Global Warming Prolongs Life of Space Debris

Human increases in carbon dioxide emissions are thinning the Earth's outer atmosphere, making it easier to keep the space station aloft but prolonging the life of dangerous space debris, scientists said on Monday. "It's a bit of a two-edge sword," said Stanley Solomon, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. "In the future, it will be a little bit easier to keep the space station, for instance, in orbit. It will need a little bit less fuel."

You have an abstract of this interesting paper on:
www.cosis.net/abstracts/SPACE2005/00130/SPACE2005-A-00130.pdf