tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/jeff-bezos-7985/articlesJeff Bezos – The Conversation2023-01-30T19:10:08Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1918552023-01-30T19:10:08Z2023-01-30T19:10:08ZThe hype is out of this world, but mining in space won’t save the Earth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506962/original/file-20230130-14-h5lwde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C4%2C2871%2C1612&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Planetary Resources</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We know the world must move to cleaner energy sources to head off the worst effects of climate change, but the technology required for the transition is very <a href="https://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/961711588875536384/Minerals-for-Climate-Action-The-Mineral-Intensity-of-the-Clean-Energy-Transition.pdf">mineral-intensive</a>. So where will all these resources come from?</p>
<p>Many in the space industry are pointing beyond Earth. Asteroids and the Moon are thought to contain abundant platinum group elements needed in the transition, as well as other valuable resources. This has prompted <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/09/space-mining-business-still-highly-speculative.html">a push</a> towards commercial mining in outer space. </p>
<p>California-based company AstroForge is the latest company to make strides into the space mining rush. The company last week <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-24/asteroid-mining-startup-astroforge-plans-first-platinum-refining-space-missions">announced</a> plans to launch two missions this year – one to refine platinum from a sample of asteroid-like material, and another to find an asteroid near Earth to mine.</p>
<p>Proponents of mining in space often point to the potential benefits for Earth and its people. But how certain are these benefits? Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344922003627#ack0001">research</a> casts doubt on many of them.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="three men in suit jackets embrace" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506961/original/file-20230130-22-7k736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506961/original/file-20230130-22-7k736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506961/original/file-20230130-22-7k736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506961/original/file-20230130-22-7k736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506961/original/file-20230130-22-7k736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506961/original/file-20230130-22-7k736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506961/original/file-20230130-22-7k736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Proponents of mining in space often point to the potential benefits for Earth and its people. Pictured: Officials from the Planetary Resources company in 2012 after announcing a plan to mine nearby asteroids. The company is now defunct.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elaine Thompson/AP</span></span>
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<h2>A very risky bet</h2>
<p>Space mining supporters often claim a bounty of space resources exist, and exploiting them would generate <a href="https://www.mining.com/infographic-the-facts-and-figures-that-make-space-mining-real/">trillions of dollars</a> in mining revenue.</p>
<p>But information on resources in space is scarce, highly varied and uncertain.</p>
<p>Such statements rely strongly on remote-sensing technology and modelling: techniques that use interpretations, estimates, assumptions and probabilities. Whether mineral deposits lying beyond Earth are commercially viable has not yet been proven. </p>
<p>Work on this is underway. The <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex">OSIRIS-REx space mission</a>, for example, gathered a small sample from near-Earth asteroid Bennu, and is bringing it back to Earth this year so it can be studied. </p>
<p>This year’s <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-24/asteroid-mining-startup-astroforge-plans-first-platinum-refining-space-missions?leadSource=uverify%20wall">AstroForge</a> missions also aim to firm up the industry’s viability.</p>
<p>But so far, investing in the extraction of space resources is even more speculative than mining on Earth. </p>
<p>Metallic minerals are present in meteorites and other space rocks. But <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032063322001945">research</a> suggests that, except for platinum group elements, the concentrations of most metals in space materials may be lower than on Earth. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/D95QeTK9bEc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">NASA’s OSIRIS-REx space mission will arrive back on Earth this year.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Where will the waste go?</h2>
<p>Mining on Earth often requires robust equipment to extract, handle and process large volumes of rock. Most of the rock is disposed of as waste once the material of interest, such as copper, is obtained. </p>
<p>Waste disposal will be even more challenging in space. The full environmental and safety implications are not yet clear. But we know space debris already <a href="https://theconversation.com/space-debris-is-coming-down-more-frequently-what-are-the-chances-it-could-hit-someone-or-damage-property-188062">falls to Earth</a> quite frequently.</p>
<p>For example, space debris found in the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales last year <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/03/spacex-capsule-confirmed-as-source-of-debris-that-landed-on-australian-farm">was confirmed</a> as belonging to a craft owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company. And in the US state of Oklahoma in 1997, a woman out exercising was <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=98700&page=1">reportedly hit</a> in the shoulder by a piece of falling space junk.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1617116866740191234"}"></div></p>
<p>Mining on Earth often <a href="https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/faq/how-can-metal-mining-impact-environment">damages the natural environment</a>, impacting land, waterways, air quality and ecosystems. </p>
<p>In places where mining is tightly regulated, environmental and human safety concerns must be addressed. But there are also countless examples around the world where mining regulation is lax. </p>
<p>To date, there are <a href="https://theconversation.com/space-mining-is-not-science-fiction-and-canada-could-figure-prominently-155855">no regulations</a> or adequate waste management plans for mining off-Earth. Space mining has a lot to learn from the best practices and missteps of mining on Earth. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/space-debris-is-coming-down-more-frequently-what-are-the-chances-it-could-hit-someone-or-damage-property-188062">Space debris is coming down more frequently. What are the chances it could hit someone or damage property?</a>
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<h2>Space is not a supermarket</h2>
<p>In 2017, US space entrepreneur Jeff Bezos <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344922003627">stated</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Every kind of element that you need is available in space in very large quantities. And so, over the next couple of hundred years, that will allow us to both continue to have a dynamic, expanding, growing, thriving, interesting civilisation, while still protecting this planet. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>So will space really provide all the minerals Earth needs in coming centuries?</p>
<p>The current hype around off-Earth extraction centres on platinum group elements such as palladium, rhodium and platinum. These elements are present in metallic asteroids.</p>
<p>Platinum is used in catalytic converters to <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2014/3064/pdf/fs2014-3064.pdf">decrease emissions in car exhausts</a>, as well as in medical equipment and electronic devices. </p>
<p>But we need a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57234610">much broader spectrum of commodities</a> for the low-carbon transition. For example, large quantities of lithium, cobalt and rare earth elements are needed to make batteries and magnets. </p>
<p><a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ac235f">Researchers claim</a> to have uncovered two metal-rich near-Earth asteroids that <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2021/10/19/the-age-of-space-mining-just-got-closer-as-scientists-discover-two-asteroids-whose-precious-metals-would-exceed-global-reserves/?sh=54d1f6ca713b">could contain</a> very large quantities of iron, nickel and cobalt.</p>
<p>But the technology for accessing these minerals is still a long way off (if it happens at all). But the renewable energy transition must happen urgently – and for now, the minerals will be extracted on Earth.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="aerial view of a lithium mine" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506967/original/file-20230130-22-2ulu5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506967/original/file-20230130-22-2ulu5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506967/original/file-20230130-22-2ulu5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506967/original/file-20230130-22-2ulu5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506967/original/file-20230130-22-2ulu5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506967/original/file-20230130-22-2ulu5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506967/original/file-20230130-22-2ulu5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Large volumes of lithium are needed in the clean energy transition. Pictured: a lithium mine in the Northern Territory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fleet Space Technologies</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A new colonialism</h2>
<p>The current space race reflects a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-billionaire-space-race-reflects-a-colonial-mindset-that-fails-to-imagine-a-different-world-165235">colonial mindset</a> in which the powerful rush to stake a claim in new territories – and whoever gets there first gets the riches.</p>
<p>This narrative is one of “<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1c1daa87-c48e-4d19-a574-046eadb5b665">techno-futurism</a>”, where progress is measured by wealth generation, which in turn relies on technology development. </p>
<p>Should this <a href="https://theconversation.com/lunar-gold-rush-is-about-to-start-and-we-could-exhaust-the-solar-system-in-fewer-than-500-years-117450">gold-rush style bonanza</a> prove viable, only a small proportion of people would pocket the profits. The gap between the very rich and the rest of society would only widen.</p>
<h2>Look down, not up</h2>
<p>Viable and responsible space mining is a very distant prospect. But climate change is an urgent problem that needs solutions right now. </p>
<p>Despite the many downsides, mining on Earth remains essential to the transition to a low-carbon energy economy.</p>
<p>Rather than space mining, positive environmental and social outcomes on Earth are better achieved by ensuring terrestrial mining is done in the most <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051429">sustainable</a> way possible. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-lithium-for-clean-energy-but-rio-tintos-planned-serbian-mine-reminds-us-it-shouldnt-come-at-any-cost-167902">We need lithium for clean energy, but Rio Tinto's planned Serbian mine reminds us it shouldn't come at any cost</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191855/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Juliana Segura-Salazar received funding from European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant No 730411 (2016–2020): IMP@CT, Integrated Mobile modularised Plant and Containerised Tools for selective, low-impact mining of small high-grade deposits. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span><a href="mailto:k.moore@exeter.ac.uk">k.moore@exeter.ac.uk</a> received funding from University of Exeter Global Partnership in Earth Humanities; a NERC Discipline Hopping for Environmental Solutions grant ‘Mining unCommon Ground’; European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant No 730411 (2016–2020): IMP@CT, Integrated Mobile modularised Plant and Containerised Tools for selective, low-impact mining of small high-grade deposits. </span></em></p>Proponents of mining in space often point to the potential benefits for Earth and its people. But this research casts doubt on many of them.Juliana Segura-Salazar, Research Fellow, The University of QueenslandKathryn Moore, Senior Lecturer in Critical and Green Technology Metals, University of ExeterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1949622023-01-12T13:20:06Z2023-01-12T13:20:06ZDead billionaires whose foundations are thriving today can thank Henry VIII and Elizabeth I<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503104/original/file-20230104-16-22jrm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C0%2C1931%2C991&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Automaker Henry Ford's name endures on the foundation formed from his fortune.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/henry-ford-with-his-model-t-news-photo/51098603?adppopup=true">Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>More than 230 of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-giving-pledge-a-philanthropy-scholar-explains-182015">world’s wealthiest people</a>, including Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, have promised to give at least half of their fortunes to charity within their lifetimes or in their wills by signing the <a href="https://givingpledge.org/pledgerlist">Giving Pledge</a>. Some of the most affluent, including <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/14/business/jeff-bezos-charity/index.html">Jeff Bezos</a> – who hadn’t signed the Giving Pledge by early 2023 – and <a href="https://givingpledge.org/pledger?pledgerId=393">MacKenzie Scott</a>, his ex-wife – have declared that they will go further by giving most of their fortunes to charity before they die. </p>
<p>This movement stands in contrast to practices of many of the philanthropists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Industrial titans like oil baron <a href="https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/">John D. Rockefeller</a>, automotive entrepreneur <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.7912/C2/605">Henry Ford</a> and steel magnate <a href="https://www.carnegiefoundation.org/">Andrew Carnegie</a> established massive foundations that to this day have big pots of money at their disposal despite decades of charitable grantmaking. This kind of control over funds after death is usually illegal because of a you-can’t-take-it-with-you legal doctrine that originated 500 years ago in England.</p>
<p>Known as the <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Rule_Against_Perpetuities/63xG4oBiVnAC?hl=en">Rule Against Perpetuities</a>, it holds that control over property <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLTDCqR2mts">must cease within 21 years of a death</a>. But there is a <a href="https://ideas.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2407&context=dlra">loophole in that rule for money given to charities</a>, which theoretically can flow forever. Without it, many of the largest U.S. and British foundations would have closed their doors after disbursing all their funds long ago.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://mdcourts.gov/attysearch#searchform">lawyer</a> and <a href="https://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-public-affairs-and-community-service/public-administration/about-us/faculty-staff/nuri-heckler.php">researcher</a> who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yCboPP4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">studies</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10841806.2019.1621659">nonprofit law</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10999922.2019.1626696">history</a>, I wondered why American donors get to give from the grave.</p>
<h2>Henry VIII had his eye on property</h2>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RenB8J1XlLN9GvLX3auFFQRHAFuCupD8/view?usp=sharing">working paper</a> that I wrote with my colleague <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=F0rg8fYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Angela Eikenberry</a> and Kenya Love, a graduate student, we explained that this debate goes back to the court of Henry VIII.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503857/original/file-20230110-448-mumq8n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="White man wearing luxurious clothing and a broad fur collar." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503857/original/file-20230110-448-mumq8n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503857/original/file-20230110-448-mumq8n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503857/original/file-20230110-448-mumq8n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503857/original/file-20230110-448-mumq8n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503857/original/file-20230110-448-mumq8n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503857/original/file-20230110-448-mumq8n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503857/original/file-20230110-448-mumq8n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Henry VIII ruled England from 1509 to 1547.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/662833">The Metropolitan Museum of Art</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Rule Against Perpetuities developed in response to <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803114938887">political upheaval in the 1530s</a>. The old feudal law made it almost impossible for most properties to be sold, foreclosed upon or have their ownership changed in any way.</p>
<p>At the time, a small number of people and the Catholic Church <a href="https://baylor-ir.tdl.org/handle/2104/9014">controlled most of the wealth in England</a>.
Henry VIII wanted to end this practice because it was difficult to tax property that never transferred, and property owners were mostly unaccountable to England’s monarchy. This encouraged fraud and led to a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/561096">consolidation of wealth that threatened the king’s power</a>.</p>
<p>As he sought to <a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/why-did-henry-viii-break-rome">sever England’s ties to the Catholic Church</a>, Henry had one eye on changing religious doctrine so he could divorce Catherine of Aragon, and the other on all the property that would become available when he booted out the church.</p>
<p>After splitting with the church and securing his divorce, he enacted <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803114938887">a new property system</a> giving the British monarchy a lot more power over wealth and used that power to seize property. Most of the property the king first took belonged to the church, but all <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/561096">property interests were more vulnerable under the new law</a>.</p>
<p>Henry’s power grab angered the wealthy gentry, who launched a violent uprising known as the “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Henry_VIII_and_the_English_Monasteries/uTjUAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1">Pilgrimage of Grace</a>.”</p>
<p>After quelling that upheaval, Henry compromised by allowing the <a href="https://reginajeffers.blog/2022/07/25/statute-of-wills-henry-viiis-answer-to-primogeniture/">transfer of property</a> from one generation to the next, but did not allow people to tell others how to use their property after they died. The courts later developed the Rule Against Perpetuities to allow people to transfer property to their children when they turned 21 years old. </p>
<p>At the same time, wealthy Englishmen were encouraged to give large sums of money and property to <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=868394">help the poor</a>. Some of these funds had strings attached for longer than the 21 years. </p>
<h2>Elizabeth I codified the rule</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/history-and-stories/elizabeth-i/">Elizabeth I</a>, Henry VIII’s daughter with his ill-fated wife Anne Boleyn, became queen after his death. She used her reign to codify that previously informal charitable exception. By then it was the 1590s – a tough time for England, due to <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=868394">two wars, a pandemic, inflation and famine</a>. Queen Elizabeth needed to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24415458">prevent unrest without raising taxes</a> even further than she already had.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499143/original/file-20221206-24-ju9b48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white woman dressed in elaborate regal garb with a high collar." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499143/original/file-20221206-24-ju9b48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499143/original/file-20221206-24-ju9b48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499143/original/file-20221206-24-ju9b48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499143/original/file-20221206-24-ju9b48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499143/original/file-20221206-24-ju9b48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499143/original/file-20221206-24-ju9b48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499143/original/file-20221206-24-ju9b48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Queen Elizabeth I ruled England from 1558 to 1603.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/364401">The Metropolitan Museum of Art</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Elizabeth’s solution was a new law decreed in 1601. Known as the “<a href="https://conservationtools.org/library_items/1385-The-Modern-Law-of-Charities-as-Derived-from-the-Statute-of-Charitable-Uses">Statute of Charitable Uses</a>,” it encouraged the wealthy to make big charitable donations and gave courts the power to enforce the terms of the gifts. </p>
<p>The monarchy believed that <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/sptlns2&div=16&g_sent=1&casa_token=2L9P-TguWK8AAAAA:GX5MqdTeJBZmNgVhzkyQMjpm2YHoBc6p_oj09G8Mfi-KkMdwVIwBSJ9UhcxhtJoWQDabW8L3">partnering with charities</a> would ease the burdens of the state to aid the poor.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://fee.org/articles/how-does-government-welfare-stack-up-against-private-charity-it-s-no-contest/">concept remains popular</a> today, especially among conservatives in the U.S. and U.K. </p>
<h2>The charitable exception today</h2>
<p>When the U.S. broke away from Great Britain and became an independent country, it wasn’t always certain that it would stick with the charitable exception.</p>
<p>Some states initially <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/179/trustees-of-philadelphia-baptist-association-v-hart-s-executors">rejected British law</a>, but by the early 19th century every state in the U.S. had adopted the <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Rule_Against_Perpetuities/63xG4oBiVnAC?hl=en">Rule Against Perpetuities</a>.</p>
<p>In the late 1800s, scholars <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1321788">started debating the value of the Rule Against Perpetuities</a>, even as large foundations <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/history/american-history-general-interest/charity-philanthropy-and-civility-american-history?format=PB&isbn=9780521603539">took advantage of Elizabeth’s philanthropy loophole</a>. As of 2022, my co-authors and I had found that <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RenB8J1XlLN9GvLX3auFFQRHAFuCupD8/view?usp=sharing">40 U.S. states have ended or limited the rule</a> and that every jurisdiction, including the District of Columbia, permits eternal control over donations.</p>
<p>Although this legal precept has endured, many <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691183497/just-giving">scholars</a>, <a href="https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/as-more-foundations-choose-to-spend-down-charities-worry-about-future-funding">charities</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/dec/15/mackenzie-scott-billionaire-donations-non-profits">philanthropists</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-big-problem-with-how-jeff-and-mackenzie-bezos-are-spending-a-small-share-of-their-fortune-103311">question</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-reason-americans-are-getting-leery-of-billionaire-donors-162409">whether it makes sense</a> to let foundations hang onto massive endowments with the goal of operating in the future in accordance with the wishes of a long-gone donor rather than spend that money to meet society’s needs today.</p>
<p>With such issues as climate change, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/uhenergy/2019/09/23/pay-now-or-pay-later-the-certain-cost-of-climate-change/?sh=2b3d17e6323c">spending more now could significantly decrease</a> what it will cost later to resolve the problem. </p>
<p>Still other problems require change that is more likely to come from smaller nonprofits. In one example, many long-running foundations, including the <a href="https://www.fordfoundation.org/news-and-stories/news-and-press/news/ten-philanthropies-will-help-flint-recover-and-rise-from-water-crisis/">Ford, Carnegie and Kellogg foundations</a>, contributed large sums to help Flint, Michigan, after a shift in water supply brought lead in the tap water to poisonous levels. Some scholars argue this <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10841806.2019.1621653">money undermined local community groups</a> that better understood the needs of Flint’s residents.</p>
<p>Another argument is more philosophical: Why should dead billionaires get credit for helping to solve contemporary problems through the foundations bearing their names? This question often leads to a <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/37615450">debate over whether history is being rewritten</a> in ways that emphasize their philanthropy over the sometimes questionable ways that they secured their wealth.</p>
<p>Some of those very rich people who started massive foundations were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/08/who-was-edward-colston-and-why-was-his-bristol-statue-toppled-slave-trader-black-lives-matter-protests">racist</a> and <a href="https://www.history.com/news/henry-ford-antisemitism-worker-treatment">antisemitic</a>. Does their use of this rule that’s been around for hundreds of years give them the right to influence how Americans solve 21st-century problems?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194962/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nuri Heckler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The hefty sums many billionaires give away place them in an age-old debate about wealth and charity – and whether it’s appropriate for donors to have a say over their wealth from the grave.Nuri Heckler, Assistant Professor of Public Administration, University of Nebraska OmahaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1966132022-12-16T13:15:30Z2022-12-16T13:15:30ZWealthy individuals are giving billions to solve the climate crisis – is it working?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501082/original/file-20221214-7173-ocymeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How should millions being pledged by individuals help solve the climate crisis?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Werner</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>One of the best parts about being The Conversation is when we actually have a conversation in real life. And finally, we did just that recently with a fascinating event, co-sponsored by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Associated Press and GBH. Here is a recap from the <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/how-philanthropy-can-help-fight-the-climate-crisis-a-live-debate">Chronicle of Philanthropy</a>.</em></p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oLcYYWKWFtU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Watch the full event, “How Philanthropy Can Help Fight the Climate Crisis: a Live Debate.”</span></figcaption>
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<p><strong>By Sara Herschander, Chronicle of Philanthropy</strong></p>
<p>Major philanthropists have poured billions into fighting the climate crisis in recent years amid a growing sense of urgency. Their investments have sparked broader questions over philanthropy’s approach to confronting the crisis, which activists say will require trillions of dollars yearly to solve.</p>
<p>“There’s a difference between charity and change,” says Nick Tilsen, CEO of the NDN Collective, which aims to build Indigenous power through grant making and organizing. Tilsen would like to see more philanthropists invest in structural change and Indigenous environmental activism and stewardship. </p>
<p>Tilsen spoke alongside <a href="https://www.bezosearthfund.org/news-and-insights/meet-andrew-steer">Andrew Steer, CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund</a>; <a href="https://naturebeyond2020.com/team_member/brian-odonnell-us-strategy/">Brian O’Donnell, director of the Campaign for Nature</a>; and <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/people-directory/enrici-ashley.html">Ash Enrici</a>, assistant professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University in a panel moderated by Caitlin Saks, a producer for PBS’ “Nova.” The event was sponsored by the <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/">Chronicle of Philanthropy</a>, The Associated Press and the Conversation as part of a partnership financed by the Lilly Endowment.</p>
<p>Read on for key highlights.</p>
<h2>Take the lead from grassroots groups</h2>
<p>It’s important that philanthropists take their cues from grassroots organizers and Indigenous people, who are on the front lines of the climate movement, says O’Donnell, whose Campaign for Nature aims to secure protections for 30% of the planet by 2030.</p>
