Canadian Inuit officials demand halt to rocket launch
The coming dark age: Canadian Inuit officials are demanding that the launch of a European atmospheric research satellite by a converted Russian ICBM be stopped out of fear of the pollution it might cause.
The position of the rocket company is based on calculated engineering:
In a statement to CBC News, the European Space Agency insisted the fuel won’t reach Earth’s surface. “Please remember that under standard pressure, hydrazine boils at 113.5 C,” the agency said. The stage containing the fuel will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere much hotter than that, it said. “The structural parts lose their integrity and by melting the destruction of the stage occurs. The agency said that six kilometres above the ground “the propellant components have completely burnt up.”
The position of the protesters is based on fear and lack of knowledge:
The concern for Inuit is the rocket’s second stage, which contains hydrazine-based fuel and is expected to splash down in the North Water Polynya. Though it’s outside of Canada and Denmark’s international waters, it’s home to a vast array of birds and marine mammals that Inuit rely on for food.
“It’s the birthing ground of all the animals that we eat, that people in the North depend upon,” said Eva Aariak, Canada’s commissioner on the Inuit Circumpolar Council and former Nunavut premier. “I know it’s being played down in terms of the kind of effect it would have, but nobody knows. This is the most concerning part is that nobody really knows. And before people know exactly what kind of effect it can have, we will keep fighting.” [emphasis mine]
The article also interviews a pro-Inuit scientist whose primary evidence apparently comes from a youtube video.
There is no doubt that hydrazine is very toxic, which is why it is generally not used as the launch fuel for rockets. However, these protests appear based on mindless fear, almost like the protesters were primitive tribesman afraid of thunder. Ah, but maybe that is exactly what they are!
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The coming dark age: Canadian Inuit officials are demanding that the launch of a European atmospheric research satellite by a converted Russian ICBM be stopped out of fear of the pollution it might cause.
The position of the rocket company is based on calculated engineering:
In a statement to CBC News, the European Space Agency insisted the fuel won’t reach Earth’s surface. “Please remember that under standard pressure, hydrazine boils at 113.5 C,” the agency said. The stage containing the fuel will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere much hotter than that, it said. “The structural parts lose their integrity and by melting the destruction of the stage occurs. The agency said that six kilometres above the ground “the propellant components have completely burnt up.”
The position of the protesters is based on fear and lack of knowledge:
The concern for Inuit is the rocket’s second stage, which contains hydrazine-based fuel and is expected to splash down in the North Water Polynya. Though it’s outside of Canada and Denmark’s international waters, it’s home to a vast array of birds and marine mammals that Inuit rely on for food.
“It’s the birthing ground of all the animals that we eat, that people in the North depend upon,” said Eva Aariak, Canada’s commissioner on the Inuit Circumpolar Council and former Nunavut premier. “I know it’s being played down in terms of the kind of effect it would have, but nobody knows. This is the most concerning part is that nobody really knows. And before people know exactly what kind of effect it can have, we will keep fighting.” [emphasis mine]
The article also interviews a pro-Inuit scientist whose primary evidence apparently comes from a youtube video.
There is no doubt that hydrazine is very toxic, which is why it is generally not used as the launch fuel for rockets. However, these protests appear based on mindless fear, almost like the protesters were primitive tribesman afraid of thunder. Ah, but maybe that is exactly what they are!
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Yeah, we should listen to the inuits, because they are such great rocket scientists. NOT! They are parasites who make up these lies in hip of extorting some monies for their own greedy profit, without making any contribution at all to society. Just ignore this primitive little-people.
Doesn’t hydrazine combust completely to nitrogen and hydrogen gas and ammonia and such harmless stuff? That’s why they are rigged to detonate if the launch goes wrong, because then it can all burn up in the air and not pollute the ground. I doubt that any hydrazine could reach the ground through the atmosphere without very deliberate purpose of doing so (with heat shields and containers). But ignorance and failure has never stopped our political parasites who play the race card against all of their, as they now define them, enemy races.
I’m personally offended by the inuits’ primitive slaughter of wild mammals like seals! Why don’t we throw them in jail for doing that, applying THEIR standard on themselves? The inutis are slaughtering the wild nature in a very precarious climate zone. And what do they show for it? Has anyone here ever bought a product made by an inuit? Why not? Don’t they manufacture things, the primitives? And they complain about rocket science. We must actively humiliate these destructive idiots in public! WE must give all inuits incentive to totally distance themselves from these fraudsters and liers, all inuits are not evil.
‘fluff–
Good stuff.
The only thing they manufacture, is phony-baloney “cultural outrage.”
Why don’t we cut off their access to cell phones, diesel boat engines, snowmobiles, and antibiotic pharmaceuticals?
The inuits in Scandinaiva (a couple of 10 000) have a kind of autonomy for their reindeer cowboy stuff. But they totally discriminate their women, they don’t let any of them have a say in their politics. Because of their race, it is not PC to mention that in public. The inuits is a primitive very bad “culture” and they need to get up to speed with reality, or if they want to remain a hobby group, stop making threatening demands against others.
