Freshwater biology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Oxsjön, a lake in Sweden. Freshwater biology focuses on environments like lakes.

A pond in the Oconee River Floodplain in Georgia, whose surface is covered in duckweed but still contains fish.

Freshwater biology is the scientific biological study of freshwater ecosystems and is a branch of limnology. This field seeks to understand the relationships between living organisms in their physical environment. These physical environments may include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, lakes, reservoirs, or wetlands. Knowledge from this discipline is also widely used in industrial processes to make use of biological processes involved with sewage treatment and water purification. Water presence and flow is an essential aspect to species distribution and influences when and where species interact in freshwater environments.

In the UK, the Freshwater Biological Association based near Windermere in Cumbria was one of the early institutions to research the biology of freshwater and promote the concepts of trophism in lakes and demonstrated the process of migration from oligotrophic water through mesotrophic to marsh.

Freshwater biology is also used to study the effects of climate change and increased human impact on both aquatic systems and wider ecosystems. Freshwater organisms, vertebrates especially, appear to be at a higher extinction risk from climate change than terrestrial or marine organisms. 

Freshwater habitats

Freshwater habitats support a wide variety of organisms with habitats including rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, and wetlands.

Rivers and streams

Running water is a type of freshwater habitat that mainly consists of rivers and streams. Running, fast-moving waters have a higher oxygen content, allowing different species to thrive and making pollution easier to combat. Running water is an open system, meaning it is not isolate and exchanges matter and energy with other systems. Being an open system, a lot of organic matter found in running water is from land runoff or further sediment upstream and this matter is an important source of food for many species. Flowing bodies of water begin at the headwaters, which include springs, lakes, and snowmelt,  and travel to their mouths, typically another moving water channel or the ocean. The characteristics of the streams and rivers change throughout their journey from the source to the mouth. For example, the water at the source is clearer, has a higher oxygen content, lower temperatures, and heterotrophs common species. In the middle, the width usually expands and the species diversity increases due to temperature and oxygen content changes, including aquatic green plants and algae. The water at the mouth has a lower oxygen concentration and is murkier due to the sediment that has been collected and traveled along the length of the river or stream. This increased sediment decreases the amount of light that is able to penetrate the water and there is less diversity of flora and the lower oxygen lowers the diversity of fauna.

The riparian zone is the area along a riverbank or streambank that is home to vital, high moisture plants. These plants create a buffer between the land and the running water system, protecting it from pollution and flooding. Additionally, these plants provide a large habitat for many wetland species, a large number of which are endangered or threatened. Lastly, riparian plants shade the water from sunlight, reducing the heat stress on the water and aquatic life, while also providing nutrients in the form of organic matter.

Lakes and ponds

Standing water is a type of freshwater habitat that mainly consists of lakes and ponds. This habitat has limited species diversity because they are isolated from one another and other water systems, unlike running water. Standing water experiences the process of stratification, which is when water is layered due to the oxygen content. Stratification does not occur in running water because of the fast moving water that mixes water with varying oxygen content together. The topmost layer has the most oxygen and as depth increases, the oxygen decreases. Stratification can be physically felt in the temperature of the water, as the uppermost layer of water is warmer than deeper water because it has been heated by the sun.

Standing water can be divided into three zones based on depth and distance from shore. The littoral zone is the uppermost layer and the warmest water found in lakes and ponds, as the sun directly heats is. This zone hosts the most biodiversity in standing water, with a wide variety of organisms found here, vital to the health of the ecosystem and an important aspect of the diet of organisms in the habitat, like algae, aquatic plants, clams, insects, fish, crustaceans, and amphibians. The limnetic zone is found below the littoral zone. This zone has lower temperatures, is fairly well-lit, and is occupied by a smaller variety of organisms, including phytoplankton, zooplankton, and fish. The plankton found in this zone play a crucial role in the food web of the habitat and support the diet of many important organisms. The deepest zone is the profundal zone, with very little light, colder temperatures, and higher density than the previous layers. When plankton die they fall into this layer and provide nutrients to the fauna that live in this layer. These faunas are called heterotrophs, meaning they eat dead organisms and use oxygen for cellular respiration, resulting in lower oxygen content in the profundal zone.

The thermocline is the transitionary zone between the warm, surface water and the deeper water at a cooler temperature. The limited mixing and movement of water that occurs in standing water occurs at the thermocline. The mixing of the layers of water in standing water mostly comes from seasonal overturn. During the fall and spring, there is a mixing of layers usually due to wind that circulates oxygen and creates a more uniform temperature throughout the water system. The shore zone is the transitional zone between the water systems and land, similar to the riparian zone seen in running water systems. This area functions in much the same way as the riparian zone, the plants protecting the water from pollution, flooding, and heat stress, while also providing nutrients and habitats for aquatic and wetland species.

Wetlands

Wetlands are a specific type of standing water habitats that include marshes, swamps, and bogs. Due to the waterlogged and submerged nature of the land, the anaerobic conditions of wetlands are unique and support the highest species diversity of all ecosystems. Wetlands slow the decomposition of organic matter, creating layers of rich organic material that provides important nutrients for species in the system. The fauna that reside in wetlands are called hydrophytes, meaning they are adapted to very moist and humid conditions. Wetlands are the home to a large number of bird, amphibian, insect, reptile, grass, and tree species that cannot inhabit any other system, making them at risk to endangerment, as wetlands are being destroyed for urban development and agriculture. Wetlands help combat pollution and climate change, as they filter pollutants and store a large amount of carbon from the biosphere in their moist soil and still water, despite the small amount of land they occupy. Additionally, wetlands provide flood and storm protection, as the system can absorb large amounts of excess water. Wetland's ability to absorb water also assists groundwater recharge, which is very important for human water use, as usable freshwater sources are dwindling. Wetlands are not only freshwater habitats and systems, as there are salt marshes and bogs that support different species.

Freshwater organisms

Freshwater organisms are generally divided into the categories of benthic and pelagic organisms, as these are the two zones of life found in the freshwater biome. Freshwater organism can include invertebrates, insects, fish, amphibians, mammals, birds, aquatic plants, and planktons.

Threats

The most common cause of water pollution is stormwater runoff from developed areas, like pavement and rooftops. Stormwater runoff is moving rain and snowmelt that has not been absorbed. The impervious surfaces used in domestic and urban construction replace soil that used to absorb stormwater, increasing the amount of runoff traveling farther distances. This excess runoff can collect pollutants as it eventually makes its way into streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands, and even aquifers, polluting important freshwater ecosystems and usable water. Additionally, increased flooding and erosion can be caused by the increased stormwater runoff.