<p>“We’ve done a lot of studying. We’ve done a lot of analysis. We have a lot of white papers,” O’Donnell said. “The time right now is for people who are making change — grassroots leaders who are holding governments, corporations and others accountable.”</p>
<p>Philanthropists have only recently begun to recognize the vital role that Native people play in protecting the planet, O’Donnell said. While Indigenous people make up only around 6% of the world’s population, they protect roughly 80% of its biodiversity. Yet only a small fraction of philanthropic dollars goes toward Indigenous groups, he said.</p>
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<img alt="a picture of 5 people listening intently to 4 panelists" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501086/original/file-20221214-9832-w4ynw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501086/original/file-20221214-9832-w4ynw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501086/original/file-20221214-9832-w4ynw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501086/original/file-20221214-9832-w4ynw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501086/original/file-20221214-9832-w4ynw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501086/original/file-20221214-9832-w4ynw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501086/original/file-20221214-9832-w4ynw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Audience members listen to ‘How Philanthropy Can Help Fight the Climate Crisis: a Live Debate.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Werner</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“If you invest in the self-determination of Indigenous people, who are defending, developing and decolonizing, it’s contributing to addressing climate change and addressing racial inequality,” Tilsen said.</p>
<p>While an increasing number of government programs, like the Biden administration’s Justice40 Initiative, aim to support investments in people who have long been marginalized, nonprofits with leaders of color and those headed by Indigenous people often lack the capacity they need to attract funding, says Tilsen. That’s where philanthropy comes in, he added.</p>
<p>“Philanthropy can change their positionality,” says Tilsen, who noted that groups need investments to build capacity and attract broader funding for creating climate solutions.</p>
<h2>Role of philanthropy</h2>
<p>Philanthropy has the potential to catalyze innovation and spur broader reinvestment, says Steer, whose fund has pledged to disburse US$10 billion to climate causes in the next decade. The Bezos Earth Fund has been focusing on a set of 50 large-scale climate-solution grant-making decisions.</p>
<p>While the fund doesn’t purport to fully fund such far-reaching transitions into technologies like solar power, it aims to provide the start-up needed for broader government or corporate investments, Steer said.</p>
<p>“Each of those is on a path that will eventually cross into a positive tipping point. The problem is whether that tipping point will come soon enough,” says Steer, who called the climate crisis a “battle for our lives.”</p>
<p>Philanthropy is also able to be more nimble in its grant making than government funding, which is typically very specific in its aims and requirements, Ernici said. That’s a big advantage when it comes to combating climate change, whose effects can be unpredictable and often force organizers to shift priorities unexpectedly.</p>
<p>“The environment doesn’t work in a linear fashion,” says Enrici, who is currently working on a multiyear study on environmental philanthropy. “A very inflexible grant or an inflexible way of funding is not necessarily the way we’re going to be able to effect environmental change.”</p>
<h2>Long-term change</h2>
<p>To that end, philanthropy aimed at addressing climate change ought to recognize the role it plays in a much longer and broader effort, Enrici said.</p>
<p>“Things happen with the environment on a very long-term scale,” she said. “You can’t make change happen in a one-year grant cycle or even a three-year grant cycle.”</p>
<p>It’s a philosophy that Steer emphasizes at the Bezos Earth Fund. Even the fund’s vast financial resources cannot alone fund the deep changes needed to combat climate change, he said. Instead, he wants the fund to support organizing around longer-term change.</p>
<p>“We shouldn’t think of it as cost,” Steer said. “It’s an investment in the future.”</p>
<p><em>The Chronicle of Philanthropy gave its permission for The Conversation to run its story.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196613/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
A recent fascinating debate was held on the role of philanthropy in fighting climate change.Beth Daley, Executive Editor and General ManagerLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1907422022-10-02T11:38:20Z2022-10-02T11:38:20ZTo foster real change universities need to stand beside Black professors, not condemn them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486647/original/file-20220926-6718-aldpae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C739%2C2637%2C1734&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Carnegie Mellon University's denouncing of Uju Anya's tweet about the Queen shows that universities need to do much more the support racialized faculty.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The past couple of weeks have seen wall to wall coverage of Queen Elizabeth’s death. Many media outlets took to eulogizing the Queen with effusive praise of her service and duty. But not everyone saw her and the insitution she headed in the same light. </p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/ztsamudzi/status/1568556995808055298">Many</a> took to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/why-black-twitter-fire-after-queen-elizabeth-second-death-1741410">social media</a> to discuss the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/10/britain-colonial-brutalities-queen-elizabeth-death-commentary/">Queen’s role in Britain’s imperial project</a>, which includes profiting from and remaining silent on the violence of British colonialism and slavery. Uju Anya, a Nigerian linguistics researcher at Carnegie Mellon University was only one of the public figures who expressed her lack of pity for the Queen’s passing. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486621/original/file-20220926-23-w3fie6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A screenshot of Jeff Bezos’ retweet of Uju Anya’s tweet." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486621/original/file-20220926-23-w3fie6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486621/original/file-20220926-23-w3fie6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486621/original/file-20220926-23-w3fie6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486621/original/file-20220926-23-w3fie6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486621/original/file-20220926-23-w3fie6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486621/original/file-20220926-23-w3fie6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486621/original/file-20220926-23-w3fie6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Amazon’s Jeff Bezos was among those to respond to Uju Anya’s tweet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Twitter)</span></span>
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<p>In a tweet, she wrote: “I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating.” </p>
<p>In another tweet removed by Twitter, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/carnegie-mellon-refuse-condone-uju-anya-over-queens-death-remarks-1741404">she also wrote</a>: “That wretched woman and her bloodthirsty throne have f***** generations of my ancestors on both sides of the family, and she supervised a government that sponsored the genocide my parents and siblings survived. May she die in agony.”</p>
<p>Twitter eventually deleted her other post, but not before it was met with backlash from many including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Bezos’s public admonition brought global attention — negative and positive — to Anya’s remarks. But in light of the <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-queen-elizabeth-attacked-some-she-lived-better-time">criticism</a> and <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11197879/Vile-trolls-smear-late-queen-woke-hate-GRACE-CURLEY.html">harassment</a> that she began to receive, her employer, Carnegie Mellon University, chose to denounce her comments. </p>
<h2>Legacy of colonialism still resonates</h2>
<p>“My experience of who she was, and the British government she supervised, is a very painful one,” Anya <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2022/09/uju-anya-on-her-tweet-about-queen-elizabeth-ii.html?utm_source=tw&utm_campaign=nym&utm_medium=s1">said in an interview</a>. “The harm shaped my entire life and continues to be my story and that of the people she harmed — that her government harmed, that her kingdom harmed, however you want to frame it.” </p>
<p>“The genocide of the Biafra killed 3 million Igbo people,” she said, referring to the Nigerian Civil War, “and the British government wasn’t just in political support of the people who perpetrated this massacre; they directly funded it. They gave it political cover and legitimacy.”</p>
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<p>As much as the university’s statement went on to laud “free expression,” their condemnation of their professor rings clear. The university’s refusal to defend Anya is emblematic of the lack of protection provided to Black women in academic institutions.</p>
<h2>Supporting BIPOC faculty</h2>
<p>The fact that Carnegie Mellon chose to distance itself from Anya’s comments is not surprising to scholars who have been tracking the increasing neoliberalization of higher education. It’s not a coincidence that Anya’s university chose to placate Jeff Bezos, one of <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/09/13/pwge-s13.html">its corporate donors</a>. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/henry-a-giroux-on-developing-a-language-of-liberation-for-radical-transformation/">scholar and cultural critic Henry Giroux</a>, American universities have long been buckling under the weight of corporate culture. As universities prioritize the needs of corporate sponsors and economic interests, they jeopardize the ability of academic institutions to foster knowledge production and critical thinking. </p>
<p>“The ideals of higher education as a place to think,” <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/henry-a-giroux-on-developing-a-language-of-liberation-for-radical-transformation/">Giroux says</a>, “to promote critical dialogue and teach students to cultivate their ethical relation with others are viewed as a threat to neoliberal modes of governance. At the same time, education is seen by the apostles of market fundamentalism as a space for producing profits and educating a supine and fearful labor force that will exhibit the obedience demanded by the corporate order.” </p>
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<span class="caption">Nikole Hannah-Jones was denied tenure at the University of North Carolina.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Robert Bumsted, File)</span></span>
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<p>On the front lines of the battle to keep education’s connection to democracy are those marginalized professors who continue to use their work to challenge that trend. And unfortunately, many Black professors find themselves at odds with their universities because of their academic work and their desire to speak truth to power. </p>
<p>The University of North Carolina <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/19/business/media/nikole-hannah-jones-unc.html">denied Nikole Hannah-Jones tenure amid conservative backlash to her 1619 Project</a>. Cornel West, famous for his work in African-American studies at Yale and Princeton, left Harvard because the university denied him tenure review. He suggested that Harvard’s decision may have stemmed from his pro-Palestinian stance. “I just want to make sure that each and every one of the universities have a fundamental commitment to intellectual freedom.” </p>
<p>In Canada, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/anti-black-racism-campus-university-1.5924548">Aimé Avolonto</a>, a French studies professor at York University launched a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal because of the systemic anti-Black racism experienced on campus. He received backlash for speaking out. At other universities students <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1CQRi76nho">have protested the racist language</a> of certain white professors who at times receive support from their institutions.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Professor Cornel West on why he left Harvard over tenure dispute.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Inclusion needs action</h2>
<p>During the height of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200612085957122">many universities</a> circulated statements about their commitment to diversity and fostering anti-racist mindsets. Several Canadian post-secondary institutions have <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/post-secondary-scarborough-charter-1.6254377">set out anti-racist principles</a> that show their dedication to supporting Black inclusion. </p>
<p>But those statements mean very little unless universities actively create spaces for their BIPOC faculty, staff and students to speak and act for social change. </p>
<p>Words must be met with action. Universities must work to produce spaces of learning where social justice is lauded, not admonished. Where the needs of students and their democratic futures are put ahead of corporate sponsors. </p>
<p>Universities must look to their faculty not simply as workers but as respected social agents as higher education struggles to reclaim its connection with democracy.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah R. Olutola does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Reaction to criticism of the monarchy shows that universities need to do much more to support racialized faculty and staff.Sarah R. Olutola, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Lakehead UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1905482022-09-14T13:07:08Z2022-09-14T13:07:08ZQueen Elizabeth, colonialism and land: ghosts of the past still haunt Cape Town today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484557/original/file-20220914-1856-xs9ugw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chief Aùtshumao! Francisco MacKenzie (front) protests the Amazon headquarters development in Cape Town. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brenton Geach/Gallo Images via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>British monarch Queen Elizabeth II’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61585886">passing</a> has elicited many <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/10/queen-death-colonies-atrocities-british-empire">polarised</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/08/queen-elizabeth-death-americans-new-york">responses</a>, in the process allowing the ghosts of the past to resurface. </p>
<p>A Nigeria-born US professor, Uju Anya, <a href="https://thenationonlineng.net/five-things-to-know-about-nigerian-born-professor-uju-anya/">tweeted</a> a scathing <a href="https://twitter.com/UjuAnya/status/1567933661114429441">criticism</a> of the British monarchy, recalling her family’s traumatic experience of colonialism in Nigeria. US billionaire businessman <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jeff-Bezos">Jeff Bezos</a> wasted no time in joining others on Twitter <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/09/09/jeff-bezos-defends-queen-elizabeth-amid-uju-anya-criticism/">to pour scorn</a> upon Anya.</p>
<p>Many <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/09/12/thousands-defend-professor-who-wished-queen-an-excruciating-death/">defended Anya</a>, but soon her university <a href="https://dailypost.ng/2022/09/09/queen-elizabeth-us-varsity-distances-self-from-uju-anyas-tweet-says-its-offensive/">distanced itself</a> from her remarks, demonstrating the influence that the founder of the digital retail company Amazon has.</p>
<p>There are a few layers to unpack here here. Amazon finds itself in the middle of <a href="https://www.groundup.org.za/article/court-stops-r45-billion-river-club-development-including-new-amazon-offices/">controversy</a> in Cape Town, South Africa. The company’s South African headquarters is being constructed on the Liesbeek River, a site of historical and <a href="https://www.pregsgovender.com/post/amazon-s-liesbeek-development-preserving-the-place-of-the-stars-from-corporate-plunder">sacred significance</a> to indigenous people of southern Africa. Here precolonial hunter-gatherers were subsisting off the environmental commons, likely making <a href="https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/15987">little negative impact</a> on the natural environment. The Liesbeek River is also a <a href="https://obs.org.za/the-two-rivers-urban-park-is-of-national-heritage-significance/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-two-rivers-urban-park-is-of-national-heritage-significance">site of resistance</a> against colonial dispossession. </p>
<p>From a heritage perspective, much is at stake here for marginalised people. The case – by a local civic organisation along with various indigenous <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/khoisan">Khoi</a> leaders opposing Amazon’s development – remains tied up in court. Construction is reportedly continuing at the site despite them winning a court <a href="https://www.groundup.org.za/article/river-club-construction-continues-amidst-court-delays/">interdict</a> against it.</p>
<p>For a scholar like me who has written about copyright, piracy and the ownership of ideas, it is interesting that one of the blueprints for what we now know as colonisation was <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/stealing-empire">commons enclosure</a>. In essence, commons enclosure is one of the first steps towards what we now call the privatisation of public resources. </p>
<p>This was the policy the British empire, along with other Western colonisers, brought to Africa, where common land and resources – like the Liesbeek River site today – were enclosed and claimed to serve elite interests. A history of commons enclosure shows how this happened and why the passing of Elizabeth II evokes such painful histories in Africa.</p>
<h2>The first enclosure movement</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol66/iss1/2/">enclosure of common fields</a> in England between the 1500s and 1700s pushed commoners who lived off the commons – communal land or commonly shared natural resources for purposes like subsistence farming – into a wage labour system by cutting off one of their means of subsistence. </p>
<p>Scottish legal scholar James Boyle <a href="https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1273&context=lcp">talks</a> about this as the first enclosure movement. People were pushed off the commons in order to benefit the elites, the landed gentry. As the country shifted from <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/feudalism">feudalism</a> to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/capitalism">capitalism</a>, commons enclosure helped create a large working class. </p>
<p>The first enclosure movement became a blueprint for what we now know as colonialism, which generated vast amounts of wealth for the likes of the British royals. Africans were characterised as uneducated, unsophisticated children. <a href="https://library.harvard.edu/confronting-anti-black-racism/scientific-racism">Scientific racism</a> was used to argue that Africans were not fully evolved, allowing colonisers to justify dispossessing Africans of their commons. </p>
<p>Africa, seen collectively as a commons, came to be enclosed by colonisers who imposed an individualist <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/media-and-citizenship">model of ownership</a> and wealth accumulation at the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/40603?login=false">expense</a> of indigenous people who were living off the environmental commons – like the Liesbeek River.</p>
<p>In this way the west denied black people of their rights. Contract law, property law and intellectual property law were certainly not designed for enslaved and dispossessed Africans.</p>
<p>Commons enclosure also kickstarted the shift to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/industrialization">industrialisation</a> – a move from farming to manufacturing that some scholars call <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/neva-again">colonial modernity</a>. Industrialisation produced numerous social ills that have led to the environmental crisis that the planet now faces. Commons enclosure not only continues to dispossess indigenous people, but it has set off a climate catastrophe.</p>
<h2>The environmental commons</h2>
<p>In the late 1960s an article by conservative US ecologist <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/garrett-hardin">Garrett Hardin</a>, <a href="https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/TragedyoftheCommons.html">Tragedy of the Commons</a>, was used to justify commons enclosure. Hardin implied that commoners were not educated enough to be trusted with managing the environmental commons responsibly. </p>
<p>The only solution would be to abandon “the nightmare of the commons”, which he equated with a system of management devoid of clear rules or sensitivity towards finite <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/stealing-empire">natural resources</a>. The stakeholders entrusted with managing the commons were effectively elites, the landed gentry. </p>
<p>This helped to justify the annexation of large tracts of land and resources for big commercial projects. The commons came to be gentrified. <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-is-gentrification-how-works">Gentrification</a> happens when wealthier newcomers take over a working-class area, displacing those who once lived there. This often takes the form of “revitalising” neighbourhoods, effectively pushing up property values and municipal rates and taxes. Working class owners and tenants are driven out of these neighbourhoods.</p>
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<p>It is ironic that Amazon takes its name from the South American rainforest that plays a crucial role in replenishing Earth’s oxygen supply. For many generations, indigenous people in the Amazon lived off the environmental commons in relative harmony within and off an ecosystem that sustains the entire planet. Today the Amazon rainforests are at the mercy of environmental degradation due to industrialisation.</p>
<h2>The second enclosure movement is digital</h2>
<p>Commons enclosure continues in new ways today. Boyle <a href="https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol66/iss1/2/">described</a> the first enclosure movement in order to compare it to what he called the second enclosure movement. This is the enclosure of the digital commons. </p>
<p>The earlier versions of what eventually became the internet were actually produced by the logic of the commons, by gift culture. A broad pool of hackers contributed to its development and many of the protocols upon which the world wide web was built were actually <a href="https://www.oreilly.com/openbook/opensources/book/perens.html">open</a>, and not necessarily proprietary. But the digital commons has become enclosed by proprietary software development at the hands of global media and technology monopolies. There are red flags about these monopolies’ accountability for violating <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8436400">user data privacy</a>.</p>
<p>Amazon is one of the monopolies that drives the digital enclosure movement. There are also lingering questions about the company’s <a href="https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2021/07/09/the-prime-effect-amazons-environmental-impact">impact on the environment</a> and its approach to employees who attempt to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/21/how-chris-smalls-formed-amazons-first-us-union-and-whats-next.html">unionise</a>.</p>
<p>History clearly comes into play with a site like the Liesbeek River in Cape Town where Amazon is trying to build its headquarters. The site is a key part of the story of the first enclosure movement. Since the fall of legislated apartheid, it is suburbs near the river like Observatory, Salt River, Woodstock, District Six and BoKaap that have became gentrified.</p>
<p>For many people who subsist in South Africa’s informal economy, homelessness, “sleeping rough” and informal settlements are the only options. Both national and provincial governments’ economic policies enable ongoing racialised class inequality. If the colonial occupation of Cape Town and the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a> state’s <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/group-areas-act-1950">Group Areas Act</a> did not succeed in pushing black working-class people out of the city, then gentrification surely will succeed. If it goes ahead, the Amazon development is assisting in this regard.</p>
<p>Bezos’s response to Anya’s critique of the British monarchy reminds us how the intersections of power allow the logic of the first and second enclosure movements to reinforce each other.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190548/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Haupt receives funding from the NRF and UCT's URC. </span></em></p>The British empire brought the practice of commons enclosure to Africa to claim land. Its effects continue today at sites like the Liesbeek River in Cape Town.Adam Haupt, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1822032022-05-03T17:53:33Z2022-05-03T17:53:33ZElon Musk’s bid to take over Twitter recalls the robber barons of the 19th century<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460811/original/file-20220502-24-idepgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3711%2C2466&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Elon Musk has over 80 million Twitter followers, so why does he need to own the platform?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/elon-musk-s-bid-to-take-over-twitter-recalls-the-robber-barons-of-the-19th-century" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/27/the-guardian-view-on-twitter-when-free-speech-costs-a-bomb">Pundits</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-elon-musk-succeeds-in-his-twitter-takeover-it-would-restrict-rather-than-promote-free-speech-181576">academics</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/unfiltered-vision/twitter-elon-musk-and-the-hysteria-grift-9ab0b10a08">members of the public</a> have criticized Elon Musk’s successful bid to acquire Twitter. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/elon-musk-twitter-boycott-deleting-bid-owned-platform-rcna26239">Some Twitter users have even considered leaving the platform</a>. </p>
<p>For these critics and concerned users, Musk’s bid for the social media is a risk to the freedom of expression one of the most important communication venues in the information economy.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ODTt9QrvWDs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">CBC’s <em>The National</em> asks whether or not Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter will affect free speech.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the trend to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/04/28/im-back-trump-pens-first-truth-social-post-in-2-months-after-vowing-to-stay-off-twitter/">bypass the media has been growing in recent decades</a> thanks to access to information and communication technologies (ICTs), Musk’s proposed takeover does not seem to make sense. </p>
<p>What could be the real motivation behind his takeover of Twitter?</p>
<h2>Media barons</h2>
<p>Musk’s plan to acquire Twitter has <a href="https://headstuff.org/culture/history/terrible-people-from-history/william-randolph-hearst-original-media-mogul/">several historical precedents where the rich and the powerful attempted to control their own media</a> to reach the public without other intermediaries. </p>
<p>In 2006, Twitter was created at <a href="https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/106071">Odeo Projects as a side project offering a short-messaging system (SMS) to taxi drivers</a>. The project took off, and soon Twitter was spun off into its own entity. </p>
<p>In 2013, Twitter became <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/16/twitter-nyse-new-york-stock-exchange-nasdaq-ipo">a public company traded at the New York Stock Exchange</a>. </p>
<p>In April 2022, Musk reached a deal to acquire the platform after facing <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2022/04/19/to-capture-twitter-elon-musk-showcases-new-type-of-takeover-warfare/">initial constraints and a rebuff by the company’s board</a>.</p>
<p>Capital investment in the media is not new. For example, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-New-York-Times">journalist Henry Jarvis Raymond and banker George Jones founded the <em>New York Times</em></a>. Today, industrialists and entrepreneurs own most media venues, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/business-23582797">such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’s purchase of the <em>Washington Post</em> in 2013</a>. </p>
<p>Much like Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, Musk’s Twitter becomes a natively grown media organization; that means unlike traditional media, both platforms enable sharing between users, instead of pushing content at audiences.</p>
<h2>Robber barons</h2>
<p>The term “<a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/robber-barons-1773964">robber baron</a>” was used to describe 19th-century American industrialists and financiers in an unflattering manner. They are portrayed as greedy businessmen who seize control over industries and privatized utilities through unethical business practices. </p>
<p>The history of robber barons is filled with the epic and sensational depictions of business leaders such as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20090946">Charles Tyson Yerkes</a>, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould and John D. Rockefeller by the media. Often, robber barons become the topic of discussion and gossip — critics denounce them in the media.</p>
