife to “go back to your country” was charged with a hate crime and 16 other counts including attempted murder.

The latest killings dredged up painful memories for Rana Singh Sodhi, an Indian immigrant living in Arizona. He has spent nearly two decades preaching love and tolerance after his brother was shot dead four days after 9/11 by a man who mistook him for a Muslim because of his turban. Balbir Singh Sodhi was the first of scores of Sikhs who were the target of hate crimes in the aftermath of the 2001 terror attacks

“It’s very painful,” Rana Singh Sodhi said. “I hope one day ... people will love each other and enjoy the life and working together and living together in this beautiful country.”

There are between 8,000 and 10,000 Sikh Americans in Indiana, where they began settling more than 50 years ago and opened their first house of worship, known as a gurdwara, in 1999.

Most of the employees at the FedEx warehouse are members of the community. Gurinder Singh Khalsa of the Indiana-based Sikh Political Action Committee said many Sikhs live on Indianapolis' west and south sides, making the facility's airport location a convenient place to work.

On Monday his committee said it had set up a task force to seek answers about the shooting and to press government officials to take action. An important goal, Khalsa said, is to help people returning to work feel safe.

That would be a relief to people like Gaganpal Singh Dhaliwal, who said two of his aunts had just arrived for their shift at the warehouse Thursday night when the shooting started. His mother also works there. They all survived, but he's mourning colleagues and friends.

Dhaliwal expressed hope that the tragedy will inspire others to better understand the religion and cultural practices: “To all my fellow Americans, whether Republicans, Democrats, Muslims, Jewish, non-religious people, everyone: Google the word ‘Sikh’ today. ... Devote five minutes of your time to be aware about another people around you who may not look like you.”

Already he's starting to see some signs of raised consciousness, notably in the flags flying at half-staff outside homes and businesses across Indianapolis and an “outpouring” of support to fundraisers for victims’ families. He urged more people to build bridges to his community.

“If you see a person like me wearing a (turban) on the head, in your street, in your grocery shop, at your workplace, go talk to them," Dhaliwal said. "Tell them you know who Sikhs are, or give them a hug and say, ‘Hey, you’re welcome in the U.S.’ Right now we’re a community that needs a lot of support, and to know that we have a place in this place called America.”

The killings have reverberated nationwide. Pardeep Singh Kaleka, executive director of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee and the son of one of seven fatal victims of a 2012 mass shooting at a gurdwara in the suburb of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, said there are concerns about an escalating threat of violence.

Small communities traumatized by violence are left to wonder, “Was I targeted for my race?” Kaleka said. “Was I targeted for my ethnicity, for my religion? Was I targeted for something I can’t control?”

And in California, Tejpaul Singh Bainiwal, a Stockton Gurdwara Sahib member and student of early Sikh American history, said he's grappling with a range of emotions including “anger, hurt, hopelessness and a feeling of not belonging.” Frustrating, he said, is that much of the public focus has been on the shooter's mental state rather than the community he wounded so deeply.

“I am tired of the same old narrative,” said Bainiwal, who was born and raised in the U.S. but has been told to “fit in.”

In Indianapolis, the Sikh community is focusing on helping the bereaved, who are hoping to secure roughly two-dozen fast-tracked visas so relatives overseas may travel for funeral rites set to take place in the next two weeks. The proceedings will begin with cremation and then be followed by up to 20 days of reading of the 1,400-page Guru Granth Sahib scripture, Dhaliwal said.

Earlier last week the home of Sukhpreet Rai bustled with happy chatter and kitchen activity amid celebrations of Vaisakhi, a major Sikh holiday festival, and an upcoming family birthday. Now it has fallen silent in mourning for two of her relatives, Jasvinder Kaur and Amarjit Sekhon.

“We were supposed to be celebrating a birthday and being together as a family,” Rai said. “We’re together, and we have one another, but it’s for something different — it’s for a funeral.”


___

Associated Press writers Anita Snow and Gary Fields contributed to this report.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.








Members of the Sikh Coalition gather at the Sikh Satsang of Indianapolis in Indianapolis, Saturday, April 17, 2021 to formulate the groups response to the shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis that claimed the lives of four members of the Sikh community. A gunman killed eight people and wounded several others before taking his own life in a late-night attack at a FedEx facility near the Indianapolis airport. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) MICHAEL CONROY AP

Lava from Guatemala's Pacaya volcano threatens towns

EL PATROCINIO, Guatemala — Residents of small communities living around Guatemala’s Pacaya volcano wake each day wondering if the lava will reach their homes.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

A lava flow descending the volcano has advanced between El Patrocinio and San José el Rodeo. In the case of the latter, the lava has advanced to within two and half blocks of the outermost homes.

