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Aug

2023

IS THE 2030 AGENDA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STILL IMPORTANT FOR THE UNITED NATIONS? (ARE WE CLOSE TO A PSYCHOHISTORY CUSP?)

There have been rumors in recent weeks, that the United Nations Secretariat was now looking beyond 2030, and that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was somewhat outdated. We don’t know if that is true, or just a speculation. If true, what does it mean? Have the United Nations realized that the 17 SDGs were an unattainable utopia, and are they preparing to move on? What we knew, before hearing such voices, was that some kind of review of the 2030 Agenda was scheduled in 2024 / 2025, to measure the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and possibly to update it, according to some relevant developments, which occurred after 2015. The need for an overhaul of the 2030 Agenda was easy to be seen, even for the most blind bureaucrat. Several historical milestones have been achieved, in 2015 and subsequent years. First of all, the new space economy revolution, boosted by the rockets’ reusability, developed by SpaceX. The space economy is nowadays the most progressive industrial segment, trying to balance, alone, the profound global crisis, which grips the world economy. Notwithstanding that, space is still stubbornly out of the 2030 Agenda. That’s the main reason motivating the Space 18^th SDG initiative, supported now by 47 space advocacy organizations^[1]. Such a proposal was already presented at COPUOS 66^th session in Vienna, last 5 of June, in a historical discourse^[2] pronounced by Karlton Johnson, on behalf of NSS, SRI, and the whole coalition of the co-promoters. The Space 18^th SDG will be presented at United Nations General Assembly 78, the 15 of September, in a hybrid panel at United Nations in New York^[[3]. There will be other announcements and news about this significant event.What we want to reflect on, today, is the actual social relevance of the 17 SDGs, and if it makes sense to maintain 2030 as a deadline for the achievement of such key socially relevant goals.Looking back some decades, the National Security Agency (US) had foreseen a very critical period from 2025 to 2030, possibly an irreversible civilization-implosive crash (I am sorry that I cannot provide any link to proper articles, yet I had commented on such a forecast in some of my newsletters). While we are approaching 2025, have those concerns lowered or increased? Considering the many symptoms that we are witnessing – pandemics, extreme climate events, enduring economic crises, and wars in the “advanced” world countries – it is easy to reply to the question. That devastating crisis is already here, some years in advance, with respect to the NSA’s prediction. Should we use Hari Seldon’s psychohistory^[4] terms, even if we don’t own his “Radiant” tools, we could say that we are very close to a “cusp”. No doubt that several crazy events are occurring, in reaction to the multiple crises. No doubt that it makes sense to interpret the current age with the tools of psychohistory, at least from a conceptual point of view. Thus, is 2030 still an important date, or should we forget the 17 SDGs and start looking beyond? My first answer is yes, definitely: 2030 is even more important than it was in 2015 when the UN 2030 Agenda was approved. Since most of the 17 SDGs are social goals, it is of paramount importance to fight for their sustainability and to underline that the only way to achieve them is to kick off a new, strong, development strategy, i.e. to accelerate civilian space development.

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Jun

2023

WHO WANTS TO LIVE ON PLANET TRANTOR? (WHY WE ARE AGAINST SPACE COLONIALISM)

Historically, colonialism was initially predicated on a simple “rob and take home” concept. During the first colonialist age, the superpowers of that era (primarily England and France) used to send their agents overseas to obtain precious goods at very low prices, and to bring those goods back to their home countries, selling them at very high prices (today, such practices are far from being obsolete!). Such policies were often socially detrimental, especially when they boosted the use of drugs (e.g., stimulating opium dependence in several Chinese provinces). In many cases, colonialist policies lead to conflicts and wars (in order to ensure control over certain regions). In most cases, nothing positive remained for the colonized populations, since the colonialist behaviors primarily engaged populations with a culture based on robbery and exploitation – not to advance civil rights. Regarding the “new world” (America’s two continents), colonialists have also invaded these territories, stealing the land and natural resources from native inhabitants, and exterminating these inhabitants by any means. During the last age of colonialism (up to the 20th Century), the practice of depredation continued, in many cases retarding or preventing the development of colonized countries, notwithstanding the abundance of natural riches, from which native peoples could never benefit.

Ok, I am listening now to your classical objections. I, for one, have noted this several times while discussing space colonization: in the solar system there are no native intelligent beings, therefore we would not steal anything from anyone, by colonizing territories on the Moon, Mars, Jupiter Moons and beyond. Of course, I am talking about the very essential part of colonialism: to take resources and bring them home. In our cases, to take asteroid and exo-planetary resources from the Moon, asteroids, Mars and beyond, and bring them on Earth surface – why would this be harmful?

Space colonialism would be both a dangerous and harmful undertaking for several reasons.