<p>Early critics often drew comparisons between robber barons and medieval feudal lords who unfairly maintained control over basic necessities and resources in their societies.</p>
<p>Much of the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/09/media/billionaire-beat-reliable-sources/index.html">criticism against Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg</a> — and other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs like Google founders Sergei Brin and Larry Page — is eerily reminiscent of the criticisms levelled against 19th-century robber barons. </p>
<p>The platforms exploited by Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Brin and Page have become necessary public utilities in the information economy, and <a href="https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/89824">these media barons exploit people’s data for their own personal gain</a>.</p>
<p>Some can perceive their wealth and influence over the media as dangerous for democracy. While democratic concerns are legitimate, another perspective may help us understand <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/25/tech/elon-musk-twitter-sale-agreement/index.html">Musk’s US$44 billion purchase of Twitter</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460800/original/file-20220502-22-lj0on0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A 19th-century illustration showing people kneeling and placing bags of money at the feet of fat men with whiskers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460800/original/file-20220502-22-lj0on0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460800/original/file-20220502-22-lj0on0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460800/original/file-20220502-22-lj0on0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460800/original/file-20220502-22-lj0on0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460800/original/file-20220502-22-lj0on0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460800/original/file-20220502-22-lj0on0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460800/original/file-20220502-22-lj0on0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Robber barons are men who made their fortunes through unethical business practices that placed them in control of industries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Samuel Ehrhardt, Puck Magazine, Nov. 6, 1889)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Creative destruction</h2>
<p>Legal scholar Tim Wu writes that the expansion and contraction of information platforms leads to <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/194417/the-master-switch-by-tim-wu/">disruptive innovation when several platforms compete with one another, and consolidation when emerging dominant players attempt to assert their hold over information</a>.</p>
<p>Much like <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/ca/academic/subjects/history/regional-and-world-history-general-interest/making-strategy-rulers-states-and-war">Italy before the First World War</a>, Twitter is not powerful enough to challenge the powers of its day — Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. But it is too big to be ignored or swallowed by them.</p>
<p>Musk’s acquisition of Twitter adds the platform to his eclectic collection of disruptive industries: <a href="https://www.tesla.com/">Tesla Motors</a>, <a href="https://neuralink.com/">Neuralink</a>, <a href="https://www.tesla.com/solarpanels">SolarCity</a> and <a href="https://www.spacex.com/">SpaceX</a>. However, unlike Musk’s previous projects, which he bought either early in their development or founded, Twitter is not a disruptive technology, while the contents of its users can be. Musk may claim that he wants to disrupt news and allow for greater freedom of expression, but he did not need to purchase Twitter for that.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/elon-musk-and-the-oligarchs-of-the-second-gilded-age-can-not-only-sway-the-public-they-can-exploit-their-data-too-181936">Elon Musk and the oligarchs of the 'Second Gilded Age' can not only sway the public -- they can exploit their data, too</a>
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<p>Musk needs direct access to <a href="https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/communicationspub/9/">users’ attention</a> to use Twitter as the cement that can propel all of his other ventures further. Fears that <a href="https://time.com/6171272/elon-musk-twitter-disinformation/">Musk will make the social media platform friendly to far-right conservatives</a> are exaggerated.</p>
<p>Musk needs to attract users who are innovators and early adopters to convince the masses that his ventures are worthwhile. However, far-right conservatives do not tend to be innovators or early adopters of new technologies. Rather, they tend to be part of the late majority and laggards.</p>
<h2>Metaverses and cryptocurencies</h2>
<p>The people who fear Musk’s hold over Twitter today are often part of the most desirable demographic promoters of new technologies seek. To understand Musk’s purchase of Twitter, one must think as he does — strategically and tactically. </p>
<p>Musk needs Twitter to propel the next phases of his <a href="https://www.deseret.com/2022/4/28/23046571/elon-musk-crypto-fan-twitter-bitcoin-dogecoin-tesla">business ventures that include cryptocurrencies</a>. He may also be preparing to start a metaverse of his own and take on <a href="https://about.facebook.com/meta/">Facebook’s version</a> by joining Twitter to the brain interfaces developed by Neuralink.</p>
<p>Twitter already has a rich diversity of users from various demographics, including <a href="https://whatfix.com/blog/technology-adoption-curve/">the innovators and early adopters that make or break new information platforms</a>. They have a stake in maintaining their presence on Twitter because of years of publishing and creating their identities on the platform. The <a href="https://futureswewant.net/barry-wellman-network-revolutions/">network connections and access provided through Twitter is a benefit to many users</a>.</p>
<p>If Twitter is key to the next phases of Musk’s business ventures, one of the most important tasks he has is to convince doubtful users that he is more of a benevolent ruler than a despicable robber baron. He must convince them that it is business as usual while he continues to grow the platform’s user base.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182203/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hervé Saint-Louis receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada).</span></em></p>Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter may be an indicator of the billionaire’s plans to further disrupt industries.Hervé Saint-Louis, Professeur adjoint en médias emergents, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1819362022-04-27T12:34:46Z2022-04-27T12:34:46ZElon Musk and the oligarchs of the ‘Second Gilded Age’ can not only sway the public – they can exploit their data, too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459868/original/file-20220426-18-aesf0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C231%2C5313%2C3337&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new Gilded Age of media barons?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/People-ElonMuskGrimes/277e1005c6aa4aafa63b2bdb963f3dca/photo?Query=elon%20musk&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1179&currentItemNo=66">Charles Sykes/Invision/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, and the early decades of the 20th century, U.S. captains of industry such as <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520347878/the-anatomy-of-fake-news">William Randolph Hearst and Jay Gould</a> used their massive wealth to dominate facets of the economy, including the news media. They were, in many ways, prototype oligarchs – by <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=oligarch">the dictionary definition</a>, “very rich business leaders with a great deal of political influence.”</p>
<p>Some have argued that the U.S. is in the midst of a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/B014AEA559FC026265748E10E9DE78E9/S1537781419000616a.pdf/div-class-title-a-second-gilded-age-the-promises-and-perils-of-an-analogy-introduction-div.pdf">Second Gilded Age</a> defined – like the first – by vast <a href="https://www.history.com/news/second-gilded-age-income-inequality">wealth inequality</a>, <a href="https://www.history.com/news/second-gilded-age-income-inequality">hyper-partisanship, xenophobia</a> and a <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/video/15-richest-media-owners-world-105350162.html">new crop of oligarchs</a> using their vast wealth to purchase media and political influence. </p>
<p>Which brings us to the announcement on April 25, 2022, that Tesla billionaire <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/25/twitter-accepts-elon-musks-buyout-deal.html">Elon Musk</a> is, barring any last-minute hitches, purchasing the social media platform Twitter. It will put <a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#37e8d8b63d78">the wealthiest man on the planet</a> in control of one of the most influential means of communications in world today.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.csueastbay.edu/directory/profiles/hist/higdonnolan.html">media scholar</a>, I suspect Musk’s desire in buying Twitter goes beyond a desire to control and shape public discourse. Today’s equivalent of the Gilded Age oligarchs – the handful of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-slippery-slope-of-the-oligarchy-media-model-81931">super-rich Americans gobbling up</a> increasing chunks of the media landscape – will have that, but they will also have access to a trove of personal data of users and news consumers.</p>
<h2>All the newspapers fit to buy</h2>
<p>Over the past decade, numerous American billionaires have purchased news media outlets such as the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2013/08/03/billionaire-red-sox-owner-john-henry-buys-boston-globe-for-70-million-from-new-york-times/?sh=56c451214daa">Boston Globe</a>, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/why-did-sheldon-adelson-buy-nevadas-largest-newspaper/421035/">Las Vegas Review-Journal</a>, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahkirsch/2020/05/21/journalists-are-angry-about-layoffs-at-the-atlantic-owned-by-billionaire-laurene-powell-jobs/?sh=691707c04b4b">The Atlantic</a> and the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-patrick-soon-shiong-latimes-sold-20180616-story.html">Los Angeles Times</a>. Perhaps the most famous example is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#5c003c4d3d78">Jeff Bezos</a>, the founder and executive chairman of Amazon, who <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2013/08/05/news/companies/washington-post-bezos/index.html">spent US$250 million</a> of his roughly $170 billion net worth to purchase <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-washington-post-changed-after-jeff-bezos-acquisition-2016-5">The Washington Post</a> in 2013. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=c024481">Media</a> <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/78912/manufacturing-consent-by-edward-s-herman-and-noam-chomsky/">scholars</a> have aired concern for decades that unfettered wealth and tepid government regulation have <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2004/08/the-media-monotony.html">enabled a handful</a> of corporations to dominate news media coverage in the U.S. Indeed, the companies that produce the majority of news media in the U.S. has dwindled from 50 in the <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/206221/the-new-media-monopoly-by-ben-h-bagdikian/">1980s</a> to roughly <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/stock-market/market-sectors/communication/media-stocks/big-6/#:%7E:text=Some%20estimates%20claim%20as%20much">six</a> today.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-slippery-slope-of-the-oligarchy-media-model-81931">consolidation of the media industry in the hands of wealthy individuals</a> is, as media scholar <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=c024481">Robert McChesney</a> has argued, especially <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Lets-Agree-to-Disagree-A-Critical-Thinking-Guide-to-Communication-Conflict/Higdon-Huff/p/book/9781032168982">concerning for a healthy democracy</a>, which necessitates that the electorate has access to an abundance of diverse views and free-flowing information. </p>
<p>The public relies on journalists to relay stories that they can interpret to determine how they vote; if they will vote; and if they should organize and engage in civil disobedience. The negative consequences of this concentration of ownership are that it can enabled a handful of corporate news outlets to normalize baseless or false reporting that turns out to be misleading, such as the reporting on <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520347878/the-anatomy-of-fake-news">weapons of mass destruction</a> prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.</p>
<p>Just like the U.S. oligarchs of the 19th century and early 20th century, today’s billionaires recognize that by controlling the free flow of information they can control or shape the electorate’s democratic participation. For example, soon after casino mogul Sheldon Adelson purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal <a href="https://www.politico.com/media/story/2016/02/sheldon-adelson-tightens-grip-on-review-journal-004384/">reports surfaced</a> that stories about the billionaire were being censored or altered so he could manage the public’s image of his businesses in the gambling-centric city.</p>
<p>Similarly, some critics have suggested that after Bezos purchased The Washington Post, the newspaper’s coverage became noticeably <a href="https://www.cjr.org/the_new_gatekeepers/washington-post-bezos-amazon.php">soft in its coverage of Amazon</a>, and <a href="https://fair.org/home/washington-post-ran-16-negative-stories-on-bernie-sanders-in-16-hours/">tough</a> on Bezos’ political opponents. The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/08/has-the-washington-post-been-too-hard-on-bernie-sanders-this-week/">denies</a> <a href="https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2016/washington-post-denies-jeff-bezos-sways-coverage/">both</a> of these claims. </p>
<h2>The user as a product</h2>
<p>With an estimated fortune of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#5c003c4d3d78">$268 billion</a> as of April 2022, Musk is just the latest and wealthiest to purchase a media platform. In opting to buy into social media rather than a traditional news outlet, the Tesla CEO is getting control of an important news delivery system. A <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2021/11/15/news-on-twitter-consumed-by-most-users-and-trusted-by-many/">2021 Pew survey</a> found that 23% of Americans use Twitter – and 7 in 10 Twitter users said they received news from the platform. </p>
<p>But the potential threats posed by an individual billionaire controlling Twitter are much more complicated and dangerous than that of earlier wealthy media proprietors, who primarily could only sway the news. </p>
<p>Even before Musk vied to buy Twitter, Silicon Valley was already controlled by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrickcai/2021/10/05/richest-us-tech-billionaires-2021-forbes-400-list/?sh=2af196966de9">billionaires</a> who operated a handful of companies known as the FAANGs – Facebook (now Meta), Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google (now Alphabet). These companies’ profits are derived from a new economic order that Harvard Professor Shoshana Zuboff has dubbed “<a href="https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/shoshana-zuboff/the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism/9781610395694/">surveillance capitalism</a>.” Under surveillance capitalism, the user is the product – that is to say, companies collect and sell information about users to those interested in predicting, or in some cases nudging, <a href="https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/shoshana-zuboff/the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism/9781610395694/">human behavior</a>. </p>
<p>In this new economic order, tech companies constantly surveil users on and off their platforms for the purpose of collecting and analyzing data – which include audio, video, typed words, GPS or <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479892822/the-rise-of-big-data-policing/">even</a> <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Future-of-Digital-Data-Heritage-and-Curation-in-a-More-than-Human/Cameron/p/book/9780367690588">DNA</a> – to open a window into a user’s thoughts and cognitive processes. </p>
<p>In order to keep the data pouring in, big tech companies rely on techniques from the <a href="https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/shoshana-zuboff/the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism/9781610395694/">gambling industry</a> to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/04/capitalisms-addiction-problem/606769/">keep people addicted</a> to their screen. Essentially, they keep users chasing the initial dopamine rush that comes from a “like” or “friend request” on Facebook, on a “retweet” or “new follower” on Twitter. Similar to the gambling industry, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-facebook-files-11631713039">reports</a> have found that these <a href="https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/shoshana-zuboff/the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism/9781610395694/">techniques</a> are used with little regard for users’ <a href="http://www.jeantwenge.com/igen-book-by-dr-jean-twenge/">mental health</a>.</p>
<p>In 2022, for example, a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-facebook-files-11631713039">Facebook whistleblower</a> revealed that the company was aware that its platform design was harming users, particularly young people, but refused to make any changes out of fear it would weaken profitability.</p>
<h2>A free speech enthusiast?</h2>
<p>In this context, Musk is not simply a modern version of a 19th century oligarch. His power goes beyond shaping public discourse with narrowly framed stories and the removal of select content. Yes, he may be able to do this. But in addition, he will have a vast amount of personal data under his discretion. For example, when using <a href="https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/twitter-for-websites/privacy#:%7E:text=When%20you%20view%20Twitter%20content,operating%20system%2C%20and%20cookie%20information">Twitter content or products</a>, including those integrated into other websites, Twitter collects data and stores what web pages the user accessed, as well as their IP address, browser type, operating system and cookie information.</p>
<p>Musk has said his purchase of Twitter is motivated by his support of <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/25/elon-musk-and-free-speech-track-record-not-encouraging.html">free speech</a>. But this runs counter to his <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-elon-musk-ruthlessly-fired-anyone-who-disagreed-spacex-report-2021-8">reputation for actively seeking revenge</a> against those who criticize his businesses. Furthermore, under his <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/25/elon-musk-and-free-speech-track-record-not-encouraging.html">leadership</a> Tesla has maintained contracts that prevented former employees from criticizing the company. </p>
<p>Moreover, as it has been argued by computer scientist and philosophy writer <a href="http://www.jaronlanier.com/tenarguments.html">Jaron Lanier</a> and free-expression activist and author <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/4034-silicon-values">Jillian York</a>, social media platforms such as Twitter are not conducive to “true” free speech, which is loosely defined as <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/free-speech">the right</a> to express one’s opinions without interference. </p>
<p>Moreover, by making decisions about what content users do and do not see, social media companies, it could be argued, are interfering with speech. Indeed, social media platofrms’ algorithms <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/309214/the-filter-bubble-by-eli-pariser/">customize</a> news feeds with content that they believe the user will find the most engaging, to the exclusion to other content.</p>
<p>The era of surveillance capitalism has created new opportunities for billionaires to influence the electorate. Like his predecessors in the first Gilded Age, Musk can determine which reporting users see and do not see on his platform. Unlike his predecessors, he can also track and surveil users – collecting lucrative data that can be used to predict or nudge their behavior.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181936/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nolan Higdon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Media ownership has consolidated around a handful of billionaires – and that might not be great for democracy.Nolan Higdon, Lecturer of History and Media Studies, California State University, East BayLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1757782022-02-08T17:14:23Z2022-02-08T17:14:23ZThe 50 biggest US donors gave or pledged nearly $28 billion in 2021 – Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates account for $15 billion of that total<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444888/original/file-20220207-15-1lrn0ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=432%2C288%2C5227%2C3284&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, gave their foundation $15 billion right before their divorce became final. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bill-gates-and-his-wife-melinda-gates-introduce-the-news-photo/1040713592">Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty ImagesLudovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The 50 Americans who gave or pledged the most to charity in 2021 committed to giving a total of US$27.7 billion to hospitals, universities, museums and more – up 12% from 2020 levels, according to the <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/package/philanthropy-50-2021s-top-donors">Chronicle of Philanthropy</a>’s latest annual tally of these donations.</em></p>
<p><em>More than half of this money came from just two particularly big donors: <a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-business-endowments-bill-gates-melinda-french-gates-cb45fe0a97b8f41c51f44f3226c47218">Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates</a>. Shortly before their <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/02/tech/bill-melinda-gates-divorce-finalized/index.html">divorce became final, in August 2021</a>, they announced plans to add <a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-business-endowments-bill-gates-melinda-french-gates-cb45fe0a97b8f41c51f44f3226c47218">$15 billion to their foundation’s coffers</a>.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VYsdAEIAAAAJ&hl=en">David Campbell</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=tu70lmIAAAAJ">Elizabeth Dale</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=uqv9NgwAAAAJ">Jasmine McGinnis Johnson</a>, three scholars of philanthropy, assess what these gifts mean, the possible motivations behind them and what they hope to see in the future in terms of charitable giving in the United States.</em></p>
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<h2>What trends stand out overall?</h2>
<p><strong>Elizabeth Dale</strong>: First, let’s acknowledge who is missing: <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/mackenzie-scott-93924">MacKenzie Scott</a>. The novelist and billionaire publicly shared that she had <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/?p=ea6de642bf">given over $2.7 billion in the first half of 2021</a>. She then changed course, <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/no-dollar-signs-this-time-ec7ab2a87261">choosing not to disclose</a> how much money she gave away in the second half of the year, or the organizations she supported, as an effort to deflect media attention. The Chronicle said it left her out because neither she nor her consultants provided the details it requested.</p>
<p>Had the publication included her, even if only the gifts she made in half the year, she would have occupied the No. 2 spot again. Scott was only behind her ex-husband, Jeff Bezos, on the Chronicle’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-25-billion-the-biggest-us-donors-gave-in-2020-says-about-high-dollar-charity-today-154466">2020 list</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/package/bezoses-and-bloomberg-top-chronicle-list-of-the-50-donors-who-gave-the-most-to-charity">In 2018</a>, prior to their divorce, Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates topped the list together, but they didn’t make the <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/the-philanthropy-50/#id=browse_2019">2019 list at all</a>. </p>
<p>Tracking where giving goes, even for the largest donations, is an imperfect science. Scholars, journalists and other experts must rely on publicly available information and details the donors themselves provide to compile this data, and the full details aren’t always available. For example, even in this list, we don’t know everything about these gifts, how much was already given and the ways organizations will put this money to use. </p>
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<p><strong>Jasmine McGinnis Johnson</strong>: Following the police killings of <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/racial-equity-donations-soared-then-fell-in-the-months-after-george-floyds-murder-by-a-police-officer-11619037824">George Floyd and Breonna Taylor</a>, many foundations and philanthropists were thinking more critically about what was the appropriate way to fund racial equity and social justice nonprofits. </p>
<p>In 2020, those gifts totaled <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-25-billion-the-biggest-us-donors-gave-in-2020-says-about-high-dollar-charity-today-154466">$66 billion</a>, making them the 14th-highest priority of the nation’s top 50 donors. In 2021, donations aimed at reducing racism and supporting Black-led organizations didn’t make it to a list of these donors’ highest 20 funding priorities. </p>
<p>With <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/">police brutality</a> continuing unabated and the growth of <a href="https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/money/mutual-aid-crowd-funding-explainer">mutual aid organizations</a> focused on race and social justice, I find this ebbing of interest surprising.</p>
<p>However, I also see some reasons to be hopeful in other research completed in 2021.</p>
<p>Many Americans, <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-hispanic-and-asian-american-donors-give-more-to-social-and-racial-justice-causes-as-well-as-strangers-in-need-new-survey-166720">especially people of color</a>, are <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/diverse-donors-led-the-shift-to-social-and-racial-justice-giving-in-2020-new-report-says">donating to racial justice causes</a>. In 2020, for example, 16% of all households gave to these causes, up from 13% in 2019.</p>
<p><strong>David Campbell</strong>: The biggest donors responded to challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, sharply increasing their giving to social service organizations, including food banks and housing groups. In 2021, that giving receded so much that food banks and housing didn’t make it into a list of the top 20 causes for the biggest donors. One explanation for this may be that when seismic events influence giving, those effects diminish over time.</p>
<p>In keeping with past years, these wealthy donors <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2Fs12115-021-00580-0">emphasized higher education and health-related</a> giving, through donations to colleges, universities, hospitals and medical research.</p>
<h2>What should the public know about 2021’s top two donors?</h2>
<p><strong>Dale</strong>: With an endowment valued at over $50 billion, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has, by far, <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/how-the-10-biggest-foundations-changed-in-a-year-of-covid-and-whats-next">more assets than any other U.S. institution of its kind</a>. </p>
<p>The foundation, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gates-Foundation">established in 2000</a>, is <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/why-we-need-to-keep-an-eye-on-the-gates-foundations-board-expansion">getting more scrutiny</a> than it used to, especially with respect to its bureaucratic and data-driven approach. It also has <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/articles/2022-gates-foundation-annual-letter-trustees">four new board members</a> who joined after billionaire investor <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210623005262/en/">Warren Buffett stepped down</a> in 2021.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/melinda-french-gates-no-longer-pledges-bulk-of-her-wealth-to-gates-foundation-11643808602">Melinda French Gates’ future role</a> in the foundation <a href="https://www.devex.com/news/gates-foundation-ceo-insists-that-french-gates-remains-engaged-102563">is uncertain</a>. She <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/media-center/press-releases/2021/07/bill-melinda-gates-foundation-mark-suzman-plans-evolve-governance">could step down as a trustee</a> in 2023 if she and Bill Gates determine they can no longer work together.</p>
<p><strong>Campbell</strong>: Since its founding, the <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/">Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation</a> has distributed <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/foundation-fact-sheet">over $60 billion</a> to causes tied to eradicating <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/">diseases and reducing poverty and inequity around the world</a>. </p>
