Destroying aging weather satellite

I was reading an issue of SkyNews-The Canadian Magazine of Astronomy & Stargazing, when a particular article caught my eye. It was about the deliberate explosive destruction of a Chinese satellite, which has thrown thousands of pieces of debris in a 'potentially destructive orbit' around the Earth.

It was January 11, 2007 when China fired a missile to destroy an old weather satellite, called Fengyun-1C. This was deemed an anti satellite missile test, the first by any country since the mid-1980s. Although Chinese government said that it was not intended as a hostile act. The blast from the 750 kilogram satellite created a cloud of debris that began spreading out 865 kilometers above the Earth. According to NASA's Johnson Space Center over 2,200 pieces of debris larger than five centimeters have been tracked so far.

The exact words by Dale Armstrong were: "It's an environmental disaster. That's the only way to describe it." The debris is now travelling in the same low Earth orbit zone as the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope. This zone is already becoming crowded with dead satellites and other miscellaneous pieces of junk. When moving at orbital speeds of eight kilometers per second, even something as tiny as a 0.2 millimetre chip of paint can seriously damage an active satellite.

Their size makes it impossible to predict potential collisions with active satellites. Alan Cacchione of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade stated: "We had discussions with China to seek assurance that it will not undertake any further tests of this nature."

When I read this article I was quite shocked by China's fashion of destroying the satellite. My immediate reaction was one of environmental concern. With all the debris around our Earth isn't it possible that something could come out of orbit and strike Earth? Not only that but isn't this harmful to our Environment? I hope that this won't occur again and it's rather disappointing that it was an anti satellite missile test.