“There is a wide and strong expert consensus on the pressing need to act now to begin debris removal activities,” he said in an ESA press release at the end of a four-day conference in Darmstadt, Germany.

“Our understanding of the growing space debris problem can be compared with our understanding of the need to address Earth’s changing climate some 20 years ago,” he said.

Not just a consensus, but an expert consensus.  Those carry more weight.  Nearly as much weight as Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell having a tryst.  Sorry for the visuals.

Okay, they say there are 23,000 pieces larger than 10 cm, and many more that are smaller.  Even if they’re small, they can be devastating if they hit something, just because of the speeds they travel.  This makes sense.  But think about this next paragraph for a second.

They heard proposals aimed at removing the largest chunks of debris out of orbit at the rate of five to 10 items per year.

The article mentions we’ve been putting stuff in space for 55 years.  Sounds about right.  My handy calculator says that 23,000 / 55 is 418.18.  Now, if I take 418.18 and subtract 10 from it, I get 417.18.  That means if we spend a fortune trying to remove all the crap up there, we’ll have a net gain of 417.18 pieces of crap added per year instead of 418.18.  Hardly seems worth it.  Yeah, I know.  If it saves just one satellite, it will be worth it.

Now, if I were cynical, which I’m not, I’d think these experts are setting themselves up for some major grant money, which means the Democrat party will come up with a space junk tax.  If I were a Democrat, I’d just tack a “fee” onto phone and cable bills because they have satellites and stuff.  It’s safe to predict this because no members of the Democrat party are going to read this.  It’s not a Democrat party echo chamber.  They’ll think it up on their own, of course.