Emma Quezada, a 38-year-old homemaker in one of those houses, has lived there her entire life and said she’s used to the volcanic activity. Still, this time she’s afraid.

“These last three days the lava stopped; we hope it stays there,” Quezada said.

Local authorities had spoken to residents about moving the community to another location some 62 miles (100 kilometres) away, but without the space they have now, she said.

“As if you’re going to go from here to a little piece of land!” she said. “Maybe we don’t have a great thing here, but we live in blessed peace, we don’t face any other danger, not even thieves... The options they give you don’t compare with what we have here.”

The Pacaya volcano rises some 8,372 feet (2,552 metres) between the departments of Guatemala and Escuintla south of the capital. It’s a popular tourist destination and 21 communities surround it.

In early February, a chasm opened in one of the volcano’s flanks and lava began to flow, now stretching at least three miles (5 kilometres). Meanwhile ash and gases spewed from its crater.

Even if the lava doesn’t reach their homes, the ash has damaged their corn crops and the pastures where their cows graze.

El Rodeo is home to 57 families, some 350 people, said Juventino Pineda, president of the Urban and Rural Development Community Council.

Pineda, 67, can recall various eruptions during his lifetime. “One of the worst was 1962, I was a child and lava also came out of a fissure in the volcano, that time it was 20 kilometres of lava,” he said.

This time, Pineda says “we believe that at least 50% of the homes in the community would be destroyed because of the lava’s path.” There is an evacuation plan if the situation worsens.

“At night, when the volcano erupts, everything turns red, everything shines, it looks like day,” Pineda said.

Approaching the lava you can feel the ambient temperature rise. There’s a light sulfur smell and you can hear a crunching.

“It’s important to know that we need help, maybe someone can help us on the international level,” Pineda said.

Sonia PéRez D., The Associated Press

FASCIST ARCHITECTURE BRUCE COCKBURN

 

CANADA

Budget puts abortion access on the table in future health funding talks with provinces

Catharine Tunney 

CANADIAN PRESS

4/20/2021

© David Smith/The Canadian Press Pro-choice demonstrators rally at the New Brunswick Legislature in Fredericton on Thursday, April 17, 2014.

The federal government says any future negotiations about boosting health funding to provinces will be tied to talks on sexual and reproductive health services — including abortion.

That commitment was written into the Liberal government's new budget, which Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland tabled in the House of Commons Monday.

"The government is committed to collaboration with provinces and territories to strengthen our health care system, ensuring equitable and appropriate access to a full suite of reproductive and sexual health services, in any upcoming Canada Health Transfer funding discussions," says the budget document, referring to the federal government's fiscal contribution to health care costs in the provinces and territories.

The 700-page-plus document mentions New Brunswick's Clinic 554, the province's only private abortion clinic — which has been at the centre of a fierce political debate about abortion access and is the focus of a recent court challenge.

New Brunswick does not fund out-of-hospital abortions and the Fredericton clinic has said it can't keep operating without provincial funding.

The province's legislature has been at odds about a push to change Regulation 84-20, which states that the province won't pay for abortions not performed in a hospital.

The majority government led by New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs blunted the motion by removing a reference to Clinic 554 and rewording it into a request for provincial health authorities to determine whether the province's abortion policy violates the Canada Health Act.

Higgs has argued that his province is providing adequate access to abortion services at three hospitals in the province — two in Moncton and one in Bathurst.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association filed a constitutional challenge earlier this year aimed at forcing the New Brunswick government to fund abortion services in private clinics.

"Examples like Clinic 554 — New Brunswick's only private abortion clinic — show us that lack of funding puts access to sexual and reproductive health care at risk," says the federal budget.

"All Canadians should have access to a full suite of sexual and reproductive health resources and services, no matter where they live. Currently, women, youth, LGBTQ2 people, racialized Canadians and Indigenous populations face the highest sexual and reproductive health risks and the greatest barriers to accessing support, information, and services. Too often, they do not receive the same quality of care, particularly if they are from marginalized communities."
Higgs calls federal approach 'very unfair'

Responding to the budget, Higgs — who is personally opposed to abortion — accused the federal government of delivering an ultimatum and said that if Ottawa feels his government isn't respecting the Canada Health Act, it can take it to court.