Pollution of flowing water

Rivers and streams drain water that falls on upland areas, and this moving water dissolves pollutants at a faster rate than standing water. However, due to the high production and placement of pollutants in these moving waters, the waters become polluted faster than the pollutant dilution rate, leading to over polluted rivers and streams. All three of the major contributors to pollution – industry, agriculture, and cities – are commonly found along moving waters, adding to the over-pollution of rivers and streams. Just the knowledge that fast moving waters can dilute pollutants has encouraged even more pollution, further adding to the pollution issue. Another issue contributing to the destruction of rivers and streams is the physical alteration of these moving waters, mainly in the form of dams, diversion of water, channel alteration, and land development. These alterations affect water temperature, water flow patterns, and increase sediment, destroying important habitat conditions for many aquatic organisms and reducing water quality.

An area of contention regarding the pollution of streams and rivers is the concept that the pollution upstream affects the people downstream. A factory’s waste upstream may contaminate someone’s drinking water downstream. This especially becomes an issue with bodies of moving water that border multiple countries or states, as what one country or state does upstream can drastically affect what the downstream country or state is able to do. 

Pollution of standing water

Lakes and ponds experience much of the same pollution as rivers and streams, but are polluted at a quicker rate due to slower moving waters, no water flow outlets, and amount of water. Standing water circulates much less than moving waters, with the deeper water layers only moving during seasonal changes twice a year. Lakes and ponds are basins into which running water usually flows and accumulates, meaning that the pollutants also accumulate with no outlet. Lakes and ponds contain less water than most rivers and streams, meaning smaller lakes and ponds are polluted at faster rates.

Eutrophication is the process of abundant plant growth, a dominating threat to standing waters. If chemical nutrients for aquatic plant growth that were previously limited become available, plant populations will increase rapidly. This excessive plant population growth decreases the oxygen content of the water, and other aquatic life suffocates. Human waste often contains these chemical nutrients, like phosphorus in fertilizers, and in combination with the poor water circulation in standing waters, causes pollution and organism depletion. Much of the pollution issues that affect ponds and lakes also affect wetlands, as the water circulation of wetlands is also slow.

Groundwater pollution and depletion

Surface water is where groundwater is being expressed, with wetlands being the largest examples of the water table being near or at the surface. The water found in freshwater habitats are the combination of surface flow, precipitation, and groundwater expression. This relationship between groundwater and surface water means that groundwater pollution affects surface freshwater pollution as well.

According to an Environmental Protection Agency survey, about a quarter of the United States’ usable groundwater is contaminated. Groundwater is the only source of drinking water for about half of the United States. As human populations increase and industrialize, the demand for groundwater is increasing, but the pollution of groundwater is also increasing. The pollution of groundwater is easy to achieve due to the slow circulation of water, even slower than that of lakes and ponds. The water must navigate through small holes in the aquifer rock, moving on average only a couple of inches each day. The rate of groundwater recharge is the time it takes for groundwater to replenish itself and extremely slow, leading to water shortages, as humans remove water from aquifers faster than the rate of recharge. Due to such slow circulation of water, groundwater can remain polluted for decades, as the natural purification processes are so slow.

 

Lake Hawea, New Zealand

Limnology (/lɪmˈnɒlədʒi/ lim-NOL-ə-jee; from Ancient Greek λίμνη (límnē) 'lake', and -λογία (-logía) 'study of') is the study of inland aquatic ecosystems. The study of limnology includes aspects of the biological, chemical, physical, and geological characteristics of fresh and saline, natural and man-made bodies of water. This includes the study of lakes, reservoirs, ponds, rivers, springs, streams, wetlands, and groundwater. Water systems are often categorized as either running (lotic) or standing (lentic).

Limnology includes the study of the drainage basin, movement of water through the basin and biogeochemical changes that occur en route. A more recent sub-discipline of limnology, termed landscape limnology, studies, manages, and seeks to conserve these ecosystems using a landscape perspective, by explicitly examining connections between an aquatic ecosystem and its drainage basin. Recently, the need to understand global inland waters as part of the Earth system created a sub-discipline called global limnology. This approach considers processes in inland waters on a global scale, like the role of inland aquatic ecosystems in global biogeochemical cycles.

Limnology is closely related to aquatic ecology and hydrobiology, which study aquatic organisms and their interactions with the abiotic (non-living) environment. While limnology has substantial overlap with freshwater-focused disciplines (e.g., freshwater biology), it also includes the study of inland salt lakes.

History

The term limnology was coined by François-Alphonse Forel (1841–1912) who established the field with his studies of Lake Geneva. Interest in the discipline rapidly expanded, and in 1922 August Thienemann (a German zoologist) and Einar Naumann (a Swedish botanist) co-founded the International Society of Limnology (SIL, from Societas Internationalis Limnologiae). Forel's original definition of limnology, "the oceanography of lakes", was expanded to encompass the study of all inland waters, and influenced Benedykt Dybowski's work on Lake Baikal.

Prominent early American limnologists included G. Evelyn Hutchinson and Ed Deevey. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Edward A. Birge, Chancey Juday, Charles R. Goldman, and Arthur D. Hasler contributed to the development of the Center for Limnology.

General limnology

Physical properties

Physical properties of aquatic ecosystems are determined by a combination of heat, currents, waves and other seasonal distributions of environmental conditions. The morphometry of a body of water depends on the type of feature (such as a lake, river, stream, wetland, estuary etc.) and the structure of the earth surrounding the body of water. Lakes, for instance, are classified by their formation, and zones of lakes are defined by water depth. River and stream system morphometry is driven by underlying geology of the area as well as the general velocity of the water. Stream morphometry is also influenced by topography (especially slope) as well as precipitation patterns and other factors such as vegetation and land development. Connectivity between streams and lakes relates to the landscape drainage density, lake surface area and lake shape.

Other types of aquatic systems which fall within the study of limnology are estuaries. Estuaries are bodies of water classified by the interaction of a river and the ocean or sea. Wetlands vary in size, shape, and pattern however the most common types, marshes, bogs and swamps, often fluctuate between containing shallow, freshwater and being dry depending on the time of year. The volume and quality of water in underground aquifers rely on the vegetation cover, which fosters recharge and aids in maintaining water quality.

Light interactions

Light zonation is the concept of how the amount of sunlight penetration into water influences the structure of a body of water. These zones define various levels of productivity within an aquatic ecosystems such as a lake. For instance, the depth of the water column which sunlight is able to penetrate and where most plant life is able to grow is known as the photic or euphotic zone. The rest of the water column which is deeper and does not receive sufficient amounts of sunlight for plant growth is known as the aphotic zone. The amount of solar energy present underwater and the spectral quality of the light that are present at various depths have a significant impact on the behavior of many aquatic organisms. For example, zooplankton's vertical migration is influenced by solar energy levels.

