Space Tourism
July 12 2021
I do a lot of writing other than the poetry I post here. I'll occasionally include a short piece.
Today I fired off this letter to the editor about space tourism: about the environmental impact of something so vain and frivolous; about private actors imposing their will on the public space; and about the unexamined privilege of wealth. (Yes, all that distilled into the short space allotted these submissions!) Since it probably won't be published, or be edited if it is, I feel the need to do what little I can to be heard.
In a recent environmentally themed poem, I referred to the frog in boiling water. But who deserves judgment? Is it the frog, who doesn't know better? Or is it us; who know, but persist in our stupidity, wilful denial, and obliviousness?
I read with utter disgust and growing fury the devastating reports of widespread wildfires attributed to climate change so starkly juxtaposed with Richard Branson's vanity flight to subspace. “Astronaut”? What laughable hubris!
Wildfire kindling wildfire: one of many positive feedback loops that make climate change a runaway train. Meanwhile, egotistical billionaires are free to pump tons of greenhouse gases from their toy rockets just because they can afford to. Not to mention that Elon Musk can unilaterally pollute the view of the stars with satellite arrays and future space debris.
How ironic that the selling point is to give paying customers an inspiring view of our fragile blue and green planet while in the act of destroying it. Why does wealth entitle one to perform any anti-social act at will as long as it is not expressly forbidden by law?
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