A Billionaire’s Guide to Save the World

Imagine a dystopian future where swathes of lands are getting ravaged by forest fires, major cities are flooding with water and a pathogenic epidemic is taking millions of lives across the globe. Scientists are struggling to understand these never-seen-before situations. Politicians are convening meetings to discuss ways to save their populations before nature's fury gets them. Common people like you and I are doing all that we can do in our little capacities to not aggravate this crisis any further. Every little being on planet earth is trying its best to adapt to the new and ever-changing normal and not end up erasing the only known species of intelligent beings in the universe. Everyone, but the Billionaires!

Now stop imagining and look around yourself. If you’re lucky enough to not see any of the aforementioned events around you, grab a newspaper and read. This is no dystopian future but a very real present that we all need to know about. Now I’m not here to argue whether or not climate change is even real. If that’s the debate you wish to be a part of, no point in reading further. But if you know and acknowledge how grim of a situation we are in, you should definitely read ahead.

If you’ve not been living under a rock lately, you would have read about how some of our Billionaires recently made trips to the space (around 80 kilometers above the earth’s surface). Virgin Galactic, owned by Richard Branson became the first commercial organization to hurtle into space tourism. 9 days later, Jeff Bezos owned Blue Origin followed suit. Both these billionaire buddies have little in common otherwise but they both seem to be sharing a similar hypocrisy on climate action.

Let's start with the case of Sir Richard. In 2014, after interacting with a ‘wonderful lady called Christina from James Cameron’s foundation’, Mr. Branson decided to give up what was previously his favorite food - red meat. In a very articulate write-up, Richard talks about how he got influenced into giving up meat for the sake of planet earth. He writes about how meat contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation in Amazon and how he has begun to feel healthier and more active after giving up the food. He even articulates about how cattle have not evolved to live in barns and the moral aspect of animal agriculture.

But the most appealing sentence from the article was as follows:

“Sometimes it seems like much of our food is stuck in a cycle of excessive production and excessive consumption.” If you replace food with any other commodity that gets used in modern life, it would still make sense. You can also try replacing food with something like space tourism, and it would still fit aptly. Right Sir Richard?

Virgin Galactic was built with the purpose of making space tourism and travel a reality. The company’s website has a rather moving video of what inspired our superhero Branson into building this company and how the man went on to achieve his dream. What it sadly does not talk about is the climate impact of space tourism, much of which is beyond what scientists can currently comprehend given how mysterious the upper atmosphere is. The company says that the carbon footprint of Branson’s flight was the same as that of a round trip from London to Singapore. This claim however does not include details of the life cycle assessment of the jet and engine materials (which is non-reusable, by the way), damage caused to the ozone layer and the upper atmosphere, and the emissions that have occurred from past rocket testings. Even if the claim were true, Branson’s jet accommodated only 5 people and hence the per capita emissions were considerably higher. More importantly, for a man who understands the ‘cycle of excessive production and excessive consumption’, pioneering an industry, as carbon intensive as space tourism, at a point when even air travel is criticized for its carbon footprint, is hypocritical, to say the least.

Moving on to Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man. Right after landing on planet earth, Jeff said his brief sojourn into space gave him a newfound appreciation of the fragility of our ravaged planet, and that the way to protect it from further pollution is “to move all heavy industry into space”. I found this statement bizarre at first. I still find it bizarre.

Out of curiosity, I visited Blue Origin’s site. The company’s mission reads “We're committed to building a road to space so our children can build the future”. This is followed by a whole section on how the company is benefiting planet earth. “In order to preserve Earth, Blue Origin believes that humanity will need to expand, explore, find new energy and material resources, and move industries that stress Earth into space. Blue is working on this today by developing partially and fully reusable launch vehicles that are safe, low cost and serve the needs of all civil, commercial and defense customers”. The company will essentially use space tourism as a way of testing to improve its real space flight technology, which will save the world by somehow transporting all polluting industries to the space.

Now, I’m a hopeless optimist when it comes to fighting climate change and saving the earth but I do know that time is of the essence. Within a few decades, our planet is bound to go through unforeseeable changes and at this point, if someone tries to convince me that climate change can be stopped by sending all our polluting industries to the space, I am not buying that!

Moreover, what’s concerning, is the belief system of these people. They are so deeply sunk in their privilege that they literally cannot comprehend the fact that climate change is very much a reality. When the bucket overflows, the most logical thing to do is to close the tap and not go out looking for a bigger bucket to hold the overflowing water. On one hand, these billionaires claim to be doing their best to fight climate change and social injustice and on the other hand, they continue to milk the cow that is climate change through utter greenwashing.

As much as I appreciate and look forward to space ventures that can create a net positive impact and aid climate action, using space for touristry is outright stupid. What makes it worse is how shrewd white men who have amassed huge sums of wealth unfairly, are hailed as heroes and saviors when they propose their outlandish ideas to save the world, while progressive womxn and BIPOC leaders are critiqued for the simplest yet intersectionality and scientifically developed climate action plans (the Green New Deal, for instance).