<p>In 2021, it announced plans to spend $2.1 billion within five years on women’s economic empowerment and leadership, and boosting <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/media-center/press-releases/2021/06/gates-foundation-commits-2-1-billion-to-advance-gender-equality-globally">women and girls’ health and family planning</a>.</p>
<p>The foundation has <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-big-bets-on-educational-reform-havent-fixed-the-us-school-system-92327">delved heavily into K-12 education</a> in the U.S. – with mixed results, as the <a href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/2018-Annual-Letter">Gateses themselves acknowledged in 2018</a>. The foundation <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/26/business/gates-foundation-new-trustees.html">disbursed $6.7 billion in 2021</a>, the highest amount to date for a single year.</p>
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<h2>What concerns do you have?</h2>
<p><strong>Campbell</strong>: The top 50 donors in 2021 include only 14 of the many billionaires who have signed the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-window-into-the-hearts-and-minds-of-billionaire-donors-139161">Giving Pledge</a>, a commitment by some of the world’s richest people to “<a href="https://givingpledge.org/">dedicate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes</a>.” To date, more than 230 individuals and couples have taken this step. </p>
<p>Similarly, only 21 of the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/">Forbes 400</a> list of wealthiest Americans made the Philanthropy 50. I would like to know why more of the richest Americans, including some who have committed to giving away their fortunes, weren’t among 2021’s top 50 donors. For the billionaires who have signed the Giving Pledge, it’s worth asking why they are waiting. What benefit do they see in giving later rather than sooner?</p>
<p><strong>Dale</strong>: The $2.65 billion in giving by these wealthy Americans to <a href="https://www.nptrust.org/what-is-a-donor-advised-fund/">donor-advised funds</a> is double 2020 levels and almost 10 times higher than in 2019. Both donor-advised funds – financial accounts that people use to give money to the charities of their choice when they are ready to do so – and <a href="https://learning.candid.org/resources/blog/nonprofit-foundation-ngo-what-do-they-mean/">foundations</a> are intermediaries for giving that offer <a href="https://ips-dc.org/more-evidence-of-warehousing-of-wealth-in-donor-advised-funds/">little transparency and can warehouse funds</a> designated for nonprofits’ use.</p>
<p>Most wealthy donors <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-elon-musk-can-save-big-on-taxes-by-giving-away-a-ton-of-his-tesla-stock-172036">receive tax deductions</a> and other benefits, such as public recognition, when they initially make big gifts. But it can often take years for their money to reach charities.</p>
<p>It’s hard, however, to separately track money being given directly to charities from funds that are reserved for a future charitable use.</p>
<p>As more and more donors, including some of the richest Americans, give to charity through donor-advised funds instead of traditional foundations, <a href="https://www.thenonprofittimes.com/regulation/donor-advised-funds-added-to-new-federal-legislation/">calls for regulating them more tightly</a> are growing louder. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<h2>What do you expect to see in 2022 and beyond?</h2>
<p><strong>Dale</strong>: Scott has certainly caused some <a href="https://apnews.com/article/death-of-george-floyd-health-education-coronavirus-pandemic-race-and-ethnicity-42ca645d713108d5c852ee3d024b6361">philanthropy shock waves</a> in the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/28/tech/mackenzie-scott-bezos-donation/index.html">past two years</a>, and it’s still too early to know what effect she is having.</p>
<p>I hope that these donors and the wealthy people not on this list start responding to broader public concerns. The effects of the <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/long-covid-labor-market-missing-workers/">COVID-19 pandemic</a>, issues around <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-first-battle-in-the-culture-wars-the-quality-of-diversity-164016">race, ethnicity</a> and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/01/14/some-gender-disparities-widened-in-the-u-s-workforce-during-the-pandemic/">gender</a> and <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/110215/brief-history-income-inequality-united-states.asp">inequality</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-flood-maps-show-us-damage-rising-26-in-next-30-years-due-to-climate-change-alone-and-the-inequity-is-stark-175958">climate change</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sore-loser-effect-rejecting-election-results-can-destabilize-democracy-and-drive-terrorism-171571">protecting our democracy</a> are not going away. </p>
<p><strong>Johnson</strong>: The fact that social and racial justice were not among the top priorities of the biggest donors in 2021 makes me wonder to what extent the concerns about systemic inequality, driven by events in 2020, will remain a priority for big donors in the future.</p>
<p>Conversations among wealthy givers and major foundations about race, income inequality and the vulnerability the COVID-19 pandemic exposed <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/cf7e59ab-0a50-47a2-9086-d5efa021bc64">have certainly persisted</a>. And Scott is still supporting justice-oriented causes, as a gift announced by its recipient in February 2022 makes clear. Scott gave $133.5 million to Communities in Schools, a nonprofit that meets the <a href="https://www.the74million.org/get-to-know-communities-in-schools-inside-mackenzie-scotts-133-million-donation-to-americas-top-organization-focused-on-preventing-student-dropouts/">academic, economic and other needs of K-12 students</a>. </p>
<p>It remains to be seen to what extent America’s other big donors will follow her lead.</p>
<p><em>The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has provided funding for The Conversation U.S. and provides funding for The Conversation internationally.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175778/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Campbell is vice chair of the Conrad and Virginia Klee Foundation, in Binghamton, New York, which has provided support for the student philanthropy course he teaches. He is also a member of the board for the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth J. Dale has received funding from the Ford Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation via Indiana University and The Giving USA Foundation for her research on philanthropy. The views expressed in this essay are strictly her own and do not reflect policy stances of Seattle University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmine McGinnis Johnson is a visiting fellow with the Urban Institute, Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy. Also, Jasmine is a board member of the Association of Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action.</span></em></p>Three scholars weigh in regarding the priorities of these wealthy American donors, who gave less to social service and racial justice groups than in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.David Campbell, Associate Professor of Public Administration, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkElizabeth J. Dale, Associate Professor of Nonprofit Leadership, Seattle UniversityJasmine McGinnis Johnson, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Public Administration, George Washington UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1754902022-01-28T13:30:20Z2022-01-28T13:30:20ZA lunar return, a Jupiter moon, the most powerful rocket ever built and the James Webb Space Telescope – space missions to watch in the coming months<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443027/original/file-20220127-26-1wxjbed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C263%2C4801%2C3135&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">2022 is set to be humanity's busiest year in space.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/spaceship-royalty-free-illustration/97231690?adppopup=true">CSA Images via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Space travel is all about momentum. </p>
<p>Rockets <a href="https://www.uu.edu/dept/physics/scienceguys/2002Sept.cfm">turn their fuel into momentum</a> that carries people, satellites and science itself forward into space. 2021 was a year full of records for space programs around the world, and that momentum is carrying forward into 2022.</p>
<p>Last year, the commercial space race truly took off. <a href="https://www.space.com/virgin-galactic-unity-22-branson-flight-success">Richard Branson</a> and Amazon founder <a href="https://www.space.com/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-first-astronaut-launch">Jeff Bezos</a> both rode on <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-a-suborbital-flight-an-aerospace-engineer-explains-164279">suborbital launches</a> – and brought friends, including actor William Shatner. SpaceX <a href="https://www.spacex.com/launches/">sent eight astronauts and 1 ton of supplies</a> to the International Space Station for NASA. The six <a href="https://theconversation.com/spacex-inspiration4-mission-sent-4-people-with-minimal-training-into-orbit-and-brought-space-tourism-closer-to-reality-167611">tourist spaceflights</a> in 2021 were a record. There were also a <a href="https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1469685245318418437?s=20">record 19 people</a> weightless in space for a short time in December, eight of them private citizens. Finally, Mars was also <a href="https://www.space.com/mars-exploration-2021-perseverance-ingenuity-hope-tianwen-1">busier than ever</a> thanks to <a href="https://theconversation.com/perseverances-first-major-successes-on-mars-an-update-from-mission-scientists-168730">missions from the U.S.</a>, China and United Arab Emirates sending rovers, probes or orbiters to the red planet.</p>
<p>In total, in 2021 there were 134 launches that put <a href="https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/past/?search=2021">humans or satellites into orbit</a> – the highest number in the entire <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_spaceflight">history of spaceflight</a>. Nearly 200 orbital launches are scheduled for 2022. If things go well, this will smash last year’s record.</p>
<p>I’m an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OrRLRQ4AAAAJ&hl=en">astronomer</a> who studies supermassive black holes and distant galaxies. I have also written a book about <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/Beyond/">humanity’s future in space</a>. There’s a lot to look forward to in 2022. The Moon will get more attention than it has had in decades, as will Jupiter. The largest rocket ever built will make its first flight. And of course, the James Webb Space Telescope will start sending back its first images. </p>
<p>I, for one, can’t wait. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443030/original/file-20220127-21-1172yb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photo of the moon over the Earth's horizon taken from the International Space Station" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443030/original/file-20220127-21-1172yb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443030/original/file-20220127-21-1172yb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443030/original/file-20220127-21-1172yb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443030/original/file-20220127-21-1172yb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443030/original/file-20220127-21-1172yb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443030/original/file-20220127-21-1172yb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443030/original/file-20220127-21-1172yb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">NASA is planning to build a base on the Moon, and many missions in pursuit of this goal are happening this year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/51844627504/in/album-72157706698337171/">NASA Johnson Space Center via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Everyone’s going to the Moon</h2>
<p>Getting a rocket into orbit around Earth is a technical achievement, but it’s only equivalent to a half a day’s drive straight up. Fifty years after the last person stood on Earth’s closest neighbor, 2022 will see a crowded slate of lunar missions. </p>
<p>NASA will finally debut its much delayed <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/fs/sls.html">Space Launch System</a>. This rocket is taller than the Statue of Liberty and produces more thrust than the mighty Saturn V. The <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/around-the-moon-with-nasa-s-first-launch-of-sls-with-orion">Artemis I mission</a> will head off this spring for a flyby of the Moon. It’s a proof of concept for a rocket system that will one day let people live and work off Earth. The immediate goal is to put astronauts back on the Moon by 2025.</p>
<p>NASA is also working to develop the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/gateway/overview">infrastructure</a> for a lunar base, and it’s <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/content/commercial-lunar-payload-services-overview">partnering with private companies</a> on science missions to the Moon. A company called <a href="https://www.astrobotic.com/lunar-delivery/manifest/">Astrobotic</a> will carry 11 payloads to a large crater on the near side of the Moon, including two mini-rovers and a package of personal mementos gathered from the general public by a company based in Germany. The Astrobotic lander will also be carrying the cremated remains of science fiction legend <a href="https://www.space.com/moon-memorial-spaceflight-astrobotic-lunar-cremated-remains">Arthur C. Clarke</a> – as with Shatner’s flight into space, it’s an example of science fiction turned into fact. Another company, <a href="https://www.intuitivemachines.com/lunar-services">Intuitive Machines</a>, plans two trips to the Moon in 2022, carrying 10 payloads that include a lunar hopper and an ice mining experiment. </p>
<p>Russia is <a href="https://www.space.com/luna-russian-moon-lander-program-2020s.html">getting in on the lunar act</a>, too. The Soviet Union accomplished many lunar firsts – first spacecraft to hit the surface in 1959, first spacecraft to soft-land in 1966 and the first lunar rover in 1970 – but Russia hasn’t been back for over 45 years. In 2022, it plans to send the Luna 25 lander to the Moon’s south pole to drill for ice. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1802345115">Frozen water</a> is an essential requirement for any Moon base. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7CZTLogln34?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The SpaceX Starship performed a number of test flights in 2021 and is set to do its first real mission in 2022.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>All aboard the Starship</h2>
<p>While NASA’s Space Launch System will be a big step up for the agency, Elon Musk’s new rocket promises to be the king of the skies in 2022. </p>
<p>The SpaceX <a href="https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/">Starship</a> – the <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/spacex-starship-update-elon-musk-compared-saturn-v-sls-falcon-heavy-january-2022-launch-1650666#:%7E:text=SpaceX%20says%20that%20Starship%20will,just%20under%20400%20feet%20tall.">most powerful rocket</a> ever launched – will get its first orbital launch in 2022. It’s fully reusable, has more than twice the thrust of the Saturn V rocket and can carry 100 tons into orbit. The massive rocket is central to Musk’s aspirations to create a self-sustaining base on the Moon and, eventually, a city on Mars. </p>
<p>Part of what makes Starship so important is how cheap it will make bringing things into space. If successful, the price of each flight will be <a href="https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-flight-passenger-cost-elon-musk.html">US$2 million</a>. By contrast, the price for NASA to launch the Space Launch System is likely to be over <a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/11/nasa-does-not-deny-the-over-2-billion-cost-of-a-single-sls-launch/">$2 billion</a>. The reduction in costs by a factor of a thousand will be a <a href="https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2021/10/28/starship-is-still-not-understood/">game-changer for the economics of space travel</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443033/original/file-20220127-8398-h0y5by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A composite image of four of Jupiter's moons." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443033/original/file-20220127-8398-h0y5by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443033/original/file-20220127-8398-h0y5by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=656&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443033/original/file-20220127-8398-h0y5by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=656&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443033/original/file-20220127-8398-h0y5by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=656&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443033/original/file-20220127-8398-h0y5by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443033/original/file-20220127-8398-h0y5by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443033/original/file-20220127-8398-h0y5by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jupiter’s moons, many of which are thought to have liquid water under their surfaces, are good places to look for life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lunarandplanetaryinstitute/4089958954/in/photolist-7eq7iG-GwNVGS-7dqX8q-QkD33k-6wYMED-PKoD8j-P5KnzF-Htr5CZ-pQLAXB-TCYVkV-LGyJhJ-7dqWN3-7dn5mt-PD8YtU-7dqWYY-22iLfNv-DtwThf-EgBWsv-NdvgbB-nbTfQq-3eR9vN-8VsgkA-HFdQtD-HaSsZA-GNxBJs-n9NEBs-nbShuQ-GnzbeP-n9NEk5-H8jrA4-qXzDsj-neGQZH-GNyg5j-ncEraG-nbQbFv-n9NEj3-PrEtkp-neK8Ay-neGRb4-Sb7oqN-n9NEog-ncEq7d-nbRayD-nbRr1P-nbQrZ4-rmzWD3-pSvetx-8VoFZ4-HwE8Uu-aChN3H">Lunar and Planetary Institute via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Jupiter beckons</h2>
<p>The Moon and Mars aren’t the only celestial bodies getting attention next year. After decades of neglect, Jupiter will finally get some love, too. </p>
<p>The European Space Agency’s <a href="https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/juice">Icy Moons Explorer</a> is scheduled to head off to the gas giant midyear. Once there, it will spend three years studying three of Jupiter’s moons – Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. These moons are all thought to have subsurface liquid water, making them potentially <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2017.1656">habitable environments</a>. </p>
<p>Additionally, in September 2022, NASA’s Juno spacecraft – which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016 – is going to swoop within <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia24970-europa-coming-closer">220 miles of Europa</a>, the closest-ever look at this fascinating moon. Its instruments will measure the <a href="https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/10/12/juno-team-planning-close-flybys-of-jupiters-moons/">thickness of the ice shell</a>, which covers an ocean of liquid water.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443035/original/file-20220127-6942-1pj06pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An artist's rendering of the fully deployed James Webb Space Telescope in space, showing the gold mirrors and sunshield below." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443035/original/file-20220127-6942-1pj06pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443035/original/file-20220127-6942-1pj06pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443035/original/file-20220127-6942-1pj06pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443035/original/file-20220127-6942-1pj06pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443035/original/file-20220127-6942-1pj06pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443035/original/file-20220127-6942-1pj06pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443035/original/file-20220127-6942-1pj06pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The James Webb Space Telescope is built to allow astronomers to study the earliest days of the universe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/51412123217/in/photolist-2mk7z4x-2mWhv1S-2mWmfuP-axwQBC-GsY1ih-2mWcAwN-2mkd6YV-2mWi5mX-2mAM6qz-2mcN3Ua-2mSFnf5-2mTCu23-2mAQyW7-GM6cGD-2mT1CWv-2jvYcgQ-2jkUzYg-2mSXkLC-8o4Agr-2jVBAj7-2jQ9wNy-FXztuW-2jvYaP6-2mW8uen-2mVZn4p-NGz9Sg-2mSMWiG-H8g3aM-2mW7cNd-2mCo51V-axu8LV-NM7r9U-2mW4ZH2-2mWiQR6-2mWdXux-2mWdXxU-2mRMLm3-2jmhuUS-Nnc7JL-NUocrA-2mTqj3T-NGz9W4-2jQd2vT-GrFFnj-2mWiQ49-2mTfX91-FEFZhm-2mSJdoW-2mRTPsA-axwQDY">NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Seeing first light</h2>
<p>All this action in the Solar System is exciting, but 2022 will also see new information from the edge of space and the dawn of time.</p>
<p>After successfully reaching its final destination, unfurling its solar panels and unfolding its mirrors in January, NASA’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/james-webb-space-telescope-an-astronomer-on-the-team-explains-how-to-send-a-giant-telescope-to-space-and-why-167516">James Webb Space Telescope</a> will undergo exhaustive testing and return its first data sometime midyear. The 21-foot (6.5-meter) telescope has seven times the collecting area of the Hubble Space Telescope. It also operates at longer wavelengths of light than Hubble, so it can <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-most-powerful-space-telescope-ever-built-will-look-back-in-time-to-the-dark-ages-of-the-universe-169603">see distant galaxies</a> whose light has been <a href="https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/What_is_red_shift">redshifted</a> – stretched to longer wavelengths – by the expansion of the universe.</p>
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<p>By the end of the year, scientists should be getting results from a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/mapping-the-universes-earliest-structures-with-cosmos-webb">project aiming to map the earliest structures in the universe</a> and see the dawn of galaxy formation. The light these structures gave off was some of the very <a href="https://webb.nasa.gov/content/science/firstLight.html">first light in history</a> and was emitted when the universe was only 5% of its current age.</p>
<p>When astronomers look out in space they look <a href="https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/l/lookback+time#:%7E:text=The%20time%20elapsed%20between%20when,in%20time%20we%20are%20looking.">back in time</a>. First light marks the limit of what humanity can see of the universe. Prepare to be a time traveler in 2022.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175490/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Impey receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>With about 200 orbital launches scheduled and ambitious missions on everything from lunar bases to the search for life in the works, there’s a lot to watch in 2022. An astronomer explains the highlights.Chris Impey, University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy, University of ArizonaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1753792022-01-21T13:00:46Z2022-01-21T13:00:46ZJeff Bezos is looking to defy death – this is what we know about the science of ageing<p>Jeff Bezos is on a mission to conquer ageing. He has just <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bezos-hire-joins-quest-for-eternal-youth-cckjmrjp0">recruited Hal Barron</a> from GlaxoSmithKline to help lead Altos Labs, the ambitious new anti-ageing company with billions of investment. So what does science really say about this? Could we beat ageing?</p>
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<p>Ageing isn’t just a change in how we feel or look, ageing happens at a cellular level. In a lab culture dish, adult skin cells divide roughly 50 times before stopping. But skin cells from a newborn baby can divide 80 or 90 times. And on the flip side, cells from someone elderly divide only around <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1109946/the-beautiful-cure/9781784702212.html">twenty times</a>.</p>
<p>Ageing is also evident in our genes. Our genetic material is modified over time – chemicals can be attached that change which genes are switched on or off. These are called <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41580-019-0204-5">epigenetic changes</a>, and they build up as we age. Another kind of change takes place at the ends of our cell’s DNA. Repeating segments of DNA called telomeres act like the plastic tip of a shoelace, preventing the twisted coils of genetic material from fraying at the ends or knotting together. But these telomeres shorten each time a cell divides. We don’t know if short telomeres are merely a mark of ageing, like grey hair, or are part of the process by which cells age.</p>
<p><strong>Cells, chromosomes and telomeres</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Graphic showing telomeres." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441952/original/file-20220121-21-1ww2v70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441952/original/file-20220121-21-1ww2v70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441952/original/file-20220121-21-1ww2v70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441952/original/file-20220121-21-1ww2v70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441952/original/file-20220121-21-1ww2v70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441952/original/file-20220121-21-1ww2v70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441952/original/file-20220121-21-1ww2v70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Telomeres are like the protective caps on the ends of shoelaces.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/editor/image/telomeres-protective-caps-on-end-chromosomes-710795275">Fancy Tapis/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To keep alive and keep dividing, immune cells stop their telomeres shortening when they multiply, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nrm.2016.171">as do cancer cells</a>. This is probably a contributing factor in their apparent immortality. Drugs that stop telomerase from working also show <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41388-020-01405-w">promise against cancer</a> (although cancer cells can evolve resistance).</p>
<h2>Bigger question</h2>
<p>Given that ageing has such a profound effect on our cells and genes – the effects mentioned here being just some examples – a much bigger question emerges: why does this happen? Why do we age?</p>
<p>It was once thought that ageing happened for the continuing evolution of species. In other words, the evolution of a species requires a turnover of individuals. However, one problem with this idea is that most life on Earth doesn’t ever reach old age. Most animals are killed by predators, disease, the climate or starvation. So an inbuilt limit on an animal’s lifespan may not be important to evolution.</p>
<p>Another view is that ageing is simply a side-effect of the damage that builds up over time caused by metabolism or exposure to ultraviolet light from the Sun. We do know that genes are damaged as we age, but it is not proven that this drives ageing directly. Another possibility is that ageing might have evolved as a defence against cancer. Since cells accumulate genetic damage over time, they may have evolved a process to not persist in the body for too long, in case this damage eventually causes a cell to turn cancerous.</p>
<p>As we age, some of the body’s cells enter a state called senescence, in which a cell stays alive but stops dividing. Senescent cells accumulate in the body over a lifetime – especially in the skin, liver, lung and spleen – and have both beneficial and detrimental effects. </p>
<p>They are beneficial because they secrete chemicals that help repair damaged tissue, but over a long period of time, as senescent cells increase in number, they can disrupt the normal structure of organs and tissues. These cells could be an underlying cause of many of the problems we associate with ageing. Mice in which senescent cells were cleared were profoundly delayed in showing <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature10600">signs of ageing</a>.</p>
<p>We can describe a lot of what happens during ageing at the level of what physically happens to our genes, cells and organs. But the fundamental question of why we age is still open. In all likelihood, there is more than one correct answer.</p>
<p>Of course, nobody knows whether Bezos’s company can succeed in helping extend the human lifespan. But what is clear is that by studying ageing, exciting new discoveries are bound to emerge. Never listen to anyone who says the big questions have already been answered. As I’ve recently detailed in a book about new technology and the human body, <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1117386/the-secret-body/9781847925695.html">The Secret Body</a>, I’m confident that dramatic breakthroughs will profoundly change the experience of being human in the coming century.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175379/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel M Davis is the author of three books published by Penguin Random House: The Compatibility Gene, The Beautiful Cure and most recently, The Secret Body. He receives research funding from The Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, The Wellcome Trust, GSK, Bristol Myers Squibb and Continuum Life Sciences. He tweets at @dandavis101</span></em></p>Amazon founder is funding a biotechnology startup that is looking to reverse ageing.Daniel M Davis, Professor of Immunology, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1736102021-12-13T11:26:15Z2021-12-13T11:26:15ZThe Solar System belongs to us all – not just Jeff Bezos<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437099/original/file-20211213-17-1n4ycn9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4992%2C3495&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Grand ideas of extraterrestrial colonisation are hardly new. In the 1940s, the nascent Space Age set in motion calls for a new wave of colonisation – directed outwards into space.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon Inc and the richest man on Earth, has just launched the third mission of his space tourism business, <a href="https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-shepard-ns-19-mission-updates">NS-19</a>. His space company, Blue Origin, sent four more multimillionaire customers into space along with two “space celebrity” guests: Laura Shepard Churchley, daughter of Alan Shepard, America’s first astronaut, plus Michael Strahan, an American Football Hall-of-Famer turned TV presenter.</p>