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May

2023

THE SPACE GREEN REVOLUTION

On the 5th of June, 2023, the proposal for an 18^th Sustainable Development Goal will be presented at U.N. COPUOS, in Vienna, by representatives of the National Space Society, on behalf of 25 organizations who joined the alliance of the co-promoters of the #Space18SDG proposal.Why are we proposing that an 18^th SDG should be added to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development? It would be difficult to summarize all of the reasons in a short newsletter, but we will do our best to present these in upcoming newsletters . First of all, none of the 17 SDGs even mention space as a possible key factor supporting development sustainability. Yet, development was nominally the main goal of the U.N. 2030 Agenda, and it also was recognized as a civil right in a resolution adopted by U.N. General Assembly in 1986. Space has been increasingly confirmed as a key sector of the global economy – and perhaps the only sector experiencing spectacular growth in an age characterized by several crises.

Space technologies are already substantially contributing to all of the SDGs, and represent the main contribution to a true inclusivity of all the peoples of planet Earth. A civilian-led space development may substantially contribute to the three pillar SDGs essential for development: the 7^th SDG (Affordable and Clean Energy), the 8^th SDG (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and the 9^th SDG (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure). Thanks to reusable rockets, the cost to orbit is continuously downsizing, and both orbital and lunar industrial development are becoming increasingly affordable – not only for big corporations, but also for small and medium enterprises. The one trillion dollar threshold will likely be overcome by space economy before 2030, while financial forecasts had anticipated this occurrence in 2040. Surfing the many space news channels on YouTube, we learn that NASA and SpaceX plan to build a $3.7 Trillion Lunar Economy by 2040! This is even more optimistic than our forecast of $3.5 trillion, proposed in 2021 by the 3^rd SRI World Congress Thesis.

So, why didn’t U.N. experts reference space when they designed their 2030 Agenda? In partial exoneration of this omission, we could posit that financial experts still didn’t believe (just one year ago) that space was truly rising to such heights (and many of them still don’t believe this!). It was much harder to foresee this before 2015 (when the 2030 Agenda was conceived).

Now, however, it’s time to address these mistakes! Space resources will be key to help sustain development, both on Earth and in space. Even more important, human direct experience in space will be key to help universally improve sustainability in our solar system that, of course, includes Earth in a much broader environment. Dr. Thomas Matula Ph.D, (Sul Ross University, Texas) gave a most inspiring lecture (one week ago) addressing how experiences by communities living in space habitats may be essential to enable human sustainability – not only in space, but also on Earth’s surface. Ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture (as defined by SDG 2) will clearly require the development of new technologies and methodologies. And (what a surprise!) the best environment where humanity can experiment with and apply such technologies and methodologies is in space – inside closed artificial ecosystems, where all the operational variables are predetermined, continuously monitored and controlled. Increasing crops yield will be essential, as well as improving the cycles of water and oxygen, to help reduce water waste, as well as to assure high sanitation standards (SDG 6). An entirely new culture of recyclable elements and a circular economy will be designed and implemented. And where will such innovations be mandatory? In space habitats – both on planetary surfaces and in orbital (spinning) infrastructures. Sustainable space habitats will require high yield agriculture, and near 100% water and materials recycling. They also will need to extract resources from very “low-grade” sources. The lessons learned by space farmers communities will subsequently benefit terrestrial farmers, forest planners and ecologists – providing sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, enabling sustainably managed forests, combating desertification, halting and reversing land degradation, and halting biodiversity loss (SDG 15). It has been estimated that a combined use of Ultra High Yield Agriculture technologies and methodologies may help overcome (by several orders of magnitude) the results achieved by the 1970’s green revolution. Climate-controlled buildings isolated from natural environments (with optimized conditions regarding light, water, nutrients, atmosphere, temperature, humidity, and the spacing of plants) will help eliminate threats from insects, weeds, and plant diseases. The space green revolution will help increase yields 10 to 50 times more than traditional agriculture systems, enhance the potential for harvests year round, promote a 90% reduction in needed land, and enable a 95% reduction in the use of water. Taken together, this will definitely be worth the investment!

[English language editing by: Jim Crisafulli]
[Contributions by: Tom Matula, Al Anzaldua]

12 June 2023: An 18th SDG: Space for All, on Earth and Beyond

During the 1^st #Space18SDG virtual event, all of the promoters will provide their “why” humanity needs an 18^th SDG. Follow the livestream on the Space Renaissance Youtube channel

Click ‘going’ to the Facebook event

Sign the #Space18SDG pledge: https://www.change.org/space18sdg

Add your organization to the promoters group

Please don’t forget to support the Space Renaissance:

Join the SRI Crew: https://spacerenaissance.space/membership/international-membership-registration/

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Oct

2022

Space For All: From Goal to Reality

by Adriano V. Autino

Back from Paris, we needed a couple of weeks to recap what we have witnessed, what we have experienced and which role the Space Renaissance International (SRI) has played at the International Astronautical Congress, the 73rd. Of course our work is far from completion, especially thinking about what we want to do in the coming years, with SRI having been formally recognized as an official member of the IAF. In this role, we participated for the first time in the IAF General Assembly, where were able to really get a feel for operations with the IAF (the biggest international space organization in the world!).

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