Thermal stratification

Similar to light zonation, thermal stratification or thermal zonation is a way of grouping parts of the water body within an aquatic system based on the temperature of different lake layers. The less turbid the water, the more light is able to penetrate, and thus heat is conveyed deeper in the water. Heating declines exponentially with depth in the water column, so the water will be warmest near the surface but progressively cooler as moving downwards. There are three main sections that define thermal stratification in a lake. The epilimnion is closest to the water surface and absorbs long- and shortwave radiation to warm the water surface. During cooler months, wind shear can contribute to cooling of the water surface. The thermocline is an area within the water column where water temperatures rapidly decrease. The bottom layer is the hypolimnion, which tends to have the coldest water because its depth restricts sunlight from reaching it. In temperate lakes, fall-season cooling of surface water results in turnover of the water column, where the thermocline is disrupted, and the lake temperature profile becomes more uniform. In cold climates, when water cools below 4^oC (the temperature of maximum density) many lakes can experience an inverse thermal stratification in winter. These lakes are often dimictic, with a brief spring overturn in addition to longer fall overturn. The relative thermal resistance is the energy needed to mix these strata of different temperatures.

Lake Heat Budget

An annual heat budget, also shown as θ_a, is the total amount of heat needed to raise the water from its minimum winter temperature to its maximum summer temperature. This can be calculated by integrating the area of the lake at each depth interval (A_z) multiplied by the difference between the summer (θ_sz) and winter (θ_wz) temperatures or ${\displaystyle {\displaystyle \int }}$A_z(θ_sz-θ_wz)

Chemical properties

The chemical composition of water in aquatic ecosystems is influenced by natural characteristics and processes including precipitation, underlying soil and bedrock in the drainage basin, erosion, evaporation, and sedimentation. All bodies of water have a certain composition of both organic and inorganic elements and compounds. Biological reactions also affect the chemical properties of water. In addition to natural processes, human activities strongly influence the chemical composition of aquatic systems and their water quality.

Allochthonous sources of carbon or nutrients come from outside the aquatic system (such as plant and soil material). Carbon sources from within the system, such as algae and the microbial breakdown of aquatic particulate organic carbon, are autochthonous. In aquatic food webs, the portion of biomass derived from allochthonous material is then named "allochthony". In streams and small lakes, allochthonous sources of carbon are dominant while in large lakes and the ocean, autochthonous sources dominate.

Oxygen and carbon dioxide

Dissolved oxygen and dissolved carbon dioxide are often discussed together due their coupled role in respiration and photosynthesis. Dissolved oxygen concentrations can be altered by physical, chemical, and biological processes and reaction. Physical processes including wind mixing can increase dissolved oxygen concentrations, particularly in surface waters of aquatic ecosystems. Because dissolved oxygen solubility is linked to water temperatures, changes in temperature affect dissolved oxygen concentrations as warmer water has a lower capacity to "hold" oxygen as colder water. Biologically, both photosynthesis and aerobic respiration affect dissolved oxygen concentrations. Photosynthesis by autotrophic organisms, such as phytoplankton and aquatic algae, increases dissolved oxygen concentrations while simultaneously reducing carbon dioxide concentrations, since carbon dioxide is taken up during photosynthesis. All aerobic organisms in the aquatic environment take up dissolved oxygen during aerobic respiration, while carbon dioxide is released as a byproduct of this reaction. Because photosynthesis is light-limited, both photosynthesis and respiration occur during the daylight hours, while only respiration occurs during dark hours or in dark portions of an ecosystem. The balance between dissolved oxygen production and consumption is calculated as the aquatic metabolism rate.

Lake cross-sectional diagram of the factors influencing lake metabolic rates and concentration of dissolved gases within lakes. Processes in gold text consume oxygen and produce carbon dioxide while processes in green text produce oxygen and consume carbon dioxide.

Vertical changes in the concentrations of dissolved oxygen are affected by both wind mixing of surface waters and the balance between photosynthesis and respiration of organic matter. These vertical changes, known as profiles, are based on similar principles as thermal stratification and light penetration. As light availability decreases deeper in the water column, photosynthesis rates also decrease, and less dissolved oxygen is produced. This means that dissolved oxygen concentrations generally decrease as you move deeper into the body of water because of photosynthesis is not replenishing dissolved oxygen that is being taken up through respiration. During periods of thermal stratification, water density gradients prevent oxygen-rich surface waters from mixing with deeper waters. Prolonged periods of stratification can result in the depletion of bottom-water dissolved oxygen; when dissolved oxygen concentrations are below 2 milligrams per liter, waters are considered hypoxic. When dissolved oxygen concentrations are approximately 0 milligrams per liter, conditions are anoxic. Both hypoxic and anoxic waters reduce available habitat for organisms that respire oxygen, and contribute to changes in other chemical reactions in the water.

Nitrogen and phosphorus

Nitrogen and phosphorus are ecologically significant nutrients in aquatic systems. Nitrogen is generally present as a gas in aquatic ecosystems however most water quality studies tend to focus on nitrate, nitrite and ammonia levels. Most of these dissolved nitrogen compounds follow a seasonal pattern with greater concentrations in the fall and winter months compared to the spring and summer. Phosphorus has a different role in aquatic ecosystems as it is a limiting factor in the growth of phytoplankton because of generally low concentrations in the water. Dissolved phosphorus is also crucial to all living things, is often very limiting to primary productivity in freshwater, and has its own distinctive ecosystem cycling.

Biological properties

Lake George, New York, United States, an oligotrophic lake

Role in ecology

Lakes "are relatively easy to sample, because they have clear-cut boundaries (compared to terrestrial ecosystems) and because field experiments are relatively easy to perform.", which make then especially useful for ecologists who try to understand ecological dynamics.

Lake trophic classification

One way to classify lakes (or other bodies of water) is with the trophic state index. An oligotrophic lake is characterized by relatively low levels of primary production and low levels of nutrients. A eutrophic lake has high levels of primary productivity due to very high nutrient levels. Eutrophication of a lake can lead to algal blooms. Dystrophic lakes have high levels of humic matter and typically have yellow-brown, tea-coloured waters. These categories do not have rigid specifications; the classification system can be seen as more of a spectrum encompassing the various levels of aquatic productivity.

Tropical limnology

Tropical limnology is a unique and important subfield of limnology that focuses on the distinct physical, chemical, biological, and cultural aspects of freshwater systems in tropical regions. The physical and chemical properties of tropical aquatic environments are different from those in temperate regions, with warmer and more stable temperatures, higher nutrient levels, and more complex ecological interactions. Moreover, the biodiversity of tropical freshwater systems is typically higher, human impacts are often more severe, and there are important cultural and socioeconomic factors that influence the use and management of these systems.

