What's more important, pretty long exposure pictures taken from Earth or internet access? I say internet access. Space telescopes are the future of real astronomy important data comes from anyway.
Nobody consulted me (or my country, or any of the countries it's purporting to help) about Starlink. Our input is of course never needed - why would it, when America (both the government and the companies) can simply decide what's good or not good for us instead?
In fairness, this is a deep-rooted bitterness that goes far beyond this one project. The sheer fact that an American company can just up and do things that impact the entire globe on a whim (and worse, the power the American government has to approve/"regulate" such projects as though only their citizens are impacted) is unbelievably absurd to me (see also: Facebook, etc).
If that's all you think is lost, then you are apparently not a scholar of history, archaeology, philosophy, literature, or anthropology.
Moreover, just because -you- don't value something doesn't mean it has no value.
I wonder if you have this opinion also?
Your comment is reminiscent of ageism.
It's also disingenuous to frame this as a "Starlink" problem. It's a Starlink problem plus the 13 other companies also trying to put 50,000 microsats in orbit, plus the 200 companies that will do it after them when prices come down.
In a couple of decades, we end up with millions of microsats in orbit, and by then there's nothing that can be done.
But as long as we can beam social media misinformation into the most remote corners of the planet, heaven and nature be damned.
Maybe not where you live. But in dark places it's really ease to spot them.
If we lose that essence of humanity where we feel wonder and awe looking up into the night sky, then we lose one of the prime movers of discovery and science. Or do you think cat videos can do the same?
Do we? Anecdotally, I grew up in the country and mostly didn't give the night sky a second thought, and yet have always been pretty obsessed with space-related fact and fiction.