Yep, I've caught a few articles on that as well ☹️
Don't worry though, at the present rate we're going, humans will likely be extinct by the year 2100 or so, while many are daydreaming about moving to other already dead space rocks...
I'm skeptical about this report though. The magnetosphere extends way beyond the atmosphere where the space junk burns up. And most metal fragments reach the surface. The metal dust that may remain suspended in the ionosphere doesn't have the ability to block the magnetic field (the ionosphere already has a distinct sodium layer). All that aside, there are tonnes of metallic meteoroids entering the atmosphere every day without any issues.
The other reports I've seen suggest damage to the ozone layer and ionosphere due to rocket exhaust during the ascent.
How much effect it does or doesn't have, I'm not sure. But I do have a thought regarding the Earth's magnetic field that I haven't heard anyone else bring up, and this one is terrestrial, right here on the land.
See, they say the Earth's magnetic field is gradually getting weaker, and they're not entirely sure why. So of course they're doing lots of research into all sorts of theories as to why.
Well have they considered that over the past century, humans have wrapped lots of the planet with degaussing coils? We call them power lines...
See, they say the Earth's magnetic field is gradually getting weaker, and they're not entirely sure why. So of course they're doing lots of research into all sorts of theories as to why.
Weakening of the geomagnetic field is due the pole reversal that happens periodically over time. It's bad news, but not catastrophic.
Well have they considered that over the past century, humans have wrapped lots of the planet with degaussing coils? We call them power lines...
I seriously doubt that the whole of humanity's electric infrastructure is powerful enough to interfere with the colossal magnetohydrodynamic dynamo at the core of the planet.
I'm aware of the drifting of the poles and the ultimate eventual reversal of the poles, yeah. And granted that the degaussing effect is almost certainly negligible, it's still gotta have a subtle effect regardless.
In ten years, after Kessler Syndrome, the whole world will have to consider that everyone needed 7,000 satellites in their constellation to compete with the other constellation, so now no one can have a satellite at all. Protecting the Commons is the one thing every can agree the government needs to do.
Protecting the commons is something that is opposed by everybody with the means to exploit it. And they are the ones paying the salary of the governments. Even worse, orbital space isn't the only commons under that threat.