Professional organizations

People who study limnology are called limnologists. These scientists largely study the characteristics of inland fresh-water systems such as lakes, rivers, streams, ponds and wetlands. They may also study non-oceanic bodies of salt water, such as the Great Salt Lake. There are many professional organizations related to limnology and other aspects of the aquatic science, including the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, the Asociación Ibérica de Limnología, the International Society of Limnology, the Polish Limnological Society, the Society of Canadian Limnologists, and the Freshwater Biological Association.

Native American self-determination

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_self-determination 

 

See also: Native American civil rights and Tribal sovereignty in the United States

Native American self-determination refers to the social movements, legislation and beliefs by which the Native American tribes in the United States exercise self-governance and decision-making on issues that affect their own people.

Conceptual origin

Flag of the Haudenosaunee

Self-determination is defined as the movement by which the Native Americans sought to achieve restoration of tribal community, self-government, cultural renewal, reservation development, educational control and equal or controlling input into federal government decisions concerning policies and programs. The beginnings of the federal policy favoring self-determination dates back to the 1930s. In 1933 John Collier, a social worker and reformer who had long worked in American Indian affairs, was appointed commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was likely the most knowledgeable person about American Indians appointed to this position up until then. He respected tribal cultures and values.

The U.S. Congress passed Collier's legislation, the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, although with numerous changes. It was to enable tribes to reorganize their governments and strengthen their communities. It ended the allotment of Indian lands to individual households, which had led to loss of control over their territories. The law was intended to decrease the paternalistic power of the BIA which extended to their running numerous Indian boarding schools where American Indian children were forced to give up native languages and cultural practices. Four years before the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act, the government acknowledged that the paternalism was unfair to the Indian tribes and their people. The IRA was called the Indian "New Deal" by the Roosevelt administration. The IRA enabled the restoration of tribal governments but Congress made many changes in response to outcries from lobbyists and the bill fell short of the policy of "Indian self-determination without termination."

During the 1950s government policy toward American Indians changed and politicians recommended termination of many of the tribes' special relationships with the government under federal recognition of their status in favor of assimilation. Over 100 tribes were terminated: those that weren't suffered increased governmental paternalism. Activism for civil rights and American Indian rights increased during and after the 1960s and strengthened the movement for self-determination.

Post-1960

Self-determination was not official federal government policy until 1970 when President Richard M. Nixon addressed the issue in his July 8 congressional message of "Recommendations for Indian Policy." He discussed his goal of policy changes that supported Indian self-determination.

It is long-past time that the Indian policies of the Federal government began to recognize and build upon the capacities and insights of the Indian people. Both as a matter of Justice, and as a matter of enlightened social policy, we must begin to act on the basis of what the Indians themselves have long been telling us. The time has come to break decisively with the past, and to create the conditions for a new era in which the Indian future is determined by Indian acts and Indian decisions.

In 1968 Congress passed the Indian Civil Rights Act after recognizing that the Indian termination policies of the mid-1940s to mid-1960s had failed. American Indians had successfully kept their cultures and religions alive, and the government recognized that the goal of assimilation was wrong. The bill was to grant the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the tribal peoples. In the following years, Congress passed more legislation to carry out Nixon's programs to develop a stronger relationship of trust between the federal government and the tribes, and to allow the tribes to manage their own affairs.

Another example is the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975. This act enabled the federal government to make direct contracts with the Indian tribes just as it does with the states, for implementation of programs and distribution of funds. Rather than the BIA administering programs directly, the government would contract with tribes to manage health care, for instance, or educational benefits.

The Indian Child Welfare Act (1978) "... recognized tribal courts as the primary and ultimate forum for welfare and custody cases concerning Native children. "By promising to look after the tribes' children, the ICWA contributed to the economic and cultural welfare of each tribe's future.

The American Indian Religious Freedom Act (1978) "...recognized the integrity of native cultures." It ended the persecution of American Indians for such practices as the use of peyote in religion ceremony.

Since 1980, administrations have issued Presidential Memoranda on Indian affairs to indicate direction for increased tribal sovereignty. A 1994 Presidential Memorandum issued by Bill Clinton changed the way the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development supported housing programs. The Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 consolidated grant programs for housing funding into a single block grant specifically available to recognized governments of American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Leaders

A renewal of Indian activism since the 1960s saw the rise of a new generation of leaders. Public protests created publicity for their cause, such as the occupation of Alcatraz and Mount Rushmore, the Wounded Knee Incident, and other examples of American Indians uniting to change their relationship with the United States government. Strong Indian leaders traveled across America to try to add unification to the Indian cause. The leaders arose in different fields, starting independent newspapers, promoting educational independence, working to reclaim lands, and to enforce treaty rights. Another campaign occurred in the Pacific Northwest as Billy Frank, Jr. and Hank Adams fought for native treaty fishing rights. The result was a Native American force which fought for change throughout a wide variety of interconnected social spheres.

Education

Allan Yazzie

For decades since the late 19th century, Native Americans were forced to send their children to boarding schools where they were made to speak and write in English only, and to learn the majority culture and Christian religion. Native Americans wanted to teach their children their own values and cultures. In the 1960s, Allan Yazzie (Navajo) proposed creation of a Navajo school to be built on the tribe's land in Arizona and operated by the tribe. The project was called the Rough Rock Demonstration School, and it was to administered solely by the Navajo Indians (without BIA oversight.) Although many politicians thought that the school would fail immediately, it prevailed. It became a strong sign of Indian self-determination and success. In 1968, the Navajo established the first tribal college, to be followed by other tribes developing similar tribal colleges on their own reservations.

Land reclamation and anti-termination

Paul Bernal

Paul Bernal (also known as Sherry Beni) fought for the Taos Pueblo tribe of New Mexico, who wanted to reclaim their sacred religious site, Blue Lake. It had been taken by the Forest Service at the start of the twentieth century for inclusion in a national forest. Throughout the 1960s, Bernal and the Pueblo had little success in regaining the lake. The administration of Richard Nixon supported self-determination for American Indians. After Senate hearings (where Bernal was harassed by senators who thought that the Indians wanted the land for other than religious purposes), Nixon signed a bill to return the lake to the Taos Pueblo.