<p>Space tourism is just the beginning of Bezos’s grand project <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2019/12/jeff-bezos-the-expanse-space-fantasy-sci-fi-syfy">to colonise the entire Solar System</a>. Such space colonisation, he suggests, will fuel global prosperity by opening up <a href="https://www.ft.com/reports/space-mining">boundless resources</a> – including crucial metals and massive amounts of solar and nuclear energy. All of which can make useful products for people back on Earth.</p>
<p>Such grand ideas of extraterrestrial colonisation are hardly new. Not long after Indonesia gained independence in the 1940s, the nascent Space Age set in motion calls for a <a href="https://space.nss.org/book-review-across-the-space-frontier/">new wave of colonisation</a> – directed outwards into space.</p>
<p>Although the symbolism of space colonisation is rather distasteful to those peoples who suffered at the hands of past colonialism, at least the extraterrestrial Solar System is not occupied by indigenous people who might have their territories invaded and conquered. However, like colonialism of old, Bezos’s space colonisation plans heavily depend on resource extraction and unfair and abusive labour practices, as we shall see below.</p>
<p>Presently, resource extraction beyond Earth is likely illegal. <a href="http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/introouterspacetreaty.html">The Outer Space Treaty</a>, signed by Indonesia on the day it was first presented in the United Nations Assembly in January 1967, states the bodies of the Solar System are the “Common Heritage of Mankind”. In other words, humanity as a whole owns the Solar System in a shared fashion. It cannot be claimed by one person, or one country, or one company. </p>
<p>Therefore, Jeff Bezos should ask the rest of us for permission to set up extractive industries beyond the Earth.</p>
<p>After NASA had planted the US flag on the Moon and sent robotic probes to other planets, space entrepreneurs started seeing a problem with the Common Heritage of Mankind idea. “How can we make a profit from space,” they thought, “if we have to just ‘share’ space resources with the whole of mankind?” </p>
<p>They then promoted a twisted interpretation of the Outer Space Treaty, which asserted that any resources extracted from extraterrestrial objects become the property of the extractor. Under such an interpretation, Bezos can claim any extraterrestrial material he might load onto his spaceship. </p>
<p>This situation would echo historical colonial endeavours on Earth where corporations like the <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/europe/the-netherlands/articles/a-brief-history-of-the-dutch-east-india-company/">Dutch East India Company</a> were granted licences to extract and sell resources that did not really belong to them.</p>
<p>In the late 1970s, the prospect of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222641231_Development_and_imperialism_in_space#:%7E:text=Development%20and%20imperialism%20in%20space%3A%20A%20Marshull.%20capitalist,find%20relevance%20on%20the%20very%20long%20timescale%20involving.">space imperialism</a> prompted some ex-colonial states in the developing world, like the Philippines and Pakistan, to draft a better treaty that would more clearly denote that the extraterrestrial Solar System belongs to all the world. </p>
<p>This new Moon Treaty also declared that space resources could only be used with global consent and should be fairly shared somehow. The trouble is, though, space-capable nations, like the US and Russia, refused to sign up to this treaty when it was first presented to the United Nations in 1979. And space industrialists like Bezos lobby against it. </p>
<p>This lobbying seems to have worked. US President Donald Trump issued an <a href="https://theconversation.com/giant-leap-for-corporations-the-trump-administration-wants-to-mine-resources-in-space-but-is-it-legal-136395">executive order in 2020</a> condemning the “Common Heritage of Mankind” principle in the Moon Treaty.</p>
<p>The Moon Treaty is an excellent pathway for all humanity to have a vested interest in the Solar System. For millennia, all cultures worldwide gazed upon the Moon and planets in the sky as constant cosmic fixtures, imbibing them into their folklore and spirituality and making them part of their arts and sciences. The Moon and the planets belong to all of us. The Moon Treaty enshrines this in law and makes all humans stakeholders in the future of the Solar System.</p>
<p>If Bezos colonises the Solar System, though, he will keep it for himself. I say this because his record of sharing stuff on Earth is woeful. </p>
<p>Despite being the richest man on Earth, Bezos ranks as one of the most <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/insider/celebrity/jeff-bezos-australia-bushfire-donation-a4333346.html">miserly philanthropists</a> alive today. He is only happy to give stuff away (like Strahan’s seat on the NS-19 flight) if it helps him promote his agenda.</p>
<p>Bezos also assiduously <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57383869">avoids paying taxes</a> in America and around the world. As well, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/06/14/amazons-labor-exploitation-is-a-return-to-the-1920s--and-unions-are-our-best-hope-out/">he exploits</a> his global Amazon workforce with low-paid, insecure and dangerous jobs. Each worker competes with one another in Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest fashion to fulfil unrealistic production targets. </p>
<p>During the NS-19 space mission, many dozens of Amazon workers lay trapped and fighting for their lives under a <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/12/11/jeff-bezos-ripped-for-ignoring-amazon-warehouse-tornado-collapse/">collapsed Amazon factory</a>. Bezos, in the meantime, was <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10300293/Jeff-Bezos-SLAMMED-celebrating-space-trip-Amazon-warehouse-collapses-Illinois.html">celebrating the mission</a> with his space passengers.</p>
<p>It seems as though Bezos can afford to fund his space business because he pays so few taxes and cares so little for his employees. If Bezos does colonise space, it will likely be achieved in the same fashion; by exploiting space workers and without sharing the benefits of space extraction by paying taxes at a fair rate.</p>
<p>Bezos’s first joyride into space, in July 2021, so enraged many progressive leaders around the world they called for new “<a href="https://nypost.com/2021/07/21/dems-blast-jeff-bezos-space-trip-demand-he-pay-more-taxes/">space taxes</a>” so some public good might come from space tourism. </p>
<p>Space exploration fans should also encourage Bezos to pay his fair share of taxes in nations across the world so democratically elected representatives can discuss and decide how to invest in more inclusive non-colonialist forms of space development.</p>
<p>Given his space colonisation plans, I would like to go further and encourage governments around the world to sign up to the Moon Treaty, so colonialism is not repeated on a Solar System scale in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173610/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Marshall tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Humanity as a whole owns the Solar System in a shared fashion. It cannot be claimed by one person, or one country, or one company.Alan Marshall, Lecturer in Environmental Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1709822021-11-05T15:26:48Z2021-11-05T15:26:48ZFifty years ago, humans took the first full photo of Earth from space – the climate crisis means it’s time for another<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430228/original/file-20211104-27-1tvy0hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C2991%2C3000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This image of the Earth from a distance, known as the Blue Marble, was taken by Apollo 17 astronauts.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/8250851747">NASAMarshall/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Everybody in the world needs to do this. Everybody in the world needs to see this.” These were the <a href="https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/william-shatner-cried-upon-returning-from-space-the-overview-effect-explains-why-1f3415a51815">first words</a> of 90-year-old William Shatner as he emerged, shaking with emotion, from a brief ride into space – where the former Star Trek actor had spent barely four minutes – aboard a Blue Origin rocket on October 13 2021. </p>
<p>“This air that is keeping us alive,” he said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s thinner than your skin … We think, ‘Oh, that’s blue sky’, and then suddenly you shoot through it all, as though you whip a sheet off you when you’re asleep, and you’re looking into blackness … it’s so thin, and you’re through it in an instant!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As space travellers like Shatner have witnessed, our planet’s atmosphere seems as thin as the <a href="https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/723534428916486144?lang=en">skin of an apple</a> relative to the Earth. Although from our perspective it might appear limitless, we can alter its composition with emissions as easily as we can <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-ocean-pollution-is-a-clear-danger-to-human-health-152641">pollute</a> vast lakes and oceans.</p>
<p>Yet many news reports covering Shatner’s journey neglected to mention his comments on the fragility of the Earth’s atmosphere: comments that could easily have been intended for delegates arriving at the UN climate change conference <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/cop26">COP26</a> taking place in Glasgow.</p>
<p>Shatner’s voyage was made possible by Jeff Bezos’ space exploration company Blue Origin, founded in 2000, and has understandably been subject to criticism. Bezos, the billionaire founder of e-commerce giant Amazon, arguably achieved his astronomical success by hollowing out the cultural and commercial infrastructure of local areas across the globe: and has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/billionaire-space-race-the-ultimate-symbol-of-capitalisms-flawed-obsession-with-growth-164511">condemned</a> for spending <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2021/07/20/jeff-bezos-successfully-launches-on-blue-origins-first-crewed-spaceflight/?sh=39b934824bd2">billions</a> expanding into the space tourism industry rather than improving the environment down on Earth.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/apollo-to-the-moon/online/early-steps/humans-in-space.cfm">manned space programme</a> of the 1960s and 1970s, run competitively by the US and Russia, was also <a href="https://www.history.com/news/apollo-11-moon-landing-launch-protests">criticised</a> as a waste of money. But it yielded one huge and unexpected bonus: the first view of Earth from space, in all its majestic isolation.</p>
<p>At Christmas 1968, the crew of <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/topics/history/features/apollo_8.html">Apollo 8</a> became the first people to see and photograph the whole planet as they flew around the moon. From a quarter of a million miles away, the Earth’s unique beauty and vulnerability became apparent like never before. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The Earth as seen from the moon" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430023/original/file-20211103-16987-1mqpyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1997%2C1598&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430023/original/file-20211103-16987-1mqpyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430023/original/file-20211103-16987-1mqpyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430023/original/file-20211103-16987-1mqpyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430023/original/file-20211103-16987-1mqpyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430023/original/file-20211103-16987-1mqpyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430023/original/file-20211103-16987-1mqpyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This photo of Earth, seen rising over the lunar horizon, was taken by the Apollo 8 crew on Christmas Eve 1968.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lbjlibrarynow/30610367518">William Anders/NASA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the voyage, astronaut Bill Anders took an unscheduled photo of the Earth partly in shadow, with the moon in the foreground. The moon’s bone-dead colours contrasted directly with the vibrantly-coloured, fertile Earth. </p>
<p>The photo, known colloquially as “<a href="https://theconversation.com/earthrise-a-photo-that-changed-the-world-109009">Earthrise</a>”, was later <a href="https://my-earth.org/research/#:%7E:text=Earthrise%20is%20a%20photograph%20of,influential%20environmental%20photograph%20ever%20taken%E2%80%9D.">described</a> by photographer Galen Rowell as “the most influential environmental photograph ever taken”. Years later, Anders <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/9-reasons-we-re-grateful-to-live-on-earth">reflected</a> on his experience: “We came all this way to the moon, and yet the most significant thing we’re seeing is our own home planet.” </p>
<h2>An inspiration</h2>
<p>No sooner did the Earth become wholly visible than it sparked the rapid growth of the environmental movement, marked by the formation of the environmental charity Friends of the Earth in 1969 and the first <a href="https://www.un.org/en/conferences/environment/stockholm1972">UN Earth Summit</a> in Stockholm in 1972. Commentator John Caffrey <a href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19930018768/downloads/19930018768.pdf">wrote</a> in 1970 that “the greatest lasting benefit of the Apollo missions may be this sudden rush of inspiration to try to save this fragile environment – if we still can.”</p>
<p>In December 1972, the final Apollo mission (<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo17.html">Apollo 17</a>) captured possibly an even more famous image of the Earth, lit by the Sun at a distance of 28,000 miles: known as the “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/the-blue-marble-shot-our-first-complete-photograph-of-earth/237167/">Blue Marble</a>” photo. </p>
<p>Unlike Earthrise’s depiction of a half-shaded planet taken from the north, this photo showed the whole Earth from the south, including the first view of Antarctica. This view of a watery globe, centred on Madagascar rather than on a Western country, appeared as a photographic manifesto for global equality. With a human eye behind the lens, humankind found itself face to face with Mother Earth in an image that has become one of the <a href="https://naturelinksmaine.org/recent-classes/the-blue-marble">most reproduced</a> pictures of all time.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A flag with the whole Earth against a blue background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430246/original/file-20211104-13-1v3qh8s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430246/original/file-20211104-13-1v3qh8s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430246/original/file-20211104-13-1v3qh8s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430246/original/file-20211104-13-1v3qh8s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430246/original/file-20211104-13-1v3qh8s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430246/original/file-20211104-13-1v3qh8s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430246/original/file-20211104-13-1v3qh8s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The image of the whole Earth as seen from space has become a symbol of the environmental movement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Photo_of_Earth_flag.jpg">Street Protest TV/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Actually travelling to space to see this transformative sight in person is, of course, impossible for the vast majority of the population. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/space-exploration/Major-milestones">Since 1972</a>, no human has left Earth’s orbit or seen the whole Earth, and very few ever will. </p>
<p>As a result, groups such as the <a href="https://overviewinstitute.org/">Overview Institute</a> and the <a href="https://www.planetaryidentity.com/">Center for Planetary Identity</a> have since come up with imaginative schemes to spread the environmental consciousness created by viewing the Earth from a distance to the wider population, including the use of <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.540996/full">virtual reality</a>. As a historian and an environmentalist, I have a more modest proposal.</p>
<h2>A new Blue Marble</h2>
<p>Next year, 50 years will have passed since the Blue Marble photo: I think it’s time to take another. In December 2022, the Earth will be in a similar position relative to the sun as it was in December 1972. This will give a probe the opportunity to capture a photo of the full Earth from the same distance and angle as before, revisiting perhaps the most environmentally valuable achievement of the space age.</p>
<p>Although <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/4426654941">impressive images</a> have since been captured of the whole planet by satellites, none offer the same perspective as the original image and most are composites patched together from multiple frames to show an idealised globe in perfect weather. </p>
<p>Although this image will still be beautiful, the planet it captures won’t be the same. Deserts like the <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180329141035.htm">Sahara</a> will have expanded. <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-clouds-are-the-missing-piece-in-the-climate-change-puzzle-140812">Cloud</a> systems will have altered. Antarctic ice will have retreated, and <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-stopped-getting-greener-20-years-ago/">less green</a> will be visible. Seen side by side, these two Blue Marbles, taken half a century apart, would bring home the consequences of climate change wordlessly, instantly and globally. </p>
<p>So, space billionaires: if you truly care about protecting our planet, let’s have the ultimate Earthshot.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170982/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Poole is affiliated with the Centre for Planetary Identity as a member of its advisory board.</span></em></p>Photographing the full Earth from space could provide a profound and timely reminder of its vulnerability in the face of climate change.Robert Poole, Professor of History, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1703142021-10-25T12:36:22Z2021-10-25T12:36:22ZMusk v Bezos: real rivals or fake feud? Our research gives a clue<p>Flick through a news feed on your phone and you are likely to scroll across an article <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-elon-musk-rivalry-history-timeline-2020-7?r=US&IR=T">discussing the heated rivalries</a> of the new space race. Forget the geopolitical struggles of a cold war. This time, it’s Tesla CEO Elon Musk versus Amazon founder Jeff Bezos: the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrickcai/2021/09/28/elon-musk-responds-to-replacing-jeff-bezos-richest-person-silver-medal/">two richest men</a> in the world duking it out over whether SpaceX or Blue Origin, their respective companies, will be the dominant force in the new industry of private space flight. </p>
<p>Occasionally, Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic gets a mention too, but the Brit being a relative pauper, and his space plane lacking the phallic majesty of his fellow billionaires’ rockets, he has received diminishing attention in recent weeks. </p>
<p>The Musk v Bezos rivalry makes for good press and is stoked occasionally in tweets by both parties, but is it real? Probably not, according to our research, published in the book <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-New-Patriarchs-of-Digital-Capitalism-Celebrity-Tech-Founders-and-Networks/Little-Winch/p/book/9780367260156">The New Patriarchs of Digital Patriarchy: Celebrity Tech Founders and Networks of Power</a>, which analyses 95 popular books about the technology industry.</p>
<p>It is easy to see that, at a basic level, Musk’s and Bezos’s stated plans for space domination are complementary, rather than competitive. Bezos dismisses Musk’s plan to colonise Mars as unrealistic, while Musk thinks it will take too long to build the infrastructure for the giant orbiting space stations that Bezos proposes. Read between the lines and you can see how they had been rhetorically dividing up the space industry into separate monopolies even before their rockets broke the “<a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/where-is-the-edge-of-space-and-what-is-the-karman-line">Karman line</a>” – one definition of where outer space begins.</p>
<p>The reality is that, as with other technology billionaires, such as Alphabet’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg or even Palantir’s Peter Thiel, their interests align more often than they diverge. This new space race is partly a celebrity publicity stunt to generate clickbait headlines that build public awareness of, and popular support for, a new commercial frontier. If we focus on the rivalry and keep asking who’s winning, perhaps we won’t ask the big whys of commercial space colonisation. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427779/original/file-20211021-14-1w94ud7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427779/original/file-20211021-14-1w94ud7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427779/original/file-20211021-14-1w94ud7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427779/original/file-20211021-14-1w94ud7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427779/original/file-20211021-14-1w94ud7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427779/original/file-20211021-14-1w94ud7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427779/original/file-20211021-14-1w94ud7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is Bezos looking for a new monopoly in space?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://webgate.epa.eu/webgate">MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In general, there is little in the tech barons’ interest to actually work against one another. Writing in his 2014 book Zero to One, Thiel <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/234730/zero-to-one-by-peter-thiel-with-blake-masters/">has claimed</a> that “competition is a relic of history”, and because a competitive market is seen as fundamental to capitalism, “monopolists lie to protect themselves”. These billionaires, all monopolists, may indeed use their celebrity profiles to create the illusion of competition where there is none. Google co-founder Larry Page also stated in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFb2rvmrahc">a speech</a> that Silicon Valley’s billionaires “travel as if they are pack dogs and stick to each other like glue”.</p>
<p>We learned through our research that the west coast billionaires that dominate the tech industry do indeed support each other financially and strategically. We carried out a digital search of a 10 million word database, containing the books we investigated, which is known as a broad context collocation. The algorithm searched for instances in which the entrepreneurs were listed together, and sorted it by context – such as collaboration, rivalry, friendship, political lobbying and philanthropy. This helped us identity a dense network, which you can see in the diagram. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428191/original/file-20211025-15-id3vxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diagram of connections between tech entrepreneurs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428191/original/file-20211025-15-id3vxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428191/original/file-20211025-15-id3vxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428191/original/file-20211025-15-id3vxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428191/original/file-20211025-15-id3vxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428191/original/file-20211025-15-id3vxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428191/original/file-20211025-15-id3vxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428191/original/file-20211025-15-id3vxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Silicon Valley networks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ben Little</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So while Bezos and Musk haven’t directly financially supported each other, they are part of a wider system that has. Bezos was an early funder of Google, and in turn Google’s founders put money into Musk’s ventures from as early as 2006. As Ashlee Vance writes in his biography of Musk, Google underwrote Tesla to the tune of $5 billion (£3.6 billion) in 2013 when it looked as if it was about to go under, as well as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/13/google-cloud-wins-spacex-deal-for-starlink-internet-connectivity.html">investing large sums in SpaceX</a> at critical moments.</p>
<h2>Race to the bottom?</h2>
<p>There are plenty of good reasons to be exploring space, but we just don’t know if these billionaires will prioritise profit or science, benefits to humanity or a much narrower substratum of the wealthy. The signs don’t look good, as Musk launches thousands of Starlink satellites that risk <a href="https://theconversation.com/lights-in-the-sky-from-elon-musks-new-satellite-network-have-stargazers-worried-117829">turning low earth orbit into a junk yard</a>. Meanwhile, the ten minutes of weightlessness offered by Bezos are a <a href="https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/soundings/vol-2021-issue-78/article-9417/">luxury affordable only to the 0.01%</a> – not to mention being damaging for our planet.</p>
<p>As a group, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs present a shared belief in using technological solutions to social problems. Social media platforms are designed to better connect us by fostering divisions, and spaceships offer a way to escape a planet that may no longer be able to comfortably support us. These solutions and the problems they purport to solve have been presented to us, since the days of Steve Jobs, the late chairman of Apple, as the result of the vision of the “genius founder” – an awkward, but dazzling leader: a mythic figure who expands the frontiers of human endeavour. It started with home computers, then went online and now it is soaring into space.</p>
<p>Instead of dividends (another relic, like competition), these businesses are valued in headlines, tweets and “vision”. Tesla is the most valuable car company in the world based almost entirely on Musk’s celebrity inspiring a legion of fans to invest in the company. Amazon is a ruthless monopoly that secured its early market lead after aggressive tax avoidance and punishing hours for its staff. But because Bezos is framed as an inspirational CEO, a culture of overwork has been transformed into the can-do spirit of the American frontier.</p>
<p>These entrepreneurs tell us compelling stories about their lives, their businesses and their vision. We will never know if they are true, manicured and coiffured as they are through one of the most successful publicity machines in history. So if we find ourselves swimming in clickbait about these men, it’s not incidental that we find them alongside celebrity news: it’s absolutely fundamental to their business strategies and thus a key source of their wealth and power.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170314/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Little does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs cooperate closely behind the scenes.Ben Little, Lecturer in Media and Cultural Politics, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1652352021-08-15T11:50:06Z2021-08-15T11:50:06ZThe billionaire space race reflects a colonial mindset that fails to imagine a different world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415712/original/file-20210811-17-1rg96xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C26%2C6000%2C3961&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An artist's rendition of a future space colony.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It was a time of political uncertainty, cultural conflict and social change. Private ventures exploited technological advances and natural resources, generating unprecedented fortunes while wreaking havoc on local communities and environments. The working poor crowded cities, spurring property-holders to develop increased surveillance and incarceration regimes. Rural areas lay desolate, buildings vacant, churches empty — the stuff of moralistic elegies. </p>
<p>Epidemics raged, forcing quarantines in the ports and lockdowns in the streets. <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works?query=%22bills+of+mortality%22&production.dates.from=1600&production.dates.to=1699&sortOrder=asc&sort=production.dates">Mortality data</a> was the stuff of weekly news and <a href="https://doi.org/10.7227/TSC.27.3.2">commentary</a>.</p>
<p>Depending on the perspective, mobility — chosen or compelled — was either the cause or the consequence of general disorder. Uncontrolled mobility was associated with political instability, moral degeneracy and social breakdown. However, one form of planned mobility promised to solve these problems: colonization.</p>
