Earth Day 2021

“With each year that passes, the significance of Earth Day grows. Before the pandemic hit, climate change was very much on people's minds. From appeals by Attenborough and Thunberg to Australian, Californian and Arctic wildfires, it was clear that the planet needs us to treat it better. As the climate crisis continues to escalate, it is fast becoming a race against time to preserve our planet and safeguard our future. In order to take care of the natural world around us, we need to think carefully about how to be sustainable and find a way to live and work with nature rather than against it.

Our efforts to be more sustainable should not be restricted to activity on Earth alone - spacetech can and should play a vital role to both measure the current impact and prevent further damage. The space industry must come together in a concerted effort to address our collective issue. Many monitoring capabilities exist via satellite imagery, and through the creation of a global satellite network and the increased capture of Earth Observation data, it is possible to track coral bleaching on The Great Barrier Reef and dwindling ice covers to pinpointing carbon emissions and pollution. There are endless satellite applications which are critical in ensuring we look after our planet.

Additionally, there has been important progress around using otherwise non-recyclable waste plastic, such as polystyrene, as more eco-friendly aviation fuel. This has the potential of removing thousands of tonnes of waste plastic from communities, which would otherwise end up in landfill or in our oceans It must be a two-pronged approach, to both monitor and prevent, in order to ensure that both humanity and our planet not only survive but thrive alongside one another.”

Volodymyr Levykin, CEO and founder of Skyrora