In the summer of 2007, the American government authorized the use of military satellites to spy on the private activities of people within the borders of the USA. Over in Europe, which Republicans like to dismiss as “socialist”, they’ve designed satellites to use for a different purpose. The European Tropospheric Emission Monitoring Internet Service uses satellites from the European Space Agency to identify current problems with air pollution in different countries, and then predicts the patterns of air pollution those countries can expect in the future.

The program provides the pollution tracking information to countries free of charge. If we follow the Republican mode of thinking, that’s dangerous socialism. If we follow a progressive way of thinking, however, we can see that the Europeans are using their space technology to take care of business, instead of snooping into people’s business.

(Source: Scientific American, October 30, 2007)