<p>Europe and its former empires have changed a lot since the 17th century. But the persistence of colonialism as a supposed panacea suggests we are not as far from the early modern period as we think.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415770/original/file-20210812-22-rxwj4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A rocket launches in the background, a SpaceX building in the foreground" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415770/original/file-20210812-22-rxwj4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415770/original/file-20210812-22-rxwj4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415770/original/file-20210812-22-rxwj4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415770/original/file-20210812-22-rxwj4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415770/original/file-20210812-22-rxwj4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415770/original/file-20210812-22-rxwj4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415770/original/file-20210812-22-rxwj4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off at the Kennedy Space Center for a re-supply mission to the International Space Station on June 3.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/John Raoux)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Colonial promise of limitless growth</h2>
<p>Seventeenth-century colonial schemes involved plantations around the Atlantic, and motivations that now sound archaic. Advocates of expansion such as the English writer Richard Hakluyt, whose <a href="http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/exploration/text5/hakluyt.pdf"><em>Discourse of Western Planting</em> (1584)</a> outlined the benefits of empire for Queen Elizabeth: the colonization of the New World would prevent Spanish Catholic hegemony and provide a chance to claim Indigenous souls for Protestantism. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415772/original/file-20210812-19-q9hz3w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A 1910 Newfoundland stamp reading 'Lord Bacon, the guiding spirit in colonization scheme.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415772/original/file-20210812-19-q9hz3w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415772/original/file-20210812-19-q9hz3w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415772/original/file-20210812-19-q9hz3w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415772/original/file-20210812-19-q9hz3w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415772/original/file-20210812-19-q9hz3w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415772/original/file-20210812-19-q9hz3w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415772/original/file-20210812-19-q9hz3w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1910 Newfoundland stamp reading ‘Lord Bacon, the guiding spirit in colonization scheme.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lord_Bacon_-_the_guiding_spirit_of_colonization_scheme.jpg">(Wikimedia Commons)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But a key promise was the economic and social renewal of the mother country through new commodities, trades and territory. Above all, planned mobility would cure the ills of apparent overpopulation. Sending the poor overseas to cut timber, mine gold or farm cane would, <a href="https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=70">according to Hakluyt</a>, turn the “multitudes of loiterers and idle vagabonds” that “swarm(ed)” England’s streets and “pestered and stuffed” its prisons into industrious workers, providing raw materials and a reason to multiply. Colonization would fuel limitless growth.</p>
<p>As English plantations took shape in Ulster, Virginia, New England and the Caribbean, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/15733823-00215p01">projectors</a>” — individuals (nearly always men) who promised to use new kinds of knowledge to radically and profitably transform society — tied mobility to new sciences and technologies. They were inspired as much by English philosopher Francis Bacon’s vision of a tech-centred state in <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2434/2434-h/2434-h.htm"><em>The New Atlantis</em></a> as by his advocacy of observation and experiment.</p>
<h2>Discovery and invention</h2>
<p>The English agriculturalist Gabriel Plattes cautioned in 1639 that “<a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?cc=eebo2;c=eebo2;idno=a68588.0001.001;node=A68588.0001.001:5;seq=29;vid=15242;page=root;view=text">the finding of new worlds is not like to be a perpetual trade</a>.” But many more saw a supposedly vacant America as an invitation to transplant people, plants and machinery. </p>
<p>The inventor Cressy Dymock (from Lincolnshire, where fen-drainage schemes were turning wetlands dry) sought support for a “<a href="https://www.dhi.ac.uk/hartlib/view?docset=main&docname=62A_08">perpetual motion engine</a>” that would plough fields in England, clear forest in Virginia and drive sugar mills in Barbados. Dymock identified private profit and the public good by speeding plantation and replacing costly draught animals with cheaper enslaved labour. Projects across the empire would employ the idle, create “elbow-room,” heal “unnatural divisions” and make England “<a href="https://www.dhi.ac.uk/hartlib/view?docset=main&docname=64_18">the garden of the world</a>.”</p>
<h2>Extraterrestrial exploration</h2>
<p>Today, the moon and Mars are in projectors’ sights. And the promises billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos make for colonization are similar in ambition to those of four centuries ago. </p>
<p>As Bezos told an audience at the <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2018/jeff-bezos-isdc-space-vision/">International Space Development Conference</a> in 2018: “We will have to leave this planet, and we’re going to leave it, and it’s going to make this planet better.”</p>
<p>Bezos traces his thinking to Princeton physicist Gerald O’Neill, whose 1974 article “<a href="https://space.nss.org/the-colonization-of-space-gerard-k-o-neill-physics-today-1974/">The Colonization of Space</a>” (and 1977 book, <em>The High Frontier</em>) presented orbiting settlements as solutions to nearly every major problem facing the Earth. Bezos echoes O’Neill’s proposal to move heavy industry — and industrial labour — off the planet, rezoning Earth as a mostly residential, green space. A garden, as it were.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KWdkCdK_0_4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Jeff Bezos talks about space exploration and leadership at the 2018 International Space Development Conference.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Musk’s plans for Mars are at once more cynical and more grandiose, in timeline and technical requirements if not in ultimate extent. They center on the dubious possibility of “<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-just-quashed-elon-musks-plans-to-make-mars-habitable-for-humans-2018-7">terraforming</a>” Mars using resources and technologies that don’t yet exist. </p>
<p>Musk planned to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-mars-plan-timeline-2018-10">send the first humans to Mars in 2024</a>, and by 2030, he envisioned breaking ground on a city, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-says-we-could-put-a-million-people-on-mars-within-a-century-2015-6">launching as many as 100,000 voyages from Earth to Mars</a> within a century.</p>
<p>As of 2020, the timeline had been pushed back slightly, in part because terraforming may require bombarding Mars with 10,000 nuclear missiles to start. But the vision – a Mars of thriving crops, pizza joints and “entrepreneurial opportunities,” preserving life and paying dividends while Earth becomes increasingly uninhabitable — remains. Like the colonial <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066120928127">company-states</a> of the 17th and 18th centuries, <a href="http://bostonreview.net/science-nature/alina-utrata-lost-space">Musk’s SpaceX leans heavily on government backing but will make its own laws on its newly settled planet</a>.</p>
<h2>A failure of the imagination</h2>
<p>The techno-utopian visions of Musk and Bezos betray some of the same assumptions as their early modern forebears. They offer colonialism as a panacea for complex social, political and economic ills, rather than attempting to work towards a better world within the constraints of our environment. </p>
<p>And rather than facing the palpably devastating consequences of an ideology of limitless growth on our planet, they seek to export it, unaltered, into space. They imagine themselves capable of creating liveable environments where none exist. </p>
<p>But for all their futuristic imagery, they have failed to imagine a different world. And they have ignored the history of colonialism on this one. Empire never recreated Eden, but it did fuel centuries of growth based on expropriation, enslavement and environmental transformation in defiance of all limits. We are struggling with these consequences today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165235/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ted McCormick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are in a space race, but their endeavours reflect a colonial mentality. This comes at the expense of finding solutions for our current environmental challenges.Ted McCormick, Associate Professor of History, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1653092021-08-06T12:40:55Z2021-08-06T12:40:55ZSpace travel for billionaires is the surprise topic with bipartisan American support – but not from Gen Z<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414651/original/file-20210804-25-1ak8kje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=353%2C114%2C2714%2C1965&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Both Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson successfully rode to space on rockets made by their private companies Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, respectively.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BlueOriginBezos/9d3a2973c2dc4a34be0103ebd1a08112/photo?Query=blue%20AND%20origin&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=254&currentItemNo=33">AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson both <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/11/science/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-space.html">flying to space</a> in craft made by their own private companies, July 2021 was perhaps the highest-profile month for space in years. But these events have been met with a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/21/tech/jeff-bezos-richard-branson-space-what-next-scn/index.html">mix</a> of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/technology/the-amazonification-of-space.html">opinion</a>.</p>
<p>I am an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=j4_2N9kAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">associate professor of public relations</a> and study how opinions on topics like politics, entertainment and even space launches vary between different groups of people. I worked with colleagues at The Harris Poll to find out <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10X5EeVafO7u7TOyC5UKeqvbyqsUdUiFzBzV2XOT_als/edit?usp=sharing">what U.S. residents think</a> of these launches and the broader topic of private spaceflight.</p>
<p>The poll found that most U.S. residents are interested in and have a positive attitude toward the private space industry. One outlier was younger people, who are less hopeful about the benefits of galactic journeys. Overall though – and rather interestingly – these positive feelings are widely held across political and demographic lines. It’s rare to see such agreement on <a href="https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/215210/partisan-differences-growing-number-issues.aspx">any issue</a> these days, so the results suggest space may be a unifying topic in future years. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414657/original/file-20210804-21-1kzi7fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Richard Branson in a blue jumpsuit celebrated his successful sub-orbital flight to space by spraying champagne on a stage." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414657/original/file-20210804-21-1kzi7fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414657/original/file-20210804-21-1kzi7fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414657/original/file-20210804-21-1kzi7fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414657/original/file-20210804-21-1kzi7fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414657/original/file-20210804-21-1kzi7fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414657/original/file-20210804-21-1kzi7fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414657/original/file-20210804-21-1kzi7fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A majority of people think that space endeavors are good for humanity in the long term but for now will mostly benefit the incredibly rich, like Richard Branson, seen here celebrating after his successful flight.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirginGalacticBranson/747a707dd5e340e2816615f81c8e3484/photo?Query=virgin%20AND%20galactic&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=423&currentItemNo=28">AP Photo/Andres Leighton</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Good for everyone but best for the rich</h2>
<p>A total of 2,011 U.S. residents responded to the <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10X5EeVafO7u7TOyC5UKeqvbyqsUdUiFzBzV2XOT_als/edit?usp=sharing">survey questions</a> between July 23 and July 25, 2021, just a couple weeks after <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blue-origin-bezos-launch-richard-branson-space-flight-differences/">Branson and Bezos went to space</a>. The survey asked people to agree or disagree with a number of statements about the potential value of these launches, the motivation behind the launches and who will have access to space. In response to every question, people were supportive of space travel and the technological developments that come from it. Yet, respondents also viewed these events as ego trips generally limited to rich people. </p>
<p>To understand whether people think these endeavors are important, one statement was: “Space travel and research are important for the future development of humanity.” Seventy-four percent of respondents agreed, with similar results across all political parties. Similarly, over two–thirds of people agreed with the idea “The recent space launches by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are important for the future development of space travel and technology.”</p>
<p>Despite this support, results also reflected recent chatter about space being <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/07/space-billionaires-jeff-bezos-richard-branson/619383/">the playground of the super-rich</a>. In response to the statement “The launches make me believe that one day soon ordinary people will be able to go to space,” 58% of people agreed. Yet about 80% felt “The launches make me believe that only rich people will be able to go to space anytime soon,” as well as agreed with the statement “The recent space launches by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic were billionaire ego trips.” </p>
<p>Finally, about 3 in 4 felt “Money spent on space could better be spent addressing today’s issues on Earth,” though partisan divides were a bit higher here. </p>
<p>According to Rob Jekielek, managing director at The Harris Poll, “Space travel has captured our imagination about the future of humanity,” but people are concerned about “taking resources away from addressing today’s pressing challenges.” This feeling was mirrored across most demographics and political parties – a rare thing in an age when <a href="https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/215210/partisan-differences-growing-number-issues.aspx">partisanship on most issues</a> is quite high. </p>
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<h2>Generational differences and scientific beliefs</h2>
<p>While the survey found a lot of agreement across partisan lines, there were higher levels of disagreement between age groups – young people in particular stood out. </p>
<p>Respondents 18 to 24 years old were less supportive when it came to believing that spending money on space – or on Earth – would have as much of a positive effect. </p>
<p>Of the youngest group, 59% said space travel is important for humanity, and only 63% thought the money could be better spent on Earth. Meanwhile, 78% of people aged 41 to 56 thought space travel is important for humanity, and 80% think money spent on space travel could be better spent on Earth. Young people’s lower trust in the ability of money to solve problems compared to older groups is not new, though. Younger Americans tend to have <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-younger-americans-dont-vote-more-often-no-its-not-apathy/">less faith</a> in political systems in general. </p>
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<p>Another demographic difference of note was between those willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine versus those who were not. Of people interested in vaccines, 79% think space travel is important versus 60% of those opposed to vaccines. While both groups still agree that space travel is important, the gap was one of the largest in the sample. I believe this could reflect differing views on science in general. </p>
<p>Despite the mix of headlines and tweets alternatively bashing or praising Bezos, Branson and Elon Musk, this survey shows that, for now, U.S. residents are generally in agreement that space is still an exciting frontier. The future of space includes <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlink-moves-closer-to-matching-or-even-beating-fixed-broadband-speeds">satellite internet</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/bringing-mars-rocks-back-to-earth-on-feb-18-perseverance-rover-landed-safely-on-mars-a-lead-scientist-explains-the-tech-and-goals-153851">missions to Mars</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/space-tourism-is-here-20-years-after-the-first-stellar-tourist-jeff-bezos-blue-origin-plans-to-send-civilians-to-space-160510">space tourism</a>, but it also involves <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/11/science/cost-to-fly-virgin-galactic-space.html">high costs</a>, the problems of <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-a-satellite-falls-on-your-house-space-law-protects-you-but-there-are-no-legal-penalties-for-leaving-junk-in-orbit-160757">space junk</a> and <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/how-bad-is-space-tourism-for-the-environment-and-other-space-travel-questions-answered/ar-AAMxyEw">climate concerns</a>. </p>
<p>It will be interesting to see if this broad support continues or if partisanship and the less optimistic views of the younger generations take hold.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165309/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph Cabosky is affiliated with the Measurement Commission at the Institute of Public Relations, one of whose members works for Harris Interactive, which conducted this survey. </span></em></p>According to a new poll, people across political and demographic lines think the private space race is good for the future but still just an ego trip for the billionaires involved.Joseph Cabosky, Associate Professor of Public Relations, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1591762021-07-26T13:22:47Z2021-07-26T13:22:47ZWant to fix financial literacy? Focus on billionaires squandering their wealth, not school curriculum<p>Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic threw the global economy into a crisis in March 2020, I wrote an essay expressing my hope that the unfolding financial collapse wouldn’t be used to <a href="https://publicseminar.org/essays/the-financial-literacy-delusion">justify a push for more financial literacy education in schools</a>. But this has since happened. </p>
<p>In May 2020, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) announced its <a href="http://newsletter.oecd.org/q/142H2yKlsjcTqycjG2fls/wv">Program for International Student Assessment 2018 results</a> with the following question: “With unemployment increasing and a global recession looming, it’s more important than ever to ask: are adolescents knowledgeable about money matters?” </p>
<p>Ontario recently added <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/06/16/ontario-ends-grade-9-math-streams-adds-coding-and-financial-literacy-to-curriculum.html">financial literacy to Grade 9 math curriculum</a>. Some researchers have emphasized the <a href="https://theconversation.com/especially-after-covid-19-canadians-need-better-financial-literacy-and-teachers-can-help-152933">relevance of financial literacy education</a> amid the current COVID-19 economic crisis.</p>
<p>Financial literacy, as defined by the OECD, is “<a href="https://www.oecd.org/financial/education/2018-INFE-FinLit-Measurement-Toolkit.pdf">a combination of awareness, knowledge, skill, attitude and behaviour necessary to make sound financial decisions and ultimately achieve individual financial well-being</a>.” </p>
<p>My research on high school curriculum documents in Canada and the United States shows that financial literacy education frames <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1268451">financial outcomes in individualistic ways that are rooted in the ideology of merit</a>. Mainstream financial literacy pays little attention to the broader economic and socio-political contexts in which taking control of finances is progressively more difficult for hard-pressed families as the <a href="https://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/wealth_gap">gap between the rich and everyone else</a> continues to widen.</p>
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<h2>Post-recession pushes</h2>
<p>In the aftermath of the 2008 recession, financial literacy gained traction in both Canada and the U.S. </p>
<p>Education scholar <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0360-8_10">Laura Pinto</a> argues the negative economic effects of the 2008 financial crisis were less pronounced in Canada than in other OECD countries. Yet, the connections made by governments and the media between the state of the economy and the need for financial literacy among citizens led to the development of financial literacy education policy across the nation. </p>
<p>In 2010, a <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/personal_finance/2010/04/20/roseman_task_force_wants_your_ideas_on_making_smarter_decisions_with_money.html"><em>Toronto Star</em></a> columnist summarized: “After the last stock market crash, the federal government realized that people needed help with spending, saving, investing and — of course — borrowing.” </p>
<p>In both industrialized and emerging economies, <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/PISA%202012%20framework%20e-book_final.pdf">the OECD</a> declared that a “lack of financial literacy was one of the factors contributing to ill-informed financial decisions …” It recommended that governments develop financial education programs and integrate financial literacy education into school curricula, and many <a href="https://silo.tips/download/january-the-maryland-state-curriculum-for-personal-financial-literacy-education">followed suit</a>.</p>
<p>Such recommendations and government efforts suggested that it was the spending habits of the general public at large that were to blame for the recession, despite the fact that both a <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2017/04/13/430424/2008-housing-crisis/">lack of government regulation</a> and <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/350829-lehman-crash-anniversary-recalls-the-risk-of-corporate-greed">reckless and illegal behaviour in the financial sector</a> were significant contributing factors.</p>
<h2>Financial irresponsibility?</h2>
<p>Today, some financial literacy proponents are focusing on how the COVID-19 recession has unmasked some people’s <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/488906-coronavirus-reveals-financial-irresponsibility-of-americans">financial irresponsibility</a>.</p>
<p>In the U.S., the <a href="https://www.schwab.com/">Charles Schwab</a> <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/charles-schwab/?sh=5dadb3d92e4b">brokerage, whose CEO is a billionaire</a>, is one of many financial services companies that produces financial literacy resources. </p>
<p>Results of the company’s <a href="https://www.schwabmoneywise.com/public/moneywise/tools_resources/charles_schwab_financial_literacy_survey">online survey, conducted by the Harris Poll</a> of more than 2,000 U.S. adults in June 2020, are reported on the website Schwab Money Wise, which promotes school lesson plans. The survey found that 89 per cent of people polled agree that lack of financial education contributes to poverty (58 per cent), lack of job opportunities (53 per cent), unemployment (53 per cent) and wealth inequality (52 per cent). According to the company, the findings expose the “grave impact” of the “lack of financial education during COVID-19.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A sign at a demonstration reads, 'Fund the people not the police / BLM'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412793/original/file-20210723-21-6502we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412793/original/file-20210723-21-6502we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412793/original/file-20210723-21-6502we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412793/original/file-20210723-21-6502we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412793/original/file-20210723-21-6502we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412793/original/file-20210723-21-6502we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412793/original/file-20210723-21-6502we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People attend a demonstration in Montrréal, Aug. 29, 2020, where they protested to defund the police with a goal to end systemic racism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Economic, racial injustices</h2>
<p>Advocates of financial literacy education continue to tie individual financial know-how and behaviour to deep-seated social problems and economic woes even in the face of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/03/upshot/pandemic-economy-recession.html">a financial crisis caused by a pandemic</a> and a year of <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-lives-matter-movement-finds-new-urgency-and-allies-because-of-covid-19-141500">global civil rights protests</a> following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. </p>
<p>Both the pandemic and the protests have forced the public to reckon with the racial wealth gap in both <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/02/27/examining-the-black-white-wealth-gap/">the U.S.</a> <a href="https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/canadas-colour-coded-income-inequality">and Canada</a>, and <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/broadbent/pages/7831/attachments/original/1611011661/Addressing_Economic_Racism_in_Canada's_Pandemic_Response_and_Recovery_-_Report.pdf">economic racism</a> in Canada’s pandemic response and recovery. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.20955/r.2017.59-76">Economists like Darrick Hamilton and William A. Darity, Jr.</a> have shown how deep-seated economic and social structures, such as inheritance and intergenerational wealth transfers benefiting whites, perpetuate wealth inequality and racism in the U.S. Yet, they write, financial literacy narratives imply that poor decision-making or deficient financial knowledge on the part of Black Americans is at the root of poverty. </p>
<p>Political economist <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10253866.2014.1000315">Chris Clarke</a> has noted how in response to economic crises, financial literacy education appears to serve as a coping strategy that makes people more resilient in the face of inevitable market failures. </p>
<p>But in positioning financial crashes as inevitable, the contradictory elements of this thinking become evident: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10253866.2014.1000315">Market-conforming behaviour endorsed by financial literacy education cannot ultimately guarantee economic well-being for its subjects</a>. </p>
<p>Recipients of financial literacy education are instructed, as Clarke writes, in “learning to fail.”</p>
<h2>Key takeaways from COVID-19</h2>
<p>Let’s challenge the idea that if we learn to better manage our money, we can prevent the next financial meltdown or thrive in it. </p>
<p>On the contrary, the pandemic has reminded us that we aren’t self-reliant but part of a collective. What we now see is a powerful case for a strong social safety net that includes <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal-sickness-benefit-paid-sick-leave-1.5872913">paid sick leave</a>, <a href="https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/blog/2020-housing-observer/housing-matters-during-covid19-national-housing-day-2020">affordable housing</a>, unemployment insurance and a strong health-care system.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-ontario-had-to-transfer-thousands-of-toronto-covid-19-patients-to-other-cities-hospitals-160109">Why Ontario had to transfer thousands of Toronto COVID-19 patients to other cities' hospitals</a>
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<p>Years of <a href="https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/jean-chretiens-austerity-made-canada-less-prepared-for-covid-19">austerity policies</a> and a disinvestment in the welfare state prior to the pandemic, however, have only exacerbated the effects of COVID-19 in Canada.</p>
<p>At the same time, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/cerb-was-luxurious-compared-to-provincial-social-assistance-158501?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter">Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB)</a> showed economic restructuring and wealth redistribution are possible once a problem is deemed a crisis. </p>
<h2>Poor decisions by those in power</h2>
<p>Instead of focusing on financial literacy education for students, let’s reframe the discussion around the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/17432197-4211350">profound illiteracy</a> of those in power. </p>
<p>Poor policy-making allowed <a href="https://www.policynote.ca/the-rich-and-the-rest-of-us/">Canadian billionaires</a> to increase their wealth by $78 billion during the pandemic while nearly <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/210604/dq210604a-eng.htm?HPA=1">three million Canadians</a> lost their jobs in March and April 2020 alone. </p>
