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Comment by dharmaturtle | Hacker News Reader

> i just don't like that the said company test their stuff in a middle of a natural reservation

I guess you must really hate NASA then.

> Visitors to Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex are often surprised to discover that they are just as likely to be greeted by an alligator or dolphin. This is because Kennedy Space Center sits in the middle of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge adjacent to Canaveral National Seashore, one of the largest and most diverse wildlife preserves in Florida. In fact, the refuge supports one of the highest numbers of threatened and endangered species anywhere in the nation.

https://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/blog/07/the-wild-side-of-...

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You don't have to hate NASA to lament their riding roughshod over threatened species' habitats on a routine basis.

Do you have sources for them doing that on a routine basis?

I see a very large amount of launch infrastructure. You don't build that much without disregarding the needs of what lived there first.

Much of it was built before the EPA existed, so routine was routine. But, it is still being expanded, lately on behalf of SpaceX. Scheduling in lots of studies and meetings just amount to delaying, if they can't actually affect whether the paving happens. No amount of public hand-wringing gives a turtle back the nesting site its ancestors have returned to for a million years, or a hundred million.

95% of the land isn't used by any launch infrastructure, only 5% of the land is used, so please, how is this routinely abusing the area?

They have paved all they wanted to, so far. When they want to pave more, they will. Then it will be "only 10%", "only 15%", "only 20%", and on up.

So, you still can't tell us how this is routine abuse? Come on.

If they've built on 5% of the land in 50 years, then we should have another 950 years of expansion, at that extrapolation.

You are aware there is a conservation programme running too?

5% of what? They paved over 100% of what they paved over. That number will not change, however much they pave over.

If the supposed conservation programme doesn't actually block paving, then it is what they call a formality. Business-as-usual is routine.

The US space program was practically moribund for those 50 years. The paving was done quickly at the start. With space activity ramping up, paving will too, as we see starting already. What are you demanding as a definition of "routine" beyond paving where they like, when they like?

The US Space programme was moribund? No Space Shuttle launches then?

You say they are routinely abusing the area and all I'm getting from that is that they've paved over areas, 5% of the area. How is this routinely abusing the area?

Could you post an journal article explaining how this has routinely abused the area and put the ecosystem at risk?

Could you post a journal article identifying what percentage of an already radically reduced habitat of numerous threatened and endangered species can be paved over without driving any of them closer to extinction?

You may as well condemn all of south Florida. How dare they.

OK. But who is "condemning" here? Floridians, looks like.

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