"We're talking about the health care of every citizen in this province and the funding model. And every premier is talking about that in every aspect of what their health care delivery services look like. So I think it's a pretty unfair comparison or certainly a very unfair position to try to put me into personally, or as a provincial leader," Higgs said Monday evening.

"If they really believe that we are not meeting the access requirements, which we understand are necessary and appropriate to do so, then they would be taking us to court on it and solve it the way the program is identified. If we're violating the Canada Health Act, then there is a mechanism to deal with that."

The move to tie health transfers to abortion access isn't new. The federal government withheld $140,000 from New Brunswick in health transfer payments early last year. Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu argued at the time the province was contravening the Canada Health Act by refusing to cover out-of-hospital abortions.

Ottawa later gave the money back as the COVID-19 pandemic ramped up.

The NDP says the budget doesn't go far enough in promoting abortion access, especially in rural communities.

"The so called 'feminist' prime minister cannot continue to state he is pro-choice while impeding women's access to safe abortions," said Lindsay Mathyssen, the NDP's critic for women and gender equality.

"Justin Trudeau's refusal to enforce the Health Canada Act has made it very difficult for women to access abortion clinics, especially in rural settings ... More needs to be done to expand the access to birth control and Mifegymiso. Especially in rural communities where there are no abortion clinics nearby, this abortion drug, administered by midwives, is a safe and effective way for women to have an abortion."

The budget proposes spending $45 million over three years, starting in 2021-22, to fund community-based organizations that "support activities such as producing inclusive training materials for sexual and reproductive health care providers, carrying out public awareness activities, and providing travel and logistical support to individuals who have to go long distances to access abortion care."

The budget directs another $7.6 million over five years, starting in 2021-22, to Statistics Canada to develop a national survey on sexual and reproductive health that includes data on race, household income and sexual orientation.

A spokesperson for Hajdu said the government won't rule out using the Canada Health Act to defend abortion access.

"Our government has been clear that women have a right to access reproductive services. We will use all options available to defend a woman's right to choose, including those that exist under the Canada Health Act," said Cole Davidson.
No major Canada Health Transfer boost in budget

Provinces and territories have been asking for massive increases in the federal contribution to health funding for decades. Monday's budget didn't offer one.

The federal government promised last month to bump its health transfer contribution by $4 billion — well short of the $28 billion boost premiers have requested.

The provinces spend about $188 billion on health care annually and the federal government covers roughly 22 per cent of total costs. The premiers have asked for a permanent increase in the federal share of health spending to 35 per cent cent, which would bring the total federal share to $70 billion.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to increase health care funding to the provinces — but not before the immediate pressure of the pandemic subsides.

"It's going to be important that the federal government steps up and increases its share of the cost of health care with the Canada Health Transfer," Trudeau said after a first ministers' meeting in December.

"We are going to do that and I look forward to conversations over the coming months about how we can increase it."

 

Major investment in Canada flu vaccine manufacturing facility

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The federal, Ontario, and Toronto governments have entered a joint venture with French drugmaker Sanofi to expand a flu vaccine manufacturing facility. Travis Dhanraj explains how much it will cost, when the expansion will be completed, and what it means for Canadians.

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Chretien involved in secret plan to bury foreign nuclear waste in Labrador

Duration: 04:28 

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Afua Cooper: My 30-year effort to bring Black studies to Canadian universities is still an upward battle

Since my time as a graduate student to my present appointment as professor at Dalhousie University, I have been involved with championing and developing Black studies in universities and beyond.

Afua Cooper, professor of Black Studies, Dalhousie University 2021-04-04

© (Shutterstock) Adding Black studies to university curricula in Canada has been an upward battle.

Previously, within Canadian universities, not many scholars who work in creating knowledge about Black people called it Black studies. For many, “Black studies” was something that happened in the United States. In the 1990s, as a doctoral student conducting research in Black Canadian history, I developed and taught courses that consciously used the terms “Black” or “African Canadian.” Such courses included “African Canadian History,” “Black Ontario” and “Black Feminist history.”


As a result, I have come face-to-face in dealing with the resistance to implementing Black studies, and the pitfalls involved in the process.
Classroom encounters

I learned very early on that teaching Black and African Canadian history was dangerous. During my doctoral years at the University of Toronto, I taught a course called “400 years of African Canadian history.” It was the late ‘90s, and during the third class of the semester, in the middle of my lecture, a white man, who always sat in the front row of the class suddenly got up and began abusing me with the n-word. He then proceeded to lambast all immigrants as people ruining the country, and that we “all should go back to where we came from.”