Ada Deer

Ada Deer

Ada Deer (b. 1935) is a leader of the Menominee tribe, which has a reservation in Wisconsin. In the 1960s, Deer helped mobilize her tribe to oppose the government's proposed termination of its relationship with the federal government. By 1972, Deer had gained support for her tribe's movement, and many governors, senators, and congressman gave her and the Menominee tribe their full-fledged approval. Deer fought against the Interior Committee chairman (Wayne Aspinall), who supported the tribe's termination, and their loss of 250,000 acres (1,000 km²) of communal land under termination policies. Ada Deer continued to lobby for the Menominee Restoration Act. After Aspinall failed to win an election, the tribe prevailed and the act was signed by President Nixon. Ada Deer (along with such people as Lucy Covington) is one of the early examples of self-determination in tribal members; her efforts helped restore all the terminated lands back to the Menominee tribe.

D'Arcy McNickle

D'Arcy McNickle (Cree and Salish-Kootenai) was a member of the Flathead reservation. He served as the chair of a committee of Indian leaders at the 1961 American Indian Chicago Conference, and crafted an Indian policy called "Declaration of Indian purpose." The policy outlined many solutions to the problems of termination. It was a sign of change in the 1960s and 1970s when the termination era ended. The "Declaration of Indian purpose" was given to President John F. Kennedy by the National Congress of American Indians. The tribal governments started to bypass the BIA and focus on self-determination plans.

Legal activism

John Echohawk

John Echohawk (Pawnee) is a founder and leader of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF). He is a lawyer who has worked to protect Indian land and sovereignty. In 1970 Echohawk was the first Native American to graduate from the University of New Mexico's school of law. After law school, Echohawk worked for some time with California Indian Legal Services. Echohawk joined together with other lawyers and tribal members to form the NARF, which was similar to the NAACP (both were formed to organize civil rights activism). Under Echohawk, NARF's focused on preserving tribes, protecting tribal resources, protecting human rights, ensuring government responsibility, expanding Indian law, and educating people about Indian issues. Through NARF, Echohawk has gained government recognition of tribal sovereignty and participated in drafting the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act signed into law by President George H. W. Bush in 1990.

Rosalind McClanahan

Rosalind McClanahan (Navajo) opposed Arizona's imposing a state income tax on members of her tribe who lived and worked within the Navajo Reservation, which she considered an issue of tribal sovereignty. McClanahan lived and worked in the reservation, and was taxed. She enlisted the help of DNA (a group of Native American rights attorneys), and appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court in 1973 after the state court had ruled in favor of the state's ability to require that tax. The resulting U.S. Supreme Court ruling was in favor of McClanahan, and tribal rights of members to be excluded from state taxes within tribal sovereign land. She helped establish stronger self-rule for the Navajo as well as other Native American tribes.

Organizations

Several Native American organizations provided an immense amount of support that either helped set the precedent for the self-determination movement or further strengthen the policy. These organizations can be divided mainly into two levels: associations that were nationally operated and those groups that were organized for local action.

National

In 1944, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) was founded "in response to termination and assimilation policies that the United States forced upon the tribal governments in contradiction of their treaty rights and status as sovereigns. NCAI stressed the need for unity and cooperation among tribal governments for the protection of their treaty and sovereign rights". "Recognizing the threat posed by termination, [NCAI] fought to maintain Indians' legal rights and cultural identity." Indian policy has been federalized since colonial times; however, "until the 1940s, in spite of such major national initiatives as allotment and the Indian Reorganization Act, Indians had never been able to organize on a national basis". Groups such as the Friends of the Indians in the late nineteenth century and the Association on American Indian Affairs (est. 1922) had nearly all-white membership. The NCAI was an Indian-only organization with membership based on tribes, not individuals. Although the "NCAI's fortunes would ebb and flow … the return of Indian veterans at the end of World War II" gave the organization and the Indian people an unexpected boost. "Whether they settled in Indian country or in the cities, these veterans realized expectations and bred a much-needed impatience and assertiveness." According to Helen Peterson, later executive director of NCAI, "World War Two revived the Indians' capacity to act on their own behalf." With the NCAI, Native American people relied on their own people to organize and affect national policy. The NCAI was one of the first major steps in halting termination and giving life to the Self-Determination era.

The Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), a result of President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty legislation and the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, provided grants and other funds directly to tribal governments rather than only state and federal agencies. The War on Poverty Grants "empowered tribes by building tribal capacities, creating independence from the BIA, and knitting tribes together with other tribes and the country as a whole." As Philip S. Deloria explains, the OEO helped the Indian people become more independent and powerful: for the first time "… Indian tribal governments had money and were not beholden for it to the Bureau of Indian Affairs … Tribes could, to some degree, set their own priorities." Renewed self-determination by tribes "altered the nature of the [BIA] and the relationship between tribes and the federal government". The independence gained by tribes from dealing with the Office of Economic Opportunity helped change the dynamic of Indian affairs in relation to the federal government.

The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) is a national legal-advocacy and nonprofit organization founded by Indians in 1970 to assist Indians in their legal battles. It has become the primary national advocacy group for Native Americans. "It is funded largely by grants from private foundations and (despite its adversarial relationship) the Federal Government." NARF's legal, policy, and public education work is concentrated in five key areas: preservation of tribes; protection of tribal natural resources; promotion of Native American human rights; accountability of governments to Native Americans; and development of Indian law and educating the public about Indian rights, laws, and issues. "NARF focuses on applying existing laws and treaties to guarantee that national and state governments live up to their legal obligations [and] … works with religious, civil rights, and other Native American organizations to shape the laws that will help assure the civil and religious rights of all Native Americans." Since its inception, NARF has provided legal expertise at the national level. NARF has trained many young attorneys, both Indians and non-Indians, who intend to specialize in Native American legal issues. "NARF has successfully argued every Supreme Court case involving Native Americans since 1973." NARF has affected tens of thousands of Indian people in its work for more than 250 tribes in all fifty states to develop strong self-governance, sound economic development, prudent natural resources management and positive social development. It continues to handle civil rights cases for the Native American community in the United States.

