Unspoiled Space: The Use of Space in Popular Culture as a Caution Against Environmental Degradation on Earth

Abstract

This article describes various cultural references that make the use of space in communicating a cautionary tale of environmental degradation. Space is frequently used as a cultural touchpoint in helping to emphasise important themes, and this appears throughout various mediums, including computer games, advocacy campaigns, books, and movies as described here. In addition to exploring the use of space for communicating an environmental message, it remains important to understand these messages in the context of current space realities and how, if these fictions were reality, they would follow existing space norms and policies. While popular culture often distorts the accuracy of real conditions of norms and policies to provide an entertainment value to audiences, this paper finds that for the examples described they are largely faithful in abiding by and accounting for current space law and policies.