It was one of those moments where time stood still. I marked the man’s distance from me, and checked to see if he had a weapon. The students reacted immediately. Several surrounded the man, and campus police were called. The racist was escorted from the building and the police took our statements. We were all shaken. I was escorted to my car by a security officer, who informed me that the matter would be reported to the Toronto Police.

The university’s response was to change the location of the class twice during the rest of the semester. Students and professor were not notified of the new location until a day or so before class, and by telephone. For the rest of the term, a plainclothes undercover Black policeman sat in my class. At the end of each class, he escorted me to my car, checked the car and the trunk, and he would leave once I got in the vehicle, locked the doors and drove off. If I took the train or bus, he would ride with me for at least two stops.

The student who attacked me was never charged. But what was it that made him pay tuition to register and attend classes, only to respond in such a way?

That wasn’t the only time I received a hateful response: Another semester when I offered the same course, I received hate mail in my campus mailbox. The letters were filled with racist diatribe from anonymous senders who were upset that the university was offering Black history.
Introducing Black studies

As a doctoral student, I was told by a senior academic that, “Black history was not at the cutting edge of Canadian social history.” Another senior male historian told me that I was wasting my time in pursuing Black Canadian history because there were very “few” Black people living in Canada during the time period I was focusing on. I mentioned to him that only a few people relative to the population were involved in the Upper Canadian Rebellion and yet volumes upon volumes have been written on this topic. The response of these two senior scholars to my attempt to research and write Black history was emblematic of that of the department as a whole.

After completing my PhD with a focus on Black Canadian history, I later taught Caribbean history and studies at Ryerson University, where I helped set up the Caribbean Research Centre.

I did additional tenures at Simon Fraser University, York University and the University of Toronto. At these places, I taught, created and designed new courses on women’s studies and Black history and studies. I thought deeply about how to bring Black studies into the universities, while being keenly aware that Black history, for example, was viewed as an important and legitimate branch of scholarly inquiry.

In 2009, I chaired an international meeting of Black studies scholars — historians, community activists, artists, students and workers — in a conference called “Knowledge Production and the Black Experience.” One outcome of this conference was the establishment of the Black Canadian Studies Association (BCSA), which has served as a site of Black studies mobilization within and beyond Canada.

In 2011, I received the James R. Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies at Dalhousie University, the only named Black studies chair in Canada. There, I threw myself into knowledge mobilization: teaching, researching, designing and developing new courses, community outreach and establishing a new research agenda with a focus on slavery and freedom. I led efforts to investigate Dalhousie’s relationship to slavery and race, the findings which were published as a report, “Lord Dalhousie’s History on Slavery and Race.”

I eventually established a minor in Black and African diaspora studies, which at present is being turned into a major. The flagship course, which I designed and taught, “Introduction to African Canadian Studies,” began with a full complement of 70 students. The launching of the minor was a milestone in my journey to establish Black studies within Canadian universities.
Countering biased assumptions

Why are Canadian universities reluctant to establish Black studies program? The fundamental reason has to do with the belief that Black scholarship and knowledge are unworthy and inferior, and therefore do not matter.

Anti-Black racism has been an integral part of the Canadian intellectual tradition. This tradition has actively denied Blacks a role in history and nation building, erasing Black people and their history from the Canadian historical canon.

Including Black studies within the curricula of universities and colleges would mean not only rolling out an interdisciplinary program from social sciences and humanities, but also employing a transdisciplinary approach that would cut across faculties such as law, social work, the hard sciences, engineering and health fields. Public history and engagements with community and governments would also form part of this effort.

This would help to advance several urgent equity and diversity imperatives with respect to learning, teaching and research.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Afua Cooper does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Space mining is not science fiction, and Canada could figure prominently

Elizabeth Steyn, Cassels Brock Fellow and Assistant Professor of Mining and Finance Law (Western Law); Faculty Member of the Institute for Earth and Space Exploration (Western Space), Western University 

 2021-04-04

In this era of climate crisis, space mining is a topic of increasing relevance. The need for a net-zero carbon economy requires a surge in the supply of non-renewable natural resources such as battery metals. This forms the background to a new space race involving nations and the private sector.

© (NASA) Cliffs in ancient ice on Mars.

Read more: How business is taking the space race to new frontiers

Canada is a space-faring nation, a world leader in mining and a major player in the global carbon economy. It’s therefore well-positioned to actively participate in the emerging space resources domain.