Sure, one can have romantic fantasies about the life of the wild savage, be it on Hawaii or in Canada. But the specific reality are pretty bad with their culture, by civilized measures! I wouldn’t dream of caring about what they do, if THEY didn’t make such demands against MY interests! They have proclaimed themselves my enemy, and so I will treat all of them who don’t actively fight their destructive political tendencies. So unlikely that I would ever care about the aboriginers in Canada and Hawaii, but they mess with me, so I hate them for ever after, congratulations!
LocalFluff–
You have a unique “flair” with the keyboard, and I actually empathize with your global point.
(They can live like they want right up until they start telling other people how to live.)
Tangentially, we have Amish & Mennonites in Michigan, and they never attempt to impose themselves on anyone else. They just mind their own business and leave politics to the secular world.
I wonder how much special interest money has been funneled to them (from the usual suspects) to file and prosecute their protest?
This reminds me of the the protests against Cape Winds, a wind farm proposed for the Nantucket Island sound in Massachusetts.
Upon the discovery that they would be visible from Sen. Edward Kennedy’s private compound in Hyannisport, special interest group after special interest group poured out of the woodwork to protest the project, including a previously unheard of tribe of Indians who claimed that the sound was their holy ground. When asked to provide specifics about which areas the tribe wanted undisturbed, their reply was that it was a secret holy place which they couldn’t share with the white man.
These are well funded protests, and have more to do with shakedowns and obstructionism than any concern of the “native” group.
@wayne
“You have a unique “flair” with the keyboard, and I actually empathize with your global point.”
I just feel that we need to kick these holy cows in their big butts and get them moving to something productive. I think it’s the best for them too in the long run, to not be dependent on handouts from some government that actually did colonize them. Today the political correctness is just feeding parasites and giving stronger and stronger incentives for more people to parasite on more things, making up anything as an excuse. And it is not publicly allowed to be called what it is: stupid frauds.
Commodude-
Good stuff.
My bias is to treat ‘this-type-of-stuff’ as highly dubious (and malevolent) until demonstrated otherwise. Sadly, the race-hustlers have ruined a lot of goodwill I might have toward these “native groups.” I’ve have nothing against eskimos, inuits, or the folks who tend Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer herds. (It’s all very quaint & quasi-nostalgic.)
But…. way too much of this, has hidden agenda’s in play and has nothing to do with live and let live.
By all means, if they have concerns they should bring them up. It just sounds like the whole super-delayed-massive-Hawaiian-telescope ‘thing, all over again, in some respects.
LocalFluff– good stuff.
“10 Little Known Facts About the Amish”
https://youtu.be/_CeT32qxUK0
(2:15)
–these are generally true, depends on which variant one practice’s.
Eskimos, who invented snifflis ?? Now what are they called ?? PC is the direct road to the infernal regions, or Stalinism…
And before people know exactly what kind of effect it can have, we will keep fighting.
This makes it appear they are open to being educated. Easy enough to deal with as long as the people concerned are acting in good faith.
From the article:
“The other thing, which I think is quite important, I don’t need to prove that this fuel survives re-entry. There’s no proof that it’s destroyed. The burden of proof is on the actor that’s taking the risky activity.”
In other words, I don’t need to prove my point, I just need to suggest it in a strong enough manner that public opinion ignores the physics of the situation.
Damned luddites.
From the article: “I know it’s being played down in terms of the kind of effect it would have, but nobody knows. This is the most concerning part is that nobody really knows.”
Well, actually, we have a few examples from which we can draw some knowledge. In 2013, a Russian rocket nose dived onto the launch site grounds. In 1996, the first launch of Ariane 5 ended with the payload and rocket parts littering the swamps near Kourou. Also in 1996, A Chinese rocket crashed into the nearby town during a failed launch. All these happened due to guidance system failures.
The short term and long term environmental damage due to those crashes can be analyzed as a beyond-worst-case scenario. Since greater amounts of fuel and oxidizer were involved at ground level than would be involve at high altitude, in the case of the Inuits, it won’t be any worse than any of these three crashes.
For a more appropriate comparison, Columbia had a lot of hydrazine onboard when she broke up on reentry in 2003. The environmental damage due to her breakup and the parts that survived to Earth may also be worse than a non-heat-shielded upper stage reentry, but the amounts of fuel and other contaminants would be a better fit to the Inuit situation.
How much damage was there to the hunting and fishing in the affected regions of Texas?
Thus, we know the kind of effect it would have under worst case scenarios. We really know.
Its the common act of the modern anti industrialists and green weenies.
If they want to stop something find just one local native and convince them to and help them to start a 501c-3 non profit. Then funnel all the cash to them that they can. Call in known supporters in their network from around the country to make demonstrations.
More than likely there are just one or two locals and all the rest are bused in.
The poor locals have by now been brainwashed and lied to about everything. We can only hope that someone can get to them with some real evidence, science and education.
The very same thing happened with the last pipeline protests.
The radical left just hunts for some useful idiot to help them out. And now they have their sights set on natives.