[ben_w]

For a ring with a density of 10kg/m, that kinetic energy is about 5 megatons… spread over 40,000km.

It's negligible when it's that diffuse. Even if it didn't burn up, it's mostly lost to air resistance, with everything over a few hundred meters being limited to about terminal velocity.

And that size ring, is pretty useful.

[hammyhavoc]

https://www.wired.com/story/what-happens-if-a-space-elevator...

[ben_w]

That fails to illuminate very much.

Also, ring != elevator.

Probably still want to engineer it such that destruction is controlled rather than uncontrollable, but the biggest issue with it being destroyed would be no longer having it; the damage would be mostly within a meter or so of where it lands, which isn't great but it's also not devastating unless you happen to be that close.

Think a very long I-beam falling off a skyscraper during construction, not an asteroid.