<p>Those <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/immigrants-at-higher-risk-of-death-from-covid-19-due-to-work-overcrowded-housing-statcan-1.5463480">working in poorly paid essential industries</a> who could not afford time off bore the burden of COVID-19 infections and deaths. </p>
<p>Today, as the planet <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/57770728">continues to burn</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-vaccinations-tracker.html">many people globally</a> await vaccines, we see the hoarding and squandering of resources. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who’s amassed almost <a href="https://inequality.org/great-divide/updates-billionaire-pandemic/">$70 billion</a> since the pandemic began, recently made headlines when he celebrated a <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/162928/richard-branson-jeff-bezos-space-blue-origin">private space race</a>.</p>
<p>Teaching kids better budgeting won’t fix inequality. Addressing the financial literacy of politicians and key decision-makers who make policies that leave CEOs like Bezos avoiding <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax">federal income taxes</a> or allow wealthy Canadians to squirrel funds away in <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/08/22/why-do-canadas-wealthiest-families-get-huge-tax-breaks.html">offshore tax havens</a> just might.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159176/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Agata Soroko receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>Teaching kids better budgeting won’t fix post-pandemic inequalities. A more robust social safety net, less hoarding and squandering of wealth and more equitable tax policies might.Agata Soroko, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Education, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1649402021-07-23T05:22:15Z2021-07-23T05:22:15ZKeen to sign up for space tourism? Here are 6 things to consider (besides the price tag)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412834/original/file-20210723-23-10ujqv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C2000%2C1104&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Blue Origin/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s been a momentous month for space-faring billionaires. On July 11, British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson’s Unity “rocket-plane” <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57797297">flew him and five fellow passengers</a> about 85 kilometres above Earth. And this week, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ New Shepard capsule <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-20/jeff-bezos-soars-into-space-on-blue-origins-new-shepard-rocket/100304412">reached an altitude of 106km</a>, carrying Bezos, his brother, and the <a href="https://www.universetoday.com/151900/blue-origin-successfully-launches-the-oldest-and-youngest-person-to-ever-go-to-space-oh-and-jeff-bezos-too/">oldest and youngest people</a> ever to reach such a height. Passengers on both flights experienced several minutes of weightlessness and took in breathtaking views of our beautiful and fragile Earth. </p>
<p>Both flights created an avalanche of media coverage and brand recognition for Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Bezos’s Blue Origin. There is renewed anticipation of a lucrative commercial space tourism industry that could eventually see thousands of paying passengers journey into space (or not quite into space, depending on your preferred level of pedantry).</p>
<p>This year marks 60 years since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. Since then, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_travelers_by_nationality">almost 600 trained astronauts</a> have gone into outer space, but very few people have become space tourists. </p>
<p>The first, US engineer Dennis Tito, paid a reported US$20 million to spend six days orbiting Earth in the Russian section of the International Space Station in April 2001, after three months’ training at Russia’s Star City complex. He was followed by a handful of other very wealthy “orbital tourists”, most recently Cirque de Soleil founder Guy Laliberté in 2009, whose ticket reportedly cost US$35 million.</p>
<p>Unlike their predecessors, Branson’s and Bezos’ flights were suborbital – they didn’t reach the velocity needed to orbit Earth. Bezos’s entire flight lasted just over 10 minutes. Suborbital flights are much less technically complex, and in theory cheaper (although one seat on the New Shepard flight was <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/15/blue-origin-reveals-oliver-daemen-flying-to-space-with-jeff-bezos.html">auctioned for US$28 million</a>).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Interior of Blue Origin capsule" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412835/original/file-20210723-19-12y56wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412835/original/file-20210723-19-12y56wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412835/original/file-20210723-19-12y56wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412835/original/file-20210723-19-12y56wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412835/original/file-20210723-19-12y56wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412835/original/file-20210723-19-12y56wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412835/original/file-20210723-19-12y56wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">You expect a luxurious interior when you pay this much.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Craft/Blue Origin/AP</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>While they might quibble over billionaire bragging rights, there’s no denying that suborbital “space” flights have the potential to be less eye-wateringly expensive than going into orbital outer space and beyond.</p>
<p>But before you sign up – assuming you’re lucky enough to afford it – here are a few things to consider. </p>
<h2>Where does space start, anyway?</h2>
<p>Despite <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/09/where-space-begins-bezos-blue-origin-vs-bransons-virgin-galactic.html">assertions to the contrary</a>, there is no legal definition of “outer space”, and thus no official boundary where airspace ends and outer space begins. In the past, the International Aeronautical Federation has looked to the <a href="https://www.fai.org/page/icare-boundary">von Karman line</a>, but this does not coincide with the boundary of any of the atmosphere’s scientifically defined layers, and the <a href="https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/copuos/index.html">UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space</a>, which deals with such issues, has not yet resolved the question. </p>
<p>Conveniently for Branson, 80km has been <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.07894">proposed</a> by some experts as an appropriate boundary. </p>
<p>Outer space is undeniably influenced by Earthly geopolitics. Essentially, the larger space-faring countries see no need to legally define a boundary that would clearly demarcate the upper limits of their sovereignty.</p>
<h2>Will you be an ‘astronaut’?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/outerspacetreaty.html">1967 UN Outer Space Treaty</a> designates astronauts as “envoys of (hu)mankind in outer space”. Certainly, that seemed to be the case as the world watched the historic Apollo 11 Moon landing and prayed for a safe return of the stricken Apollo 13 capsule. However, the <a href="https://www.unoosa.org/pdf/gares/ARES_22_2345E.pdf">1968 UN Rescue Agreement</a> refers to “personnel of a spacecraft”, which may imply not everyone on board should be considered a fully fledged astronaut.</p>
<p>Of course, these legal niceties won’t deter space tourism companies from awarding “astronaut wings” to their passengers.</p>
<h2>What laws apply when things go wrong?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.space.com/31760-space-shuttle-challenger-disaster-30-years.html">1986 Challenger</a> and <a href="https://www.space.com/19436-columbia-disaster.html">2003 Columbia</a> shuttle disasters are stark reminders of the dangers of space travel. Human space travel has always involved determining acceptable levels of risk for trained astronauts. But commercial space tourism is different to state-sponsored space programs, and will need the highest possible safety standards. </p>
<p>Commercial space travel will also require a system of responsibility and liability, for cases in which a space tourist suffers injury, loss or damage. </p>
<p>Space tourists (or their families) can’t claim for compensation under the <a href="https://www.unoosa.org/pdf/gares/ARES_26_2777E.pdf">1972 UN Liability Convention</a> which, in terms of space, applies only to collisions between space objects such as satellites and space debris. While there may be scope to take legal action under national laws, it is likely space tourists will be asked to sign carefully worded waivers of liability.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/want-to-become-a-space-tourist-you-finally-can-if-you-have-250-000-and-a-will-to-sign-your-life-away-160543">Want to become a space tourist? You finally can — if you have $250,000 and a will to sign your life away</a>
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<p>The same is probably true of <a href="https://www.iata.org/contentassets/fb1137ff561a4819a2d38f3db7308758/mc99-full-text.pdf">international air law</a>, which applies to “aircraft” — a designation space tourism operators will understandably be keen to avoid. </p>
<p>Ultimately, we may need to develop a system of “aerospace law” to govern these suborbital flights as well as “transorbital” transport such as the <a href="https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/flights/uk-to-australia-in-just-four-hours-with-6437kph-passenger-jet-set-to-launch-by-2030/news-story/021b1a480d63958711e50b60ededfaa8">keenly envisaged</a> flights that might one day take passengers from Sydney to London in just a few hours.</p>
<h2>What activities should be allowed in space?</h2>
<p>The advent of space tourism will give rise to some interesting ethical questions. Should there be advertising billboards in space? What about casinos, or brothels? On what legal basis should these things be restricted?</p>
<p>How does tourism fit with the underlying philosophy of space law: that the exploration and use of outer space “shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries”?</p>
<h2>Will space tourism harm the environment?</h2>
<p>Space tourism will inevitably put pressure on Earth’s environment – there are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jul/19/billionaires-space-tourism-environment-emissions">claims</a> that space vehicles may one day become the world’s biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions. We will need to manage space traffic carefully to avoid disastrous collisions and steer clear of <a href="http://ilareporter.org.au/2021/07/space-debris-a-major-challenge-for-the-future-of-humanity-steven-freeland/">space debris</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-how-big-your-laser-is-its-how-you-use-it-space-law-is-an-important-part-of-the-fight-against-space-debris-158790">It's not how big your laser is, it's how you use it: space law is an important part of the fight against space debris</a>
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<p>If tourists go to the Moon, they may cause pollution or damage the heritage of earlier exploration, such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/11/science/moon-apollo-11-archaeology-preservation.html">Neil Armstrong’s footprints</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Neil Armstrong's lunar footprint" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412826/original/file-20210723-17-1txet4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412826/original/file-20210723-17-1txet4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412826/original/file-20210723-17-1txet4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412826/original/file-20210723-17-1txet4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412826/original/file-20210723-17-1txet4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412826/original/file-20210723-17-1txet4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412826/original/file-20210723-17-1txet4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Do not disturb.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NASA</span></span>
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<h2>Will tourism workers have to live in space?</h2>
<p>If space tourism does become truly widespread, it will need infrastructure and perhaps even staff. People may end up living permanently in space settlements, perhaps having children who will be born as “space citizens”. What legal rights would someone have if they were born at a Moon base? Would they be subject to terrestrial laws, or some version of current international legal rules for outer space?</p>
<p>These are obviously questions for the future. But given the excitement generated by the brief journeys of a couple of wealthy entrepreneurs, we should start contemplating them now. Outer space is the new frontier, but it is not — and must not — be a lawless one.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164940/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Freeland is a Director of the International Institute of Space Law</span></em></p>Sure, they’re billionaires, but the exploits of Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos have undeniably brought space tourism a step closer. That raises tricky legal, ethical and environmental questions.Steven Freeland, Professorial Fellow, Bond University / Emeritus Professor of International Law, Western Sydney University, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1646812021-07-21T12:35:45Z2021-07-21T12:35:45ZWhy Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘Whitey on the Moon’ still feels relevant today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412292/original/file-20210720-19-1ua2mum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3000%2C1926&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Recent space flights by multi-billionaires highlight the extreme economic inequality in America.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/blue-origins-new-shepard-crew-oliver-daemen-jeff-bezos-news-photo/1329733879?adppopup=true">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Not long after the July 20, 1969, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo11.html">Moon landing</a>, <a href="https://www.rockhall.com/story-gil-scott-heron">Gil Scott-Heron</a> – a poet hailed as the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/29/gil-scott-heron-godfather-of-rap">Godfather of Rap</a>” – released a scathingly critical song called “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goh2x_G0ct4">Whitey on the Moon</a>.” </p>
<p>While others lauded the lunar landing as a “<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo11.html">giant leap for mankind</a>,” Scott-Heron lamented the Moon trip in his lyrical litany. He felt the trip consumed resources that could have been better put to use helping people confront the everyday costs of living on Earth.</p>
<p>I don’t recall precisely when I first heard “Whitey on the Moon.” But I distinctly remember the cadence and flow sounding so much like the kinds of rap I appreciate today as a hip-hop scholar and lyricist. I was especially enamored with the refrain of “whitey’s on the moon” and how the song was bookended by the immediate issue at home: “a rat done bit my sister, Nell.” </p>
<p>“I can’t pay no doctor bills, but whitey’s on the moon,” Scott-Heron says. “Ten years from now I’ll be paying still, while whitey’s on the moon.”</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘Whitey on the Moon.’</span></figcaption>
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<p>The year 2021 is shaping up to be an interesting year to revisit Scott-Heron’s “Whitey on the Moon.”</p>
<p>For one, in May 2021, the late Scott-Heron was <a href="https://americansongwriter.com/the-rock-roll-hall-of-fame-reveals-2021-inductees/">inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame</a>. A hall of fame web page recognized him as a “<a href="https://www.rockhall.com/story-gil-scott-heron">teller of uncomfortable truths</a>.”</p>
<p>Perhaps more interestingly, people are discovering “Whitey on the Moon” anew and applying its prescient precepts to the 2021 space trips of billionaires <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/11/tech/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-space-flight-scn/index.html">Richard Branson</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/20/science/jeff-bezos-space-flight">Jeff Bezos</a>, and, <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2021/07/19/when-will-elon-musk-go-to-space-14940350/">perhaps eventually, Elon Musk</a>.</p>
<h2>Reverberations</h2>
<p>In writing about the 2021 documentary of the “Summer of Soul” music festival of 1969, which coincided with the Moon landing, a film critic in July 2021 noted how Black sentiments about the seeming wastefulness of the Moon trip then represents an “<a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2021/07/harlem-cultural-festival-black-woodstock-summer-of-soul-questlove-film-review">extraordinarily topical sequence now</a>, with billionaires funding rockets to fly into space, while memes fly around social media quoting Gil Scott-Heron’s bitter song ‘Whitey on the Moon.’”</p>
<p>Another writer – in discussing the Branson and Bezos space trips – described “Whitey on the Moon” as “<a href="https://newsone.com/4172558/billionaires-space-race-whitey-on-the-moon-song/">a nod to the privileges enjoyed by non-Black people</a> that allowed them to pursue their prideful pet projects that did not necessarily make the world a better place for most Americans.”</p>
<p>I suspect these writers sense – as I do – that we are living in the same dystopian present. It is a time in which the “whitey” in Scott-Heron’s poem could be any of the three billionaires who are the faces of the current space race, which is taking place in an era of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cost-of-inequity-how-inequity-persists-in-american-daily-life-2021-6">profound inequity</a> that helped them become billionaires in the first place.</p>
<p>There are tons of examples of earthly “Sister Nells” who have been and are currently being bitten by rats on Earth while rich white men are taking tourism to the heavenly skies.</p>
<p>I believe that people, more or less, feel that the song points out the kind of inequity that lies at the heart of the ability to amass exorbitant wealth that affords the likes of Branson, Bezos and Musk the privilege to be the first space tourists.</p>
<h2>False choices</h2>
<p>There’s another reason the song feels prescient. Whereas Gil Scott-Heron spoke as if it’s the taxes he’s paying directly funding “whitey” on the Moon, currently the discussion surrounding Branson, Bezos and Musk is that they <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/12/09/jeff-bezos-elon-musk-space-facilities-aided-b-tax-break/">aren’t being taxed enough</a>. One report even found that the three billionaires are getting <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-12-09/elon-musk-jeff-bezos-use-opportunity-zone-tax-breaks-for-private-space-race?srnd=premium&sref=rEjryNCU">tax breaks meant for poor neighborhoods</a>.</p>
<p>Yet as Professor of Physics and Astronomy Chanda Prescod-Weinstein has argued, space exploration and helping people on Earth <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/14/equal-access-space-night-sky-branson/">need not be an either-or proposition.</a></p>
<p>“We can afford to do the caring work of sustaining people, including honoring everyone’s right to know and love the night sky,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/14/equal-access-space-night-sky-branson/">she writes</a>.</p>
<p>Such nuanced views are <a href="https://theconversation.com/10-hip-hop-songs-to-take-you-on-a-voyage-into-space-157659">reflected in the increasingly sophisticated ways</a> in which rappers deal with space travel.</p>
<p>For instance, in “Black Astronaut” – a 2021 Apple Music Exclusive – the rapper Saba continues the tradition of hip-hop artists who write about celestial matters as metaphors to describe limits placed on their earthly existence.</p>
<p><em>Black astronaut, forecast report / How they actually thought that you wouldn’t find your way / That matters not, it’s an act of God / Can I tag along, now that you’re in outer space? / Now that you’re in outer space…</em></p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The video for ‘Black Astronaut’ by Saba.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In the same way that space travel can be seen as an inevitability, society should also be trying to ask the kinds of questions that prompt reflections about who is represented and how.</p>
<p>Will Black creativity go to space before everyday Black folks – not just Black astronauts – are afforded the opportunity? I suppose that question has already been answered since the will.i.am song – “Reach for the Stars” – <a href="https://www.space.com/17341-mars-rover-beams-will-i-am-song.html">made it to space before he did</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164681/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A.D. Carson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In 1970, Gil Scott-Heron penned a spoken word song called ‘Whitey on the Moon’ that criticized the 1969 Moon landing. A hip-hop scholar explains why the song still reverberates today.A.D. Carson, Assistant Professor of Hip-Hop, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1645112021-07-20T13:32:05Z2021-07-20T13:32:05ZBillionaire space race: the ultimate symbol of capitalism’s flawed obsession with growth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411894/original/file-20210719-13-16uy9dq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C242%2C1540%2C1199&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/hitchhiking-astronaut-5259414/">Tom Leishman/Pexels</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids, laments the Rocket Man in Elton John’s timeless classic. In fact, it’s cold as hell. But that doesn’t seem to worry a new generation of space entrepreneurs intent on colonising the “final frontier” as fast as possible. </p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong. I’m no sullen technophobe. As lockdown projects go, Nasa’s landing of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-the-perseverance-rover-lands-on-mars-theres-a-lot-we-already-know-about-the-red-planet-from-meteorites-found-on-earth-155459">Perseverance rover</a> on the surface of the red planet earlier this year was a hell of a blast. Watching it reminded me that I once led a high school debate defending the motion: this house believes that humanity should reach for the stars. </p>
<p>It must have been around the time that Caspar Weinberger was trying to persuade President Nixon <a href="https://www.wired.com/2013/09/ending-apollo-1968/">not to cancel</a> the Apollo space programme. My brothers and I had watched the monochrome triumph of the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo11.html">Apollo 11 landing</a> avidly in 1969. We’d witnessed the near disaster of <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo13.html">Apollo 13</a> – immortalised in a 1995 Hollywood <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/apr/17/apollo-13-tom-hanks-space-ron-howard">film</a> – when Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks) and two rookie astronauts narrowly escaped with their lives by using the Lunar Module as an emergency life raft. We knew it was exciting up there.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YwG4F-16Tno?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>I remember later going to see Apollo 13 (the film) with a friend who wasn’t born when the mission itself took place. “What did you think?” I asked as we came out of the cinema. “It was OK,” said my friend. “Just not very believable.”</p>
<p>But we kids were glued to our black-and-white TV sets the entire week of the original mission. We watched in horror as CO₂ levels rose in the Lunar Module. We endured the endless blackout as the returning astronauts plunged perilously back to Earth. We held our breath with the rest of the world as the expected four minutes stretched to five and hope began to fade. It was a full six minutes before the camera finally came into focus on the command module’s parachutes – safely deployed above the Pacific Ocean. We felt the endorphin rush. We knew it was believable.</p>
<p>That was 1970. This is now. And here I am again on the edge of another sofa, in the lingering uncertainty of the time of COVID-19, waiting for signs of arrival from another re-entry blackout on another barren rock, devoid of breathable atmosphere, 200 million miles away. And when the Perseverance Rover finally touches down on the surface of Mars: that same exhilaration. That same endorphin rush. Quite difficult to witness the jubilation behind the masks at Nasa’s mission control without feeling a glimmer of vicarious joy. Hope, even. </p>
<p>But Nasa’s clever science experiment is just the tip of an expansionary iceberg. A teaser, if you will, for an ambitious dream that is being driven faster and faster by huge commercial interests. A curious twist in a debate that has been raging now for almost half a century. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Red Martian landscape." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411858/original/file-20210719-21-1wp8mnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411858/original/file-20210719-21-1wp8mnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411858/original/file-20210719-21-1wp8mnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411858/original/file-20210719-21-1wp8mnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411858/original/file-20210719-21-1wp8mnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411858/original/file-20210719-21-1wp8mnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411858/original/file-20210719-21-1wp8mnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nasa’s Perseverance Mars rover used its dual-camera Mastcam-Z imager to capture this image. a hill about 2.5km away.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25904/mastcam-z-views-santa-cruz-on-mars/">NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Growth wars</h2>
<p>Ever since 1972, when a team of MIT scientists published a massively influential report on the <a href="https://www.clubofrome.org/publication/the-limits-to-growth/">Limits to Growth</a>, <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6468/950">economists have been fighting</a> about whether it’s possible for the economy to expand forever. Those who believe it can, appeal to the <a href="https://andrewmcafee.org/more-from-less/overivew">power of technology</a> to “decouple” economic activity from its effects on the planet. Those (like me) who believe it can’t point to the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332500379_Is_Green_Growth_Possible">limited evidence for decoupling</a> at anything like the pace that’s needed to avoid a climate emergency or prevent a catastrophic decline in biodiversity. </p>
<p>The growth debate often hangs on the power you attribute to technology to save us. Usually it’s the technophiles arguing for infinite growth on a finite planet – sometimes putting their hopes in speculative technologies such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-co-capture-technology-is-not-the-magic-bullet-against-climate-change-115413">direct air capture</a> or dangerous ones like nuclear power. And usually it’s the sceptics arguing for a <a href="Http://www.timjackson.org.uk/postgrowth">post-growth economy</a>. But the simple division between technophiles and technophobes has never been particularly helpful. Very few growth sceptics reject technology completely. No one at all is asking humanity to return to the cave. </p>
<p>My own research teams at the University of Surrey have been <a href="https://www.cusp.ac.uk/team/team/t_jackson/">exploring the vital role</a> of sustainable technology in transforming the economy for almost three decades now. But we’ve also shown how the dynamics of capitalism – in particular its relentless pursuit of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/opinion/sunday/lets-be-less-productive.html">productivity growth</a> – continually push society towards materialistic goals, and undermine those parts of the economy such as <a href="Http://www.timjackson.org.uk/pwg">care, craft and creativity</a>, which are essential to our quality of life. </p>
<p>And now suddenly, along comes a group of self-confessed technology lovers finally admitting that the planet is too small for us. Yes, you were right, they imply: the Earth cannot sustain infinite growth. That’s why we have to expand into space. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p><strong><em>This story is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> and is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects to tackle societal and scientific challenges.</em> </p>
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<p>Wait. What just happened? Did somebody move the goalposts? Something is wrong. Maybe it’s me. One thing I know for sure. I’m no longer the same kid I was – the one from the debating society. This house believes that humanity should grow the fuck up. </p>
<p>Before it spends <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/top-10-what-are-the-top-10-most-expensive-space-missions/">trillions of dollars</a> littering its <a href="https://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Space_Debris/The_cost_of_space_debris#:%7E:text=Space%20debris%20is%20expensive%2C%20and%20will%20become%20even%20more%20so&text=For%20satellites%20in%20geostationary%20orbit,higher%20than%205%E2%80%9310%25.">techno-junk</a> around the solar system, this house believes that humanity should pay a little more attention to what’s happening right here and now. On this planet.</p>
<h2>The human condition</h2>
