Prince William shared his thoughts on space tourism and said that saving the earth should come first. I admit, he has a valid point. However, it’s not Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos’ responsibility to solve the core problem which is the greed of our global political leaders. I’m not a fan of Bezos or the way he does things, but he is simply a by-product of the way our system is set up. It’s not his fault for being that by-product. I have more thoughts on this but first, a recap of what Prince William said.
Some of the comments that the Duke of Cambridge made in response to climate change are,
“We need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live.”
“We are seeing a rise in climate anxiety. You know, people, young people now are growing up where their futures are basically threatened the whole time. It’s very unnerving and it’s very, you know, anxiety making.”
“If we’re not careful we’re robbing from our children’s future through what we do now. And I think that’s not fair.”
Again, Prince William has a valid point, but I think that people should be allowed to go after their dreams. He also doesn’t mention what Elon Musk is doing for our planet. Although he is the CEO of SpaceX, he’s also the CEO and co-founder of Tesla, and he supports a carbon tax, which would hurt SpaceX.
Elon can only do so much. Political games between Tesla’s competitors and politicians — from the President of the United States himself to the constant lobbying by dealerships of state and local governments — are all major hindrances that seek to limit Tesla from achieving its goals.
One of those goals, its core mission actually, is the accelerate the transition to sustainability.
What Those In Power Don’t Want You To Realize
By the term, ‘those in power,’ I’m referring to all of the political leaders on this planet — including Prince William and the royal family. They are in full control of how this planet operates and I believe they are fully responsible for the destruction of this planet.
Not us, the people, but for them, the leaders, have the power to stop the destruction if they truly wanted to. Instead, they blame space tourism or other topics and say, “You should save earth first,” while ignoring the fact that it is the greed and political games that are not just hurting our planet, but the people on this planet. They also put up roadblocks and challenges for companies that are repairing this planet.
By playing a blame game, they are saying, “Here is the problem. Blame them. It’s their fault.” to the masses, and many people fall for it. Jeff Bezos isn’t one of my favorite people in terms of how Amazon has treated its workers. His wealth, unlike Elon Musk’s, isn’t being used to advance humanity and make our planet better. But we have to be fair. He earned that money the same way Elon earned his. We have no right to tell them how to spend it. We can make suggestions, but they don’t owe us.
Bezos is a by-product of a broken capitalistic system that is dependant on the poor to keep a few people at the top. So are Elon Musk and other extremely wealthy people. The difference lies in what each person is doing with their wealth — which is rightfully theirs.
A part of me thinks that a tax on the 1% could help this country pull itself out of debt, but would taxpayers actually get that money? No, probably not. And if we were to tax the 1%, to do so fairly would include exclusion from such taxes if that person’s money wasn’t cash but just on paper as in the case of Elon Musk.
Elon’s wealth goes up and down with the value of the stock market, because most of his paper wealth is in the stocks. So do we expect Elon to cash out his stocks in order to pay a tax that the people won’t even see? This would harm his companies and create unnecessary obstacles. And this doesn’t help the planet by any means.
Saving The Planet Vs. Going To Space Is A Deceptive Illusion To Make You Believe A Certain Narrative
This Narrative Distracts You From The Fact That It Solves Nothing — Just Gets You Emotional.
We can do our part in helping this planet and chase our dreams and make them come true. It doesn’t have to be an either/or like Prince William and those in power who play these games want you to believe.
A carbon tax on companies that use an excessive amount of fossil fuels could go toward planting trees, carbon capture technology and so many other things that help our planet. It would hurt the industries that use fossil fuels such as SpaceX, but even SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, is in favor of a carbon tax. During Tesla’s Q1 2021 earnings call he said,
“And the right thing to do, I think, from an economic standpoint, and I think an economist to agree is to have a carbon tax, just as we have a tax on cigarettes and alcohol, which we think are more likely to be bad than good, and we tend to tax fruit and vegetables less. It was the same should be true. We should tax energy that we think is probably bad and support energy we think is probably good, just like cigarettes and alcohol versus fruits and vegetables. This is common sense.”
“And — but I guess on the plus side, I’m not suggesting anyone be complacent. But sustainable energy, renewable energy will be sold, it is being sold, but it matters how fast we sold it. And if we sold it faster, that’s better for the world. There’s no question in my mind whatsoever that the energy storage problem can be solved with lithium-ion batteries, zero.”
Solutions to preparing this planet are out there and are being worked on. The space vs save the planet narrative is all talk by those who, in my opinion, is responsible for the destruction of this planet. Now, Prince William has done a lot of good work for this planet — but he is repeating a narrative that is often pushed by other political leaders who criticize going to space.
These same leaders allow the fossil fuel industry to continually spill oil and profit from war while putting the blame on Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos for wanting to use their wealth to do whatever they want with it. This is how I see it, anyways.