Behold the giant peen above 🍆🌚

Which rocket is the biggest waste of space? (Get it, space)

View this email in your browser Verb Energy bars are your daily energy essential. The bars are infused with organic green tea, giving you the same amount of caffeine as an espresso without the jitters. They're gluten free, dairy free and vegan. Get 4 Verb bars for free before your next workout! You just cover shipping for $0.95. Read: this is some dirty, dirty tourism Estimated reading time: 2 minutes August Topic: Space Trash (thanks Alicia for the suggestion) This week's module: 1. READ | 2. LISTEN | 3. ACT | 4. REFLECT Welcome back to Changeletter by Soapbox Project. I'm the author, Nivi Achanta, and I make it easy for you to fight climate change in 3 minutes every week.   What's up this week Hello homies and space...ies. I hope you had a good weekend. Mine was awesome — I've almost fully made the transition from wheelchairing to crutching. I can speed crutch up and down stairs and it's great. As for my burnout, it's still lingering but I think I have a plan to work through it. Thanks Regina and Rob 💌   August's topic, Space Trash, is probably our most creative coverage since 2019. (Our Bitcoin series takes the cake on most complicated and futuristic, though.) And sorry for my immature subject line. If you haven't seen the shape of Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' rocket... it's a giant peen. No way around it.   Space technology, like satellites, can be great. They can help us prevent/mitigate disasters, navigate the roads, and view the visual effects of climate change.   Today's READ module is going to focus on the environmental impact of space tourism. Next week in our LISTEN module, we're going to talk about if we can actually launch our garbage into the sun. Since space is literally an infinite topic, please reply to this email with what you want to learn about by the end of August! P.S. Diana, answering your Q from last week... yes, there are laws in outer space. Sorta.   From the Soapbox We just launched a free trial for our membership, no cc required! I'd highly recommend signing up today because there's a LOT going on in the next 14 days alone that you'll get for free:   Monday 8/9 | 1-1:30pm PST @ Zoom - Fireside chat with Jannis Kempkens about plastic and the circular economy.    Tuesday 8/10 | 5-6pm PST @ our virtual community lounge: Brainstorming session about how to reduce plastic use when it comes to things that don't seem so easy to get rid of like garbage bags, facilitated by one of our founding members Jamie Morvitz.   Thursday 8/12 | 6-7pm PST @ Alamo Square Park -- Soapbox SF hang hosted by Will Farrar! Here's the post. Major fomo.   Weds - Thurs 8/17-18 | 5-7pm PST - SOAPBOXFEST 2021! If you're not planning on joining the Soapbox membership, you can sign up here. It's virtual and we'll be chatting climate, community, and comedy. Send the link to your friends and co-workers; you can even see if work will pay for this event. If you have a green team or a sustainability Slack channel, drop it in there. Grab your membership trial here to check out all the above events for free. Pssst. Make sure you grab your free Verb Energy bars. Mine are on their way.   Your bite-sized actions   Today's READ article is a brilliant and concise overview of space tourism and the planetary impact of rockets. It's scientific but still easy to follow, thanks to the author Eloise Marais, an Associate Professor in Physical Geography at University College London. Read the full (short) article here.   If you don't have time, some key takeaways:   The problem is space tourism. Look, space exploration and innovation can be great for so many reasons. But space TOURISM isn't a new frontier — it's just a new way of profiting. Virgin Galactic wants to offer 400 spaceflights each year to rich people who can afford it.   During launch, rockets can emit up to 10x more nitrogen oxide than the largest thermal power plant in the UK, over the same time period.   CO2 emissions on a space flight can be 50-100x more than the emissions that are generated per passenger on a long-haul airplane flight. That is a hefty bill for the Earth to pick up.   Rocket launch propellants generate greenhouse gases and air pollutants. Many of these compounds will contribute to air pollution close to the Earth, so they're not just floating off somewhere outside the atmosphere.   Read the full article here.   One takeaway for me is that there really is no ethical consumption under capitalism. If I was offered a free space flight, I would absolutely go. The solution has to start with removing incentives for corporations to trash the planet (and space) in the first place. The joyrides of 1600~ people per year just isn't worth it when 7 billion+ humans and even more animals are paying.   We'll get to actions two weeks from now in our ACT module, but for now, reply with questions you have about space, space tourism, space technology, space trash... all of it. 🚀🌚 Upcoming Next week: can we yeet our garbage into the sun?   Please share about Soapbox Fest! Here's a media kit with blurbs and everything you can use. I would reaaaally appreciate it.   Ask questions by replying to this email. Everything is fair game. Copyright © 2021 Soapbox Project, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up for our free action plans via social media, Tech Ethics Coalition, a meeting with Nivi, or our website! Our mailing address is: Soapbox Project 415 Mission St. San Francisco, California 94105 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.