But the issues arising in this sphere are bigger than Canada, since they involve the future of mankind — on Earth and in space.

© (AP Photo/John Raoux) A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in July in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The mission sent a Mars rover to the Red Planet to search for signs of life and explore the planet’s geology.
Battery metals in hot demand

On Earth, attempts to address global warming include switching to a net-zero carbon economy through mass rollouts of electric vehicle fleets and investments in large-scale renewable generation infrastructure. Doing this successfully would require vast quantities of battery metals (lithium, cobalt, nickel), critical minerals (copper) and rare earth elements — so much so that market analysts have warned of a potential metals supercycle. In a supercycle, demand wildly outstrips supply, relentlessly driving up prices.

For this reason, the mining industry is actively looking towards new frontiers in mining. These include the circular economy (recycling and enhanced mine waste management), deep sea mining and space mining. Space mining holds the potential for rich rewards, but also comes with robust challenges.

© (NASA) A photo from the surface of Mars from the Perseverance rover mission on Mars.

One of the most serious challenges is the lack of a cohesive regulatory framework for governing mining in outer space. While the 1967 Outer Space Treaty has been signed by all space-faring nations and is widely considered to be the constitutional document of outer space law, it has interpretation gaps.


Importantly, it determines that no nation can claim any celestial body (such as the moon) for itself — but it’s silent on whether derivative resources can be owned.

Earth lawyers contemplating space-mining projects are likely to look at four aspects: security of tenure, the fiscal regime, the bankability of the project and the project’s feasibility. Let’s break them down.
1. Security of tenure

In mining terms, security of tenure means having secure and stable rights throughout the mining cycle. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty is unclear on who would own any extracted resources, and interpretations vary.

So far, Luxembourg and the United States have enacted domestic legislation that favours the possibility of claiming extracted resources, thereby bringing security of tenure to space mining companies located in those jurisdictions.
2. The fiscal regime

This issue refers to the payment of taxes, royalties or the like. Here, the 1979 Moon Agreement comes into play. Only two space-faring countries are party to it: India and Australia.

Read more: Australia has long valued an outer space shared by all. Mining profits could change this

There’s disagreement on the role that the Moon Agreement should play in outer space law. Some argue that it’s not pertinent to non-party countries; others point to its language and suggest parallels with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Both instruments refer to the “common heritage of mankind.”

UNCLOS has set up an international regulatory body, the International Seabed Authority, to licence mining in the deep sea on a royalty payment basis. Royalties are then to be distributed equitably among all nations on Earth. Some argue for a similar system to apply to outer space.
3. Bankability of the project

The third issue, project bankability, concerns the capacity of the project to attract funding.

To a large degree this will be determined by the prior two issues: security of tenure and the applicable fiscal regime. This again demonstrates the need for agreement on a clear legal framework before rushing into action.
4. Project feasibility

The last issue, has several facets. Technical feasibility is currently enjoying a lot of attention, with much research and development going into the advanced robotics and automated systems that would be needed for space mining operations.

Read more: ‘Made in space’: tangible reality or daydreaming?

Technological breakthroughs to date include the discovery of water crystals on the moon and on Mars, and the harnessing of 3D printing technology in space for manufacturing purposes. These make space mining more viable.

With the world’s two wealthiest people now both engaged in the space race — Jeff Bezos with Blue Origin and Elon Musk with SpaceX — we can expect rapid technological acceleration

.

© (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Bezos speaks at an event to unveil Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lunar lander in May 2019 in Washington.

Economic feasibility means that space mining would have to make financial sense. The looming shortage in non-renewable natural resources coupled with technological advances and the mind-boggling mineral wealth present in even a single asteroid may well make it so.
Peaceful use of outer space

There’s an additional reason why international agreement and co-operation in the outer space domain is crucial: the peaceful use of outer space, as required by the Outer Space Treaty.

In October 2020, eight countries signed a NASA-led initiative called the Artemis Accords. These included the United States, Canada, Australia and Luxembourg. Notably absent were Russia and China, who have since agreed to collaborate with each other on space initiatives.

Legal issues about the ownership of space resources must urgently be addressed to avoid space wars over natural resources between superpowers like the U.S., Russia and China. This includes the legal status of the Artemis Accords. Ideally, it should be done before space mining starts.

Finally, space mining raises certain ethical questions, such as whether the moon could be considered a legal person, if space mining would entail a new form of colonization and how the common good of mankind could best be served through mining in space.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Elizabeth Steyn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.