<p>Perhaps ironically, it was from space that we saw it first. In October 1957, the Soviets sent an unmanned orbital satellite called <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_924.html">Sputnik</a> into space. It was one of those odd moments in history (like the coronavirus) that dramatically reshapes our social world. Sputnik kicked off the space race, intensified the arms race and heightened the cold war. It was a huge blow to US self-esteem not to be the first nation to reach space and it was the jolt it used to kickstart the Apollo Moon shot. No one likes coming second. Least of all the most powerful people on the planet.</p>
<p>But Sputnik also signalled the beginning of a new relationship between humanity and its earthly home. As the political philosopher <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arendt/">Hannah Arendt</a> remarked in the prologue to her 1958 masterpiece, <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Human_Condition/bGlwDwAAQBAJ">The Human Condition</a>, going into space allowed us to grasp our planetary predicament for the first time in history. It was a reminder that “the Earth is the quintessence of the human condition”. And nature itself, “for all we know, may be unique in providing human beings with a habitat in which they can move and breathe without effort and without artifice”.</p>
<p>Fair point. And nothing we’ve learned in the intervening years has changed that prognosis. Mars may be the most habitable planet in the solar system, outside our own. But it’s still a very far cry from the beauty of home – whose fragility we only truly learned to appreciate fully from the images sent back to us from space.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411210/original/file-20210714-27-3ia7pw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A view of Earth rising from the Moon." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411210/original/file-20210714-27-3ia7pw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411210/original/file-20210714-27-3ia7pw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411210/original/file-20210714-27-3ia7pw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411210/original/file-20210714-27-3ia7pw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411210/original/file-20210714-27-3ia7pw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411210/original/file-20210714-27-3ia7pw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411210/original/file-20210714-27-3ia7pw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Earthrise.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/images/297755main_GPN-2001-000009_full.jpg">Nasa</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nature photographer Galen Rowell once called William Anders’ iconic photo <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/home/earthrise.html">Earthrise</a> – taken from the Apollo 8 module in lunar orbit – “the most influential environmental photograph ever taken”. Earthrise brought home to us, in one astonishing image, the stark reality that this shining orb was – and still is – humanity’s best chance for anything that might meaningfully be called the “good life”.</p>
<p>Its beauty is our beauty. Its fragility is our fragility. And its peril is our peril.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-scientists-concept-of-net-zero-is-a-dangerous-trap-157368">Climate scientists: concept of net zero is a dangerous trap</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>An inconvenient truth</h2>
<p>In the very same year that Arendt published The Human Condition, a Shell executive named Charles Jones presented <a href="http://www.climatefiles.com/trade-group/american-petroleum-institute/1958-air-pollution-research-program-smoke-fumes/">a paper</a> to the fossil fuel industry’s trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, warning of the impact of carbon emissions from fossil fuel combustion on the atmosphere. It was early evidence of climate change. </p>
<p>It was also evidence, according to lawsuits <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2021/jun/30/climate-crimes-fossil-fuels-cities-states-interactive">now being filed</a> by cities and states in the US, that companies like Shell knew it was happening more than 60 years ago – three decades before James Hansen’s <a href="https://grist.org/article/james-hansens-legacy-scientists-reflect-on-climate-change-in-1988-2018-and-2048/">scientific testimony</a> to Congress in 1988 brought global warming to public attention. And they did nothing about it. Worse, argue plaintiffs like the <a href="https://eu.delawareonline.com/story/news/2020/09/10/delaware-sues-exxon-chevron-and-bp-role-climate-change/3457202001/">state of Delaware</a>, they lied over and again to cover up this “inconvenient truth”.</p>
<p>Why such a thing could happen is now clear. Evidence of their impact was a direct threat to the profits of some of the most powerful corporations on the planet. Profit is the bedrock of capitalism. And as I argue in <a href="http://www.timjackson.org.uk/postgrowth">my new book</a>, we have allowed capitalism to trump everything: work, life, hope – even good governance. The most enlightened governments in the world have turned a blind eye to the need for urgent action. Now we’re on the verge of being too late to fix it. Achieving net zero by 2050 is <a href="https://theconversation.com/2050-is-too-late-we-must-drastically-cut-emissions-much-sooner-121512">no longer enough</a>. We need much more, much faster to avoid ending up in an unliveable <a href="https://theconversation.com/hothouse-earth-our-planet-has-been-here-before-heres-what-it-looked-like-101413">hothouse</a>.</p>
<p>Even as I write, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/10/us/west-heat-wave-death-valley.html">record-breaking temperatures</a>, 10-20°C above the seasonal average, have forced citizens on the west coast of North America into <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/01/portland-heatwave-like-microwave-hairdryer-blowing/">underground shelters</a> to avoid the searing heat. <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/us-wildfires-firefighters-grapple-with-raging-blazes-as-temperatures-soar-to-54c-in-californias-baking-death-valley-12354197">Wildfires</a> are raging in California’s Death Valley, where temperatures have reached an astonishing 54°C. On the storm-struck east coast, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/09/new-york-city-storm-flooding-climate-change">flood waters</a> have inundated the New York subway system. Thousands remain homeless and hundreds are still missing, meanwhile, as <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/germany-and-belgium-floods-rescuers-search-for-hundreds-of-missing-as-more-than-120-die-in-historic-disaster-12357532">historic flooding</a> across central Europe has left almost 200 people dead. </p>
<p>In the face of the blindingly obvious, even recalcitrant presidents and politicians are at last beginning to acknowledge the scale of the peril in which our relentless pursuit of economic growth has placed the planet. And in principle they still have time to do something about it.</p>
<p>As I and many colleagues have argued, the pandemic offers us a unique opportunity to fashion <a href="https://www.eesc.europa.eu/en/news-media/press-releases/economy-environment-and-peoples-well-being-must-go-hand-hand-post-covid-eu">a different kind of economy</a>. The 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Climate Change Convention (<a href="https://ukcop26.org/">COP26</a>) in Glasgow in November 2021 could well be the place to do that. Whether that happens or not will depend as much on vision as it does on science. And on our courage to confront the inequalities of power that led us to this point.</p>
<p>It will also depend on us going back to first principles and asking ourselves: how exactly should we aim to live in the only habitable world in the known universe? What is the nature of the good life available to us here? What can prosperity <a href="http://www.cusp.ac.uk">possibly mean</a> for a promiscuous species on a finite planet?</p>
<p>The question is almost as old as the hills. But the contemporary answer to it is paralysingly narrow. Cast in the garb of late capitalism, prosperity has been captured by the ideology of “growth at all costs”: an insistence that more is always better. Despite <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jq23mSDh9U">overwhelming evidence</a> that relentless expansion is undermining nature and driving us towards a devastating climate emergency, the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMrtLsQbaok">fairytales of eternal growth</a>” still reign supreme.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Group of people sit in forest near bonfire." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412110/original/file-20210720-13-1b4b1fw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412110/original/file-20210720-13-1b4b1fw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412110/original/file-20210720-13-1b4b1fw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412110/original/file-20210720-13-1b4b1fw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412110/original/file-20210720-13-1b4b1fw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412110/original/file-20210720-13-1b4b1fw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412110/original/file-20210720-13-1b4b1fw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shouldn’t humanity focus on shoring up the good life on Earth before we race off into space?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/fDostElVhN8">Tegan Mierle/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Zero gravity</h2>
<p>It’s an ironic twist in the tale of the debate society kid I used to be that I’ve spent most of my professional life confronting those fairytales of growth. Don’t ask me how that happened. By accident mostly.</p>
<p>I toyed with the idea of studying astrophysics. But I ended up studying Maths at Cambridge, where I confess to being baffled by the complexity of it all, until I realised that even math is just a trick. Quite literally a formula. Believe in it and you can travel to the stars and back. In your mind, at least.</p>
<p>And there I was wandering around in zero G, when I woke up one day (in April 1986) to find that the Number four reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine had suffered a catastrophic meltdown. I suddenly realised that the very same skills I’d spent my life developing were leading humanity not towards the stars but away from the paradise we already inhabit.</p>
<p>So yes. I changed my mind. The next day I walked into the Greenpeace office in London and asked what I could do to help. They set me working on the <a href="https://www.elsevier.com/books/renewable-energy/jackson/978-1-4832-5695-5">economics of renewable energy</a> I became, accidentally, an economist. (Economics needs more accidental economists.) And that’s when it began to dawn on me that learning how to live well on this fragile planet is far more important than dreaming about the next one. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/virgin-galactic-and-blue-origin-can-they-be-more-than-space-joyrides-for-millionaires-164513">Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin: can they be more than 'space' joyrides for millionaires?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Mine is bigger than yours</h2>
<p>Not so the space race billionaires. A handful of unbelievably powerful men, whose wealth has <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2021/04/30/american-billionaires-have-gotten-12-trillion-richer-during-the-pandemic/">exploded</a> massively throughout the pandemic, are now busy trying to persuade us that the future lies not here on Earth but out there among the stars. </p>
<p>Tesla founder and serial entrepreneur, Elon Musk is one of these new rocket men. “Those who attack space,” he <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1414782972474048516">tweeted</a> recently, “maybe don’t realise that space represents hope for so many people”. That may be true of course in a world where huge inequalities of wealth and privilege strip hope from the lives of billions of people. But, as the spouse of a Nasa flight controller pointed out, it obscures the <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/07/07/no-billionaires-wont-escape-to-space-while-the-world-burns/?fbclid=IwAR3Hzv3TGOuflDjlSatFJQN0_nastGp1MCqP-AOU0PJrUQWtHIMxNcP-BEM">extraordinary demands</a> of escaping from Mother Earth, in terms of energy materials, people and time. </p>
<p>Undeterred, the rocket men gaze starward. If resources are the problem, then space must be the answer. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is pretty explicit about his own expansionary vision. “We can have a trillion humans in the solar system,” <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/jeff-bezos-foresees-trillion-people-living-millions-space-colonies-here-ncna1006036">he once declared</a>. “Which means we’d have a thousand Mozarts and a thousand Einsteins. This would be an incredible civilisation.”</p>
<p>Bezos and Musk have spent their lockdown contesting the top two places on the Forbes <a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/">rich list</a>. They’ve also been playing “mine is bigger than yours” in their own private space race for a couple of decades now. Bezos’s personal wealth <a href="https://inequality.org/great-divide/updates-billionaire-pandemic/">almost doubled</a> during the course of a pandemic that destroyed the lives and livelihoods of millions. He’s now stepping down to spend more time on Blue Origin, the company he hopes will deliver vast human colonies across the solar system.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.spacex.com/mission/">declared aim</a> of Musk’s rival company, SpaceX, is “to make humanity multiplanetary”. Just like <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/our-greatest-political-novelist">Kim Stanley Robinson</a>’s science fiction <a href="https://space.nss.org/book-review-red-mars/">trilogy</a> back in the 1990s, Musk aims to establish a <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-drops-details-for-spacexs-million-person-mars-mega-colony/">permanent human colony</a> on Mars. To get there, he reasons, we need very big rockets – or, in the original terminology of SpaceX, Big Fucking Rockets (<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/19/18-new-details-about-elon-musks-redesigned-moon-bound-big-fing-rocket/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJd2kjzq4ZnY7YFIEcz1ZTmBPm7MmuQ_2wfNs9erxRMlo4qDio6p9lDkDY7I00A3KvMN5ZKZkkkxZB_ldqttJgYIGM2a4zE5NLSWLYRZMI11-1xbvn31Q6uJBOOn11q5oVbllHCYDhH3ygdBFbWUXOu2H2tXqDsVhtsvMKEe5s_w">BFRs</a>) – eventually capable of transporting scores of people and hundreds of tonnes of equipment millions of miles across the solar system.</p>
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<p>The BFRs have now given way to a series of (more sedately named) Starships. And to prove his green credentials Musk desperately wants these <a href="https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/">starships</a> to be reusable. So much so that SpaceX conspired to blow up four consecutive Starship prototypes in quick succession during the first four months of 2021 trying unsuccessfully to re-land them.</p>
<p>Move fast and break things is the Silicon Valley motto of course. But eventually you’ve got to bring the goods home. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/5/6/the-starship-has-landed-spacex-nails-reusable-craft-touchdown">Starship SN15</a> finally achieved that on May 5 – three weeks after SpaceX had landed a massive <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/science/spacex-moon-nasa.html">US$2.9 billion</a> contract from Nasa, nudging Blue Origin into the space race shadows.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/space-tourism-rockets-emit-100-times-more-co-per-passenger-than-flights-imagine-a-whole-industry-164601">Space tourism: rockets emit 100 times more CO₂ per passenger than flights – imagine a whole industry</a>
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<p>Not wanting to be outdone, Bezos came up with what he must have hoped was the ultimate comeback. When Blue Origin’s <a href="https://www.blueorigin.com/new-shepard/">New Shepard</a> rocket – which is also reusable – made its first manned space flight on July 20, he and his brother Mark would be two of the first few passengers on board. Wow, Jeff! Kudos man! Now you really show us your <em>cojones</em>! Nobody likes coming second. Least of all the most powerful people on the planet.</p>
<p>But sometimes you get no choice. Out of the blue, without so much as a by-your-leave, Virgin boss, Richard Branson swooped in to steal everyone’s thunder. On July 11, nine days before Bezos’s big day, Branson became the first ever billionaire to <a href="https://theconversation.com/virgin-galactic-space-tourism-takes-off-with-bransons-inaugural-flight-164142">launch himself into space</a>.</p>
<p>And for a cool US$250,000, he promised us, you too can be one of Virgin Galactic’s 600 or so breathless customers, waiting to enjoy three or four weightless minutes gazing back in rapture at the planet you’ve left behind. Apparently, Musk has <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/12/22573850/elon-musk-richard-branson-spaceplane-virgin-galactic">already signed up</a>. Bezos doesn’t need to. He’s made his own <a href="https://www.space.com/news/live/blue-origin-jeff-bezos-launch-updates">virgin space flight</a> now. </p>
<h2>Prosperity as health</h2>
<p>The space rhetoric of the super-rich betrays a mentality that may once have served humanity well. Some would say it’s a quintessential feature of capitalism. Innovation upon innovation. A driving ambition to expand and explore. A primal urge to escape our origins and reach for the next horizon. Space travel is a natural extension of our <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/10/can-we-have-prosperity-without-growth">obsession with economic growth</a>. It’s the crowning jewel of capitalism. Further and faster is its frontier creed. </p>
<p>I’ve spent much of my professional life as a critic of that creed, not just for environmental reasons but on social grounds as well. The seven years I spent as economics commissioner on the UK’s <a href="http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/">Sustainable Development Commission</a> and my subsequent research at the <a href="http://www.cusp.ac.uk">Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity</a> revealed something fundamental about our aspirations for the good life. Something that has been underlined by the experience of the pandemic. </p>
<p>Prosperity is as much about health as it is about wealth. Ask people what matters most in their lives and the chances are that this will come out somewhere near the top of the list. Health for themselves. Health for their friends and their families. Health too – sometimes – for the fragile planet on which we live and on whose health we ourselves depend. </p>
<p>There’s something fascinating in this idea. Because it confronts the obsession with growth head on. As Aristotle pointed out in <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.html">Nicomachean Ethics</a> (a book named after his physician father), the good life is not a relentless search for more, but a continual process of finding a “virtuous” balance between too little and too much.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three people cross a rope bridge against mountain backdrop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411647/original/file-20210716-17-1msba3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411647/original/file-20210716-17-1msba3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411647/original/file-20210716-17-1msba3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411647/original/file-20210716-17-1msba3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411647/original/file-20210716-17-1msba3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411647/original/file-20210716-17-1msba3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411647/original/file-20210716-17-1msba3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Prosperity requires a balancing act, not a race to the stars.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tourist-walks-on-rope-suspension-bridge-1999042511">JuliaStar/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Population health provides an obvious example of this idea. Too little food and we’re struggling with diseases of malnutrition. Too much and we’re tipped into the “diseases of affluence” that <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight">now kill more people</a> than under-nutrition does. Good health depends on us finding and nurturing this balance. </p>
<p>This task is always tricky of course, even at the individual level. Just think about the challenge of keeping your exercise, your diet and your appetites in line with the outcome of a healthy body weight. But as <a href="https://www.timjackson.org.uk/postgrowth">I’ve argued</a>, living inside a system that has its sights continually focused on more makes the task near impossible. Obesity has tripled since 1975. Almost two-fifths of adults over 18 are overweight. Capitalism not only fails to recognise the point where balance lies. It has absolutely no idea how to stop when it gets there.</p>
<p>You’d think our brush with mortality through the pandemic would have brought some of this home to us. You’d think it would give us pause for thought about what really matters to us: the kind of world we want for our children; the kind of society we want to live in. And for many people it has. In a survey carried out during lockdown in the UK, <a href="https://www.thersa.org/press/releases/2019/brits-see-cleaner-air-stronger-social-bonds-and-changing-food-habits-amid-lockdown">85% of respondents</a> found something in their changed conditions they felt worth keeping and fewer than 10% wanted a complete return to normal. </p>
<p>When life and health are at stake, the ungodly scramble for wealth and status feels less and less attractive. Even the lure of technology pales. Family, conviviality and a sense of purpose come to the fore. These are the things that many people found they lacked most throughout the pandemic. But their importance in our lives was not a COVID accident: they are the most fundamental elements of a sustainable prosperity.</p>
<h2>The denial of death</h2>
<p>Something even more surprising has <a href="https://timjackson.org.uk/consumerism-theodicy/">emerged</a> during my three decades of research. Behind consumer capitalism, behind the frontier mentality, beyond the urge to expand forever lies a deep-seated and pervasive anxiety. </p>
<p>What does day two look like, Bezos once <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTwXS2H_iJo&ab_channel=AmazonNews">asked a crowd</a> of the faithful, referring to his famous maxim about the need to innovate. “Day two is stasis, followed by irrelevance, followed by excruciatingly painful decline, followed by death,” he said. “And that. Is why. It is always. Day one!” His audience loved it.</p>
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<p>Musk plays out his own inner demons just as disarmingly. “I’m not trying to be anyone’s saviour,” <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/elon_musk_the_future_we_re_building_and_boring/transcript?language=en">he once told</a> TED’s head curator, Chris Anderton. “I’m just trying to think about the future – and not be sad.” Again, the applause was deafening.</p>
<p>A well-trained therapist could have a field day with all of this. Take that miraculous day a few weeks after the Perseverance rover started sending home the most amazing selfies in the universe, when the Ingenuity helicopter made its <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQMTo0KuN5M">virgin flight</a> in the wafer thin atmosphere of Mars. It was the kind of outcome that could have intelligence agencies drooling over far less benign uses of the technology. But there was also something pretty existential going on.</p>
<p>The faint whispering of the Martian wind, relayed faithfully across the solar system, doesn’t just confirm the possibilities for aerial flight on an alien planet. It’s grist to the mill of an essential belief that human beings are endlessly creative and fiendishly clever.</p>
<p>Our visceral response to these momentary triumphs speaks to a branch of psychology called <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/basics/terror-management-theory">terror management theory</a> drawn from the work of cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker. It was explored in particular in his astonishing 1973 book <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Denial_of_Death/jyqGDwAAQBAJ">The Denial of Death</a>. In it, Becker argues that modern society has lost its way, precisely because we’ve become terrified of confronting the inevitability of our own demise.</p>
<p>Terror management theory tells us that, when mortality becomes “salient”, instead of addressing the underlying fear, we turn for comfort to the things which make us feel good. Capitalism itself is a massive comfort blanket, designed to help us never confront the mortality that awaits us all. So too are the dreams of the rocket men.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Placards at an environmental protest, one of which reads 'capitalism is killing us'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411283/original/file-20210714-25-euky4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411283/original/file-20210714-25-euky4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411283/original/file-20210714-25-euky4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411283/original/file-20210714-25-euky4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411283/original/file-20210714-25-euky4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411283/original/file-20210714-25-euky4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411283/original/file-20210714-25-euky4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">‘Capitalism is killing us’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/brisbane-queensland-australia-october-11-2019-1609351117">Alex Bee/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<h2>Beyond lockdown</h2>
<p>When Sputnik kickstarted the first “space race” six decades ago, a US newspaper headline called it “one step toward [our] escape from imprisonment to the Earth”. Arendt read those words with astonishment. She saw there a deep-seated “<a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Human_Condition/bGlwDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=hannah%20arendt%20'rebellion%20against%20human%20existence'&pg=PA2&printsec=frontcover&bsq=hannah%20arendt%20'rebellion%20against%20human%20existence'">rebellion against human existence</a>”. It isn’t just the pandemic that locks us down, the implication is. It’s the entire human condition.</p>
<p>The anxiety we feel is nothing new. The choice between confronting our fears and running away from them has always been a profound one. It’s exactly the choice we’re facing now. As vaccine roll-out brings a glimmer of light at the end of COVID-19, the temptation to rush into wild escapism is massive.</p>
<p>But for all its glamour, the “final frontier” is at best an amusement and at worst a fatal distraction from the urgent task of rebuilding a society ravaged by social injustice, climate change and a loss of faith in the future.</p>
<p>With most of us still reeling from what the World Health Organisation has called a <a href="https://theconversation.com/domestic-abuse-and-mental-ill-health-twin-shadow-pandemics-stalk-the-second-wave-148412">shadow pandemic</a> in mental health, any kind of escape plan at all looks remarkably like paradise. And emigrating to Mars is one hell of an escape plan.</p>
<p>Let’s dream of some “final frontier” by all means. But let’s focus our minds too on some quintessentially earthly priorities. Affordable healthcare. Decent homes for the poorest in society. A solid education for our kids. Reversing the decades-long precarity in the livelihoods of the frontline workers – the ones who saved our lives. Regenerating the devastating loss of the natural world. Replacing a frenetic consumerism with an economy of care and relationship and meaning.</p>
<p>Never have these things made so much sense to so many. Never has there been a better time to turn them into a reality. Not just for the handful of billionaires dreaming of unbridled wealth on the red planet, but for the eight billion mere mortals living out their far less brazen dreams on the blue one.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
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<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-scientists-concept-of-net-zero-is-a-dangerous-trap-157368?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Climate scientists: concept of net zero is a dangerous trap</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-the-world-a-history-of-how-a-silent-cosmos-led-humans-to-fear-the-worst-120193?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">The end of the world: a history of how a silent cosmos led humans to fear the worst</a></em></p></li>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Jackson receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.</span></em></p>Now is not the time for rocket men to abandon spaceship Earth.Tim Jackson, Professor of Sustainable Development and Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP), University of SurreyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1646012021-07-19T13:45:14Z2021-07-19T13:45:14ZSpace tourism: rockets emit 100 times more CO₂ per passenger than flights – imagine a whole industry<p>The commercial race to get tourists to space is heating up between Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson and former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. On Sunday 11 July, Branson ascended 80 km to reach the edge of space in his piloted <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57797297">Virgin Galactic VSS Unity</a> spaceplane. Bezos’ autonomous Blue Origin rocket <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/07/jeff-bezos-to-fly-on-blue-origin-first-passenger-flight-in-july.html">is due to launch on July 20</a>, coinciding with the anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. </p>
<p>Though Bezos loses to Branson in time, he is set to reach higher altitudes (<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/621ddc59-11fe-4101-8abf-701a53b2475f">about 120 km</a>). The launch will demonstrate his offering to very wealthy tourