I doubt they will elevate their orbit by enough to be a problem. Some bits will come down in hours, some will come down in a year - even in the worst case where it takes out everything in low earth orbit in 5 years everything will be clear and we can start over. Higher orbits are the real worry, even the things slowed down mostly stay in orbit for centuries - but higher orbits are mostly a lot higher.

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moffkalast 2 days ago | parent [-]

Don't be so sure: https://stuffin-space.vader.zone/

The Iridium-Kosmos collision fragments have been up there since 2009, and that's a massive spray of junk just from one disintegration in LEO.

	▲	zamadatix 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		"LEO" is a big place, those satellites collided ~1.5x higher than e.g. the maximum Starlink altitude and the debris lifetime relationship is not a linear one.