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Junk Wars: China Now Planet’s Number One Polluter But America Takes Intergalactic Title

  2. AndreaKnoll
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China now has the dubious honor of being the world's biggest polluter. Research done by a team from the University of California suggests that we have previously underestimated China's power to pollute, and that the growing superpower probably took the title of polluter number one sometime in 2006 or 2007.

Not to be outdone, the U.S. is putting an intergalactic spin on the international trash wars. China may have taken the "Chief Trasher of the Planet" title, but that pales in comparison to America's goal of trashing the universe to turn our entire galaxy into a giant garbage heap.

Man put his first piece of junk, Sputnik One, into space just 51 years ago. Since then, we've managed to deposit tens of millions of items, with American taking the space junk lead since the end of the Cold War. Much of the debris, which is made up of dead satellites, discarded rocket sections, Shuttle and Space Station refuse, tools, nuts, bolts, fragments of metal, and, believe it or not, the odd glove, now circulates the earth in low orbit 200-300 miles above the surface. New computer generated images show how the trash is forming rings around our planet, an accessory which previously had been exclusive to Saturn in our solar system.

Like our earth-bound rubbish, this space junk has life-threatening ramifications. NASA now tracks the trajectories of thousands of the larger items, which pose a serious threat to the structural integrity of the Space Shuttle and International Space Station, and the astronauts who work on them.

Indeed, the Daily Mail reports that one glove, which was lost in space after it was dropped by Gemini 4 astronaut Edward White in 1965, became the most dangerous item of clothing in history as it orbited the planet at a speed of 17,500 mph. At that velocity the discarded gauntlet could have turned deadly had any space walking astronaut accidentally stumbled into its path. Fortunately that particular item of killer apparel burnt up in the atmosphere upon reentry a few months later, but there are millions more pieces of space junk out there to get you.
AndreaKnoll

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