Regional

Accomplishments and progress of Native American organizations on the national level inspired change on the local level. It did not take too long for local tribes to begin to establish their own organizations that would benefit them directly. One of the earliest of such organizations was the Determination of Rights and Unity for Menominee Shareholders (DRUMS) – a citizens' group founded in 1970. It focused on stopping the Legend Lake sales, establishing Menominee control over the Menominee Enterprises, Inc. (MEI), and, eventually, even reversing termination, which was the main purpose of self-determination. DRUMS made an immediate impact. Within months of establishment, the Menominee organized a series of well-planned and smoothly executed demonstrations. In an effort to interrupt the Legend Lake land development, DRUMS picketed Legend Lake's Menominee County sales office and promotional events in nearby cities, such as Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Appleton. In October 1971, DRUMS led an impressive 12-day, 220-mile (350 km) from Menominee County, to the state capitol in Madison. Like the other DRUMS protests, the march to Madison, was non-violent but sharp-edged nonetheless. Minnesota Governor Patrick Lucey met with DRUMS leaders and discussed prevalent issues in the Menominee community. Within a month of the march, Governor Lucey visited Menominee County, and consistently supported the Menominee movement. In addition, DRUMS managed to produce a first draft of the Menominee restoration bill by the end of 1971 and by early 1972 the tribe had already obtained an astounding level of support, including the support of Democratic Presidential nominee Henry Jackson. Though it took a prodigious amount of work, the Menominee Restoration Act moved through Congress with rare speed. In April 1975, MEI was dissolved and all Menominee lands were transferred back to the tribe, to be held in trust by the United States of America and governed by the sovereign Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin. Although DRUMS set its sights on improving the status of the local Menominee people, it was a big step toward the nationwide self-determination movement. The success of DRUMS let other Indians know that they too could make an impact, if only on a local level, and motivated other tribes to fight for their rights. On the national scope, DRUMS allowed Native American leaders to assume prominent positions. For instance, Ada Deer was catapulted to the top of the federal government; In 1993, Deer was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Interior by President Bill Clinton and served as head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from 1993–1997.

Institutional capacity

The new policy of the Office of Economic Opportunity, which sought to directly involve the recipients of its aid, provided further impetus for self-determination in education. The success of the OEO Head Start preschool program was attributed primarily to the fact that Indians were "allowed to operate programs." For the first time in history, Deloria commented, "Indian parents have become excited about education for their children. … For the last 100 years, the Government has been doing things for us and telling us what is best for Indians … of course there has been no progress … ." Progress in education was just one area in which Native Americans were gaining more independence. As tribes began to have more control over their own affairs and have more infrastructure entitled to them, they were able to be in much more command of their space, make more money, which led to power and progress.

Politics of outer space

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_outer_space 

The first page of the 1963 treaty that banned nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space and under water.

The politics of outer space includes space treaties, law in space, international cooperation and conflict in space exploration, international economics and the hypothetical political impact of any contact with extraterrestrial intelligence.

Astropolitics, also known as astropolitic, has its foundations in geopolitics and is a theory that is used for space in its broadest sense.

International cooperation on space projects has resulted in the creation of new national space agencies. By 2005 there were 35 national civilian space agencies.

Treaties and policies related to outer space

Outer Space Treaty

  Parties

  Signatories

  Non-parties

The Outer Space Treaty, formally the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, is a multilateral treaty that forms the basis of international space law. Negotiated and drafted under the auspices of the United Nations, it was opened for signature in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union on 27 January 1967, entering into force on 10 October 1967. As of August 2023, 114 countries are parties to the treaty—including all major spacefaring nations—and another 22 are signatories.

The Outer Space Treaty was spurred by the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in the 1950s, which could reach targets through outer space. The Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, in October 1957, followed by a subsequent arms race with the United States, hastened proposals to prohibit the use of outer space for military purposes. On 17 October 1963, the U.N. General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution prohibiting the introduction of weapons of mass destruction in outer space. Various proposals for an arms control treaty governing outer space were debated during a General Assembly session in December 1966, culminating in the drafting and adoption of the Outer Space Treaty the following January.

Key provisions of the Outer Space Treaty include prohibiting nuclear weapons in space; limiting the use of the Moon and all other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes; establishing that space shall be freely explored and used by all nations; and precluding any country from claiming sovereignty over outer space or any celestial body. Although it forbids establishing military bases, testing weapons and conducting military maneuvers on celestial bodies, the treaty does not expressly ban all military activities in space, nor the establishment of military space forces or the placement of conventional weapons in space. From 1968 to 1984, the OST birthed four additional agreements: rules for activities on the Moon; liability for damages caused by spacecraft; the safe return of fallen astronauts; and the registration of space vehicles.

OST provided many practical uses and was the most important link in the chain of international legal arrangements for space from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s. OST was at the heart of a 'network' of inter-state treaties and strategic power negotiations to achieve the best available conditions for nuclear weapons world security. The OST also declares that space is an area for free use and exploration by all and "shall be the province of all mankind". Drawing heavily from the Antarctic Treaty of 1961, the Outer Space Treaty likewise focuses on regulating certain activities and preventing unrestricted competition that could lead to conflict. Consequently, it is largely silent or ambiguous on newly developed space activities such as lunar and asteroid mining. Nevertheless, the Outer Space Treaty is the first and most foundational legal instrument of space law, and its broader principles of promoting the civil and peaceful use of space continue to underpin multilateral initiatives in space, such as the International Space Station and the Artemis Program.

Moon Treaty

The Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, better known as the Moon Treaty or Moon Agreement, is a multilateral treaty that turns jurisdiction of all celestial bodies (including the orbits around such bodies) over to the participant countries. Thus, all activities would conform to international law, including the United Nations Charter.

It has not been ratified by any state that engages in self-launched human spaceflight (e.g. the United States, Russia (or its predecessor the Soviet Union), or the People's Republic of China) since its creation on December 18, 1979, and thus it has little to no relevancy in international law. As of January 2022, 18 states are parties to the treaty.

Artemis Accords

The Artemis Accords builds on a number of treaties that affect the conduct of States and their commercial industries in the exploration and use of space, including the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the 1972 Liability Convention and the 1975 Registration Convention. NASA has stated that in leading the Artemis program, international partnerships will prepare for a historic human mission to Mars while playing a key role in achieving a sustainable and robust presence on the Moon. The core of the Artemis agreement requires that all activities be conducted for peaceful purposes, consistent with the principles of the Outer Space Treaty. International cooperation under the Artemis Agreement aims not only to promote space exploration, but also to strengthen peaceful relations between nations.

Post-detection policy

A post-detection policy (PDP), also known as a post-detection protocol, is a set of structured rules, standards, guidelines, or actions that governmental or other organizational entities plan to follow for the "detection, analysis, verification, announcement, and response to" confirmed signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. Though no PDPs have been formally and openly adopted by any governmental entity, there is significant work being done by scientists and nongovernmental organizations to develop cohesive plans of action to utilize in the event of detection. The most popular and well known of these is the "Declaration of Principles Concerning Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence", which was developed by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), with the support of the International Institute of Space Law. The theories of PDPs constitute a distinct area of research but draw heavily from the fields of SETI (the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), METI (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), and CETI (Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence).

Scientist Zbigniew Paptrotny has argued that the formulation of post-detection protocols can be guided by three factors: terrestrial society's readiness to accept the news of ET detection, how the news of detection is released, and the comprehensibility of the message in the signal. These three broad areas and their related subsidiaries comprise the bulk of the content and discourse surrounding PDPs.

