Why climate change could litter Earth's orbit with space junk

Euronews

13-03-2025

A new report has revealed how the 100 most populated cities globally are becoming increasingly exposed to flooding and drought.
The study, led by WaterAid with academics from the University of Bristol and Cardiff University, shows widespread drying throughout European cities.
These include the Spanish capital Madrid, which was ranked second among the 49 drying cities, and the UK capital London, ranked 44th.
Findings also indicate that almost one in five of the cities studied are experiencing 'climate whiplash', defined as intensifying floods and droughts.
A similar proportion (20 per cent) have seen a major switch from one extreme to the other, known as 'climate hazard flips.'
Co-lead scientist Katerina Michaelides, Professor of Dryland Hydrology at the University of Bristol, says, 'The findings from our study illustrate just how differently and dramatically climate change is expressing around the globe - there is no one-size-fits-all.'
All European cities analysed exhibit drying trends over the past 42 years, the report found.
London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm and Istanbul could all see more frequent and long-lasting droughts as a result.
Some European cities are facing 'climate hazard flips'. Barcelona and Madrid are experiencing a particularly strong flip from wet to dry.
Around the globe, around 13 per cent of cities are switching to a more extreme wet climate, while the remaining 7 per cent are shifting to a more extreme dry climate.
'Places that were historically wet are becoming dry and vice versa. Other places are now increasingly battered by both extreme floods and droughts,' says Michaelides.
'A deeper understanding of localised climate hazards can support more intelligent and bespoke planning in major cities.'
The study also compares each city's social and water infrastructure vulnerabilities - alongside new data on climate hazards spanning 40 years - to identify which are the most vulnerable to extreme climate changes and the least equipped to handle them.
Vulnerabilities examined range from poverty to poor water and waste systems. Severe urban flooding can damage sanitation facilities, spreading diseases such as cholera and typhoid, whilst water shortages during droughts can leave millions of families without essential water.
'As the nature and intensity of natural hazards change, their impacts on urban communities will be significantly shaped by social and infrastructural vulnerabilities,' says Dr Sean Fox, Associate Professor in Global Development at the University of Bristol, who also contributed to the research.
'In other words, risk isn't just about the chance of a flood or drought occurring, it's also about how prepared communities are to deal with these hazards.'
The report places European cities like Barcelona, Berlin and Paris at a higher risk than those in North America and Australia, due to the continent's aging water and waste infrastructure potentially leaving urban populations more exposed.
From recent droughts in cities like Madrid and Cape Town to large-scale flooding across cities in Bangladesh and Pakistan, WaterAid claims 90 per cent of all climate disasters are driven by too much or too little water.
It warns that weather-related disasters such as flooding and drought have grown fourfold in the last 50 years.
This is putting major pressure on vital water access and sanitation systems and making it harder for communities and economies to prepare for, recover from, and adapt to climate change.
In light of global aid cuts, WaterAid is calling on the UK, global governments, multilateral banks, and the private sector to work together to unlock investment and implement solutions to tackle climate change and water crises.
'Now, we need to turn commitments into action - for leaders to build and invest in systems worldwide that can withstand extreme weather and keep clean water flowing globally,' says Tim Wainwright, WaterAid UK's chief executive.
Climate change is already causing all sorts of problems on Earth, but soon it will be making a mess in orbit around the planet too, a new study finds.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have calculated that, as global warming caused by burning of coal, oil, gas continues, it may reduce the available space for satellites in low Earth orbit by anywhere from one-third to 82 per cent by the end of the century, depending on how much carbon pollution is spewed out.
That's because space will become more littered with debris as climate change lessens nature's way of cleaning it up.
Part of the greenhouse effect that warms the air near Earth's surface also cools the upper parts of the atmosphere where space starts and satellites zip around in low orbit.
The cooling also makes the upper atmosphere less dense, which reduces the drag on the millions of pieces of human-made debris and satellites.
That drag pulls space junk down to Earth, burning it up on the way. But a cooler and less dense upper atmosphere means less space cleaning itself, resulting in space becoming more crowded, according to a study in Monday's journal Nature Sustainability.
'We rely on the atmosphere to clean up our debris. There's no other way to remove debris,' said study lead author Will Parker, an astrodynamics researcher at MIT. 'It's trash. It's garbage. And there are millions of pieces of it.'
The density at 400 kilometers above Earth is decreasing by about 2 per cent a decade, said Ingrid Cnossen, a space weather scientist at the British Antarctic Survey who was not part of the research. This decrease is also likely to intensify as society pumps more greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
Cnossen said in an email that the new study makes 'perfect sense' and is why scientists have to be aware of climate change's orbital effects 'so that appropriate measures can be taken to ensure its long-term sustainability.'
