Public Comment

On July 20, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and three invited guests blasted off from a West Texas launch pad and soared into near-space aboard a Blue Origin missile named in honor of astronaut Alan Shepard. While Bezos flew higher than Sir Richard Branson (who beat him to first-in-space prize, albeit at a lower altitude) the event was hardly "one great leap for mankind." 

Every previous space pioneer—from Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in April 1961 and Astronaut John Glenn in February 1962—has not only rocketed into space but actually orbited the planet (once for Gagarin, thrice for Glenn). Neither Bezos nor his space-competitor Branson spent any time in orbit—nor much time in space. Their suborbital escapades were measured in minutes, not hours or days. 

Nonetheless, Bezos parachuted back to Earth to proclaim that the experience had been transformative. Viewed from on high, Bezos told the press, the atmosphere is "actually incredibly thin. It's one thing to recognize that intellectually. It's another thing to actually see with your own eyes how fragile it really is." 

Even before his jaunt into "local space," Bezos had announced that he planned to play a leading role in exploiting space travel. But he couched his ambition beneath the false cloak of environmental stewardship. 

Toward that end, the mega-billionaire has created the Bezos Earth Fund to save "the only good planet in the solar system." Bezos bolsters his Earth-centric focus by explaining: "We've sent robotic probes to all of [the other planets]. This is the only good one." 

Bezos' Earth Fund has provided an unrestricted grant of $43 million to The Solutions Project, which has called for a "transition to 100% clean energy and equitable access to healthy air, water, and land." But Bezos has a different game-plan in mind. Instead of restoring ecosystems by making a "transition" to less-damaging Earth-wrecking behavior, Bezos wants to continue the same old costly, extractive, profit-seeking activities but simply "do it" in space—a wilderness without environmental regulations or federal laws.

Bezos and Musk are already engaged in a testy one-on-one battle to profiteer from "industrializing" the crowded orbital space surrounding our planet. Both are competing to launch tens of thousands of Earth-circling communications satellites that will blanket the planet with unprecedented waves of powerful electromagnetic radiation. If this is an example of Bezos' plan to "save the Earth" by moving polluting projects "off-planet" does not bode well for our future. 

According to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, there were 7,389 satellites in Earth orbit at the end of April 2021. Since May 23, 2019, Musk's SpaceX rockets have been installing the first of 42,000 powerful Starlink satellite transmitters. Meanwhile, Bezos is working on a rival $10 billion network that would place an additional 3,236 Internet satellites into low-Earth orbit. Musk expects his completed Starlink system will generate $30 billion in annual revenue. 

Current levels of "satellite interference" have already had negative impacts on Earth-bound astronomers. The star-like reflections from these orbital intruders are reportedly interfering with programs designed to spot potentially deadly asteroids that might be headed our way. 

Bezos' Master Plan to save the planet is horrendous. His solution to ending our planet's environmental trauma doesn't involve changing our destructive and wasteful habits, it merely requires that we move all mining and polluting activities "off-planet" where industrial barons can employ "millions of people living and working in space" to continue exploitation-as-usual. Many of these Amazon-in-space workers would serve as interstellar miners and low-wage laborers. And there's another Bezos bonus: It will be very difficult to organize unions in space. 

The Bezos Solution is clearly stated in a Blue Origin mission statement, which reads: "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." 

The statement goes on to state that a program to "return Americans to the surface of the Moon—this time to stay—will add new chapters to the history of spaceflight and move us closer to fulfilling that founding vision. Everything we do follows our motto, Gradatim Ferociter, or “Step by Step Ferociously.” (That could have been Bezos' sub-orbital sound-bite as he emerged from his space capsule to meet the press: "One small step for man; One ferocious step for mankind.") 

There's no need to stop polluting, Bezos reasons. We can simply move our pollution "off-Earth" and continue to bulldoze our way from the moon to the asteroid belts in search of minerals and profits. Presumably, Bezos has a plan to drill for oil in space. 

Bezos boasts about responding to the existential challenge of climate calamity but seems oblivious to the impact of his own space jaunts. 

Britain's Climate Change Committee (CCC) recently warned that humanity needs to be grounded. According to the CCC, commercial air flights are a leading source of climate-toasting atmospheric pollution. Flying a single airline passenger from London to Hong Kong produces as much CO2 as driving a gas-powered car for ten months. And rocket rides (like those favored by Bezos, Branson, and Musk) are even worse. 

Bezos' seems oblivious to the fact that his celebrated ten-minute flight in the New Shepard spacecraft expelled more than 330 tons of CO2-equivalent (tCO2e). Dr. Stuart Parkinson, the executive director of Scientists for Global Responsibility, points out that each of the rocket's four passengers were responsible for pouring 82 tCO2e into Earth's "thin and fragile" atmosphere—"over 29 times [an individual's] sustainable level for a whole year!" 

Meanwhile, Sir Richard's SpaceShipTwo pumps ozone-destroying black carbon into the atmosphere, accelerating increases in both ultra-violent radiation and global heating. 

Dr. Parkinson views the antics of these billionauts with concern. "It is hard to see this as anything more than environmental vandalism for the super-rich," he says. (That verdict was only enhanced by the antics of Bezos and Branson who both celebrated their post-touch-downs by shaking champagne bottles and spraying bystanders.) 

Meanwhile, Bezos has taken a good turn down here on Earth. He recently committed $700 million to purchase 100,000 delivery trucks powered by electric motors. Now if Bezos, Branson, and Musk could convert the world's airlines to operate on sunlight, that would clearly make a difference. 

The grim fact is that we have arrived at a frightful point: we are facing a future of unprecedented environmental peril in which it is no longer possible to "prevent" the Eco-Apocalypse, we can only hope to "reduce" the damage. 

And so, if governments really want to take the kinds of actions needed to reduce the rising threat of climate chaos, Dr, Parkinson has a suggestion: "There is an important step to take immediately: ban space tourism."