Politics of the ISS

  Primary contributing nations

  Formerly contracted nations

Politics of the International Space Station have been affected by superpower rivalries, international treaties and funding arrangements. The Cold War was an early factor, overtaken in recent years by the United States' distrust of China. The station has an international crew, with the use of their time, and that of equipment on the station, being governed by treaties between participant nations.

In 1972 a milestone was reached in co-operation between the United States and the Soviet Union in space with the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. The project occurred during a period of détente between the two superpowers, and led in July 1975 to Soyuz 19 docking with an Apollo spacecraft.

From 1978 to 1987, the USSR's Interkosmos program included allied Warsaw Pact countries, and countries which were not Soviet allies, such as India, Syria and France, in crewed and uncrewed missions to Space stations Salyut 6 and 7. In 1986, the USSR extended its co-operation to a dozen countries in the Mir program. From 1994 to 1998, NASA Space Shuttles and crew visited Mir in the Shuttle–Mir program.

In 1998, assembly of the space station began. On 28 January 1998, the Space Station Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) was signed. This governs ownership of modules, station usage by participant nations, and responsibilities for station resupply. The signatories were the United States of America, Russia, Japan, Canada and eleven member states of the European Space Agency (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom). With the exception of the United Kingdom, all of the signatories went on to contribute to the Space Station project. A second layer of agreements was then achieved, four memoranda of understanding between NASA and ESA, CSA, RKA and JAXA. These agreements are then further split, such as for the contractual obligations between nations, and trading of partners' rights and obligations. Use of the Russian Orbital Segment is also negotiated at this level.

In 2010, the ESA announced that European countries which were not already part of the program would be allowed access to the station in a three-year trial period.

In March 2012, a meeting in Quebec City between the leaders of the space agencies of Canada, Japan, Russia, the United States and involved European nations resulted in a renewed pledge to maintain the space station until at least 2020. NASA reports to be still committed to the principles of the mission but also to use the station in new ways, which were not elaborated. CSA President Steve MacLean stated his belief that the station's Canadarm will continue to function properly until 2028, alluding to Canada's likely extension of its involvement beyond 2020.

On 28 March 2015, Russian sources announced that Roscosmos and NASA had agreed to collaborate on the development of a replacement for the current ISS. Igor Komarov, the head of Russia's Roscosmos, made the announcement with NASA administrator Charles Bolden at his side. In a statement provided to SpaceNews on 28 March, NASA spokesman David Weaver said the agency appreciated the Russian commitment to extending the ISS, but did not confirm any plans for a future space station.

On 30 September 2015, Boeing's contract with NASA as prime contractor for the ISS was extended to 30 September 2020. Part of Boeing's services under the contract related to extending the station's primary structural hardware past 2020 to the end of 2028.

There have also been suggestions in the commercial space industry that the station could be converted to commercial operations after it is retired by government entities.

In July 2018, the Space Frontier Act of 2018 was intended to extend operations of the ISS to 2030. This bill was unanimously approved in the Senate, but failed to pass in the U.S. House. In September 2018, the Leading Human Spaceflight Act was introduced with the intent to extend operations of the ISS to 2030, and was confirmed in December 2018.

On 12 April 2021, at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, then-Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov announced he had decided that Russia might withdraw from the ISS programme in 2025. According to Russian authorities, the timeframe of the station’s operations has expired and its condition leaves much to be desired.

In January 2022, NASA announced a planned date of January 2031 to de-orbit the ISS and direct any remnants into a remote area of the South Pacific Ocean.

On 24 February 2022, NASA said that American and Russian astronauts currently aboard the ISS would continue normal operations despite the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson commented on the current status of cooperation, saying "I have been broadly in favour of continuing artistic and scientific collaboration, but in the current circumstances it's hard to see how even those can continue as normal." On the same day, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin insinuated that Russian withdrawal could cause the International Space Station to de-orbit due to lack of reboost capabilities, writing in a series of tweets, "If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from an unguided de-orbit to impact on the territory of the US or Europe? There's also the chance of impact of the 500-ton construction in India or China. Do you want to threaten them with such a prospect? The ISS doesn't fly over Russia, so all the risk is yours. Are you ready for it?" Rogozin later tweeted that normal relations between ISS partners could only be restored once sanctions have been lifted, and indicated that Roscosmos would submit proposals to the Russian government on ending cooperation. NASA stated that, if necessary, US corporation Northrop Grumman has offered a reboost capability that would keep the ISS in orbit.

On 26 July 2022, Borisov, who had become head of Roscosmos, submitted to Putin his plans for withdrawal from the programme after 2024. However, Robyn Gatens, the NASA official in charge of space station operations, responded that NASA had not received any formal notices from Roscosmos concerning withdrawal plans. The United States Congress, in its CHIPS and Science Act signed by President Joe Biden on 9 August, approved extending NASA's funding for the ISS through 2030.

On 21 September 2022, Borisov stated that Russia was "highly likely" to continue to participate in the ISS programme until 2028.

Politics of asteroid mining

In recent years the advancement in technology and engineering have made mining asteroid seem like an attainable endeavour. The global space mining market is estimated to be worth USD 14.71 billion by 2025, as indicated by market research. Although the industry could be years away from successfully mining asteroids, this renewed interest in asteroid mining for metal extraction has the potential to influence the global market of rare metal and create a new geopolitical order.

Outer space has been a ground for geopolitical competition since the Cold War, and the expected growth in asteroid mining could bring about a new geopolitical order organized around resources extraction. Access to rare metals from asteroids could position nation-states and their private sectors competitively. Countries with technological capacity to explore space and finance a new and costly asteroid mining endeavour are better positioned to dominate the global supply chain for such metals, while a handful of countries will lag behind. This threatens to drive a resource race in outer space and could create similar patterns of conflict around resources extraction to what has been experienced on earth.

The expansion of resource extraction in outer space will require the development of a legal regulatory framework that adequately governs asteroid mining activities. The two current treaties that govern activities in outer space are the Outer Space Treaty and the Moon Treaty. Ratified by 98 countries in 1976, the Outer Space Treaty prevents sovereign or private ownership of outer space and its resources, asserting it belongs to all mankind but does not prevent exploitation of its resources. Ratified in 1979, the Moon Treaty clears some of the vague language surrounding the heritage for humankind outline in the Outer Space Treaty. Similar to the Outer Space Treaty, its provisions outline the Moon and other celestial bodies are “not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means” It also introduces a number of provisions that limit activities in outer space. While those provisions have implications for the development of space mining industry, Article 11.7 of the treaty has serious implications for countries that wish to assert monopoly over the emerging asteroid mining industry.