Circling Earth are millions of pieces of debris about 3 millimeters and larger - the width of two stacked pennies - and those collide with the energy of a bullet.
There are tens of thousands of plum-sized pieces of space junk that hit with the power of a crashing bus, according to The Aerospace Corporation, which monitors orbital debris. That junk includes results of old space crashes and parts of rockets with most of it too small to be tracked.
There are 11,905 satellites circling Earth - 7,356 in low orbit - according to the tracking website Orbiting Now. Satellites are critical for communications, navigation, weather forecasting and monitoring environmental and national security issues.
'There used to be this mantra that space is big. And so we can we can sort of not necessarily be good stewards of the environment because the environment is basically unlimited,' Parker said.
But a 2009 crash of two satellites created thousands of pieces of space junk. Also NASA measurements are showing measurable the reduction of drag, so scientists now realise that 'the climate change component is really important,' Parker said.
France is preparing for a future where global heating has risen to 4C above pre-industrial levels, sparking more wildfires and eroding its coastlines.
The government unveiled its third national climate adaptation plan yesterday (10 March), outlining dozens of measures to protect citizens in a possible 4C by 2100 scenario.
First shared by former Prime Minister Michel Barnier in October last year, the plan received almost 6,000 contributions during a public consultation, and has been developed with scientists and other experts.
"Adapting is not giving up," Agnès Pannier-Runacher, France's minister of ecological transition, biodiversity, forests, the sea and fisheries, made clear when announcing the plan on social media site X yesterday.
'The government's policy rests on two legs: on the one hand, it continues to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, on the other, it adapts to the effects of climate change.'
France is aiming to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, having already seen its emissions drop by 20 per cent since 2017, according to Pannier-Runacher. But even if net zero is achieved by mid-century, scientists still predict temperatures in the country will climb by at least 4C by 2100 due to the continued impacts of burning fossil fuels.
The new plan focuses on four priority areas, in geographic terms: coastlines, mountains, forests and agriculture.
Pannier-Runacher visited Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez in the Vendée region on Friday 7 March, Le Monde reports, where she was able to observe the retreat of the coastline.
"There is a very strong expectation from local elected officials, particularly in coastal, mountain or forest communities, but also from healthcare professionals and nursing home residents, who are already experiencing the effects of global warming," she told the French newspaper.
The package is designed to help sectors across the board - from business and transport, to infrastructure and agriculture - gradually adapt to the consequences of climate change.
It plots a trajectory for climate adaptation (TRACC) based on projections from the national weather agency Météo-France. In an incremental way, it prepares the country for temperature increases of 2C by 2030, 2.7C by 2050, and 4C by 2100 compared to pre-industrial levels.
There are then five categories of action: protecting people, ensuring the resilience of territories and essential services, adapting human activities, protecting natural and cultural heritage, and mobilising national resources.
Specific measures include creating a national map of exposure to natural risks, maintaining
affordable insurance offerings even in high-risk areas, and improving housing to remain comfortable despite rising temperatures.
'Adapting also means rethinking work,' Pannier-Runacher wrote on X. 'Faced with heatwaves, it is necessary to adjust schedules, strengthen medical monitoring and protect workers.
'Let us take inspiration from countries like Greece who are already doing this,' she said.
Discussing the climate adaptation plan yesterday, Pannier-Runacher added, 'There is a form of Trumpisation of minds. Ecology is not a subject reserved for the bobos [bourgeois-bohemian subset] of the big cities.'
US President Donald Trump has been gutting federal agencies dedicated to climate science since taking office in January. The French government, though it has been criticised for U-turning on some environmental measures recently, signalled a different direction with its climate plan.
'The main victims of climate change, those who risk their health or lose their homes and jobs, are the working classes, contrary to what the populists try to make us believe,' Pannier-Runacher said.
France has put itself ahead of the curve on climate adaptation, after being caught unawares by a deadly heatwave in 2003. The country has a detailed national heatwave plan in place, and cities like Paris are taking efforts a step further as they prepare for potential 50C summers.
Pannier-Runacher revealed that €1.6 billion in budgetary resources will be dedicated to the plan from 2025. That includes €1 billion from water agencies' budgets, and €300 million from the Barnier Fund, set up for the prevention of major natural hazards.
Environmental groups have welcomed the plan, but raised concerns about how the measures will be implemented, and whether they are ambitious enough.
Speaking to French news agency AFP, vice-president of France Nature Environnement Nicolas Richard said it presents "a certain number of good intentions" but faces uncertainty about "whether they are funded and how they are managed".
According to a recent report from the Institute for Climate Economics, between €1 billion and €2.5 billion should be invested annually just in new buildings, €4.4 billion for housing renovation, and at least €1.5 billion per year for agriculture.