Article 11.7: The main purposes of the international regime to be established shall include:

1.  The orderly and safe development of the natural resources of the moon;

2.  The rational management of those resources;

3.  The expansion of opportunities in the use of those resources;

4.  An equitable sharing by all States Parties in the benefits derived from those resources, whereby the interests and needs of the developing countries, as well as the efforts of those countries which have contributed either directly or indirectly to the exploration of the moon, shall be given special consideration.

Given the limitation the Moon treaty place on states, it has not been ratified by key players in the space frontier, such as the US, China, and Russia.

Both the Outer Space Treaty and the Moon Treaty lack a robust enforcement mechanism that holds states and private entities accountable for their violation of the agreements. The lack of clarity over claims for ownership could result in conflicts among countries and private companies. While International efforts to reconsolidate a regulatory framework to govern future mining activities are much needed, they have been slow. Establishing rules on transparency, resource sharing, and mechanisms to guide conflict resolutions are needed to support the growing economy of asteroid mining.

Several countries have conducted research missions to asteroids. While the US, EU, Japan, Russia, and China have all had successful asteroid missions, only the US and Japan were able to bring samples from an asteroid. With geological surveys for metals often preceding the militarization of territories and the expansion of nation-states in terrestrial context, research missions to asteroids allude to the expansion of state ambition to dominate a large-scale extra-terrestrial extractive regime.

While asteroid mining remains in its infancy, countries are competing to dominate it. However, the difficulty of reaching consensus on global treaties has led countries to branch out to legitimatize the economic exploration and exploitation of asteroids, through passing national law, and relying on loopholes in the international law.

In 2015, the US passed the U.S Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act. While the act does not position the US as a state to have authority or ownership in outer space, it positions its citizens to have ownership over resources acquired from space. This allows the U.S to adhere to Outer Space Treaty but also allow to its private entities to carry out mining activities on Asteroids, once feasible. AstroForge, a US start-up with a mission focused on developing technology for asteroid mining, announced two commercial missions to asteroids to be launched in 2023.

In 2016, the government of Luxembourg introduced a legal framework that support and guide the private activities of mining asteroids. To grant certainty investors, it passed a law that explicitly permits private entities to own and sell resources extracted from asteroids. The government also pledged to support research and start-ups focused on space exploration and extra-terrestrial resource extraction with a funding of approximately USD $225 million. Relative to the US, the Luxembourg Space Act provides more clarity and position the country more competitively to engage in asteroid mining. Given its strategic location in Europe, Luxembourg intends to establish itself as a Silicon Valley for space activities.

Despite the difference in passed legislations, the goal is the same: to emerge as a leader in the new asteroid mining frontier and obtain the economic benefit associated with it. Current and future development in asteroid mining do not intel on whether such competition in this frontier will lead to positive changes in international law or allow a harmonization of notational laws among states. Yet, the steady growth in asteroid mining will have implications for geopolitics of terrestrial and extra-terrestrial resource extraction.

Colonialism and imperialism

Further information: Transport divide

Gemini 5 mission badge (1965) connecting spaceflight to colonial endeavours

The logo and name of the Lunar Gateway references the St. Louis Gateway Arch, which some see as associating Mars with the American frontier and the manifest destiny mentality of American settler colonialism

Space colonization has been discussed as postcolonial continuation of imperialism and colonialism, calling for decolonization instead of colonization. Critics argue that the present politico-legal regimes and their philosophic grounding advantage imperialist development of space and that key decisionmakers in space colonization are often wealthy elites affiliated with private corporations, and that space colonization would primarily appeal to their peers rather than ordinary citizens. Furthermore, it is argued that there is a need for inclusive and democratic participation and implementation of any space exploration, infrastructure or habitation. According to space law expert Michael Dodge, existing space law, such as the Outer Space Treaty, guarantees access to space, but does not enforce social inclusiveness or regulate non-state actors.

Particularly the narrative of the "New Frontier", has been criticized as unreflected continuation of settler colonialism and manifest destiny, continuing the narrative of exploration as fundamental to the assumed human nature. Joon Yun considers space colonization as a solution to human survival and global problems like pollution to be imperialist, as such others have identified space as a new sacrifice zone of colonialism.

Natalie B. Trevino argues that not colonialism but coloniality will be carried into space if not reflected on.

More specifically the advocacy for territorial colonization of Mars opposed to habitation in the atmospheric space of Venus has been called surfacism, a concept similar to Thomas Golds surface chauvinism.

More generally space infrastructure such as the Mauna Kea Observatories have also been criticized and protested against as being colonialist. Guiana Space Centre has also been the site of anti-colonial protests, connecting colonization as an issue on Earth and in space.

In regard to the scenario of extraterrestrial first contact it has been argued that being used to employ colonial language would endanger such first impressions and encounters.

Furthermore spaceflight as a whole and space law more particularly has been criticized as a postcolonial project by being built on a colonial legacy and by not facilitating the sharing of access to space and its benefits, too often allowing spaceflight to be used to sustain colonialism and imperialism, most of all on Earth instead.

Neoliberal advocacy

The trend towards the economicisation of outer space under neoliberalism is having a profound impact on the political ecology of outer space.

Outer space is becoming a space for capitalism. A new era of space commercialisation aims to profit from satellite launches, space tourism, asteroid mining and related ventures. This era, driven by private companies such as Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, has been dubbed "the new space" by industry insiders." Spatial justice in outer space increasingly means the 'justice' of capital, with capitalism replacing humanity."

Since the mid-20th century, space expansionism has become a popular ideology and, thanks to science, the emergence of technological civilization, and the spread of neoliberalism, it has become possible for a wide range of actors, such as national armies and government agencies, scientists and private companies, to carry out a variety of space activities, such as the regulation of outer space through international law, the deployment of missile and anti-satellite weapons, the establishment of exploration, communication and navigation satellites, and space travel for tourism and habitat expansion. Since the mid-twentieth century, spatial expansionism has gone hand in hand with the concept of the world as a 'planetary earth' - going beyond the concept of a 'global earth' associated with the industrial revolution.

There are always costs and benefits in environmental change and these are unevenly distributed along lines of class, race, ethnicity, gender, and geography (among other axes of difference). The environmental geopolitics of outer space is similarly multi-scale, manifesting itself in contemporary debates on pollution issues such as orbital debris and planetary protection agreements. The cultural, legal, budgetary, and infrastructural footprints experienced in the contemporary space race have measurable environmental footprints on Earth and in outer space. The question of where these footprints fall is arbitrated by larger issues of geopolitical power and vulnerability, which means that human participation in outer space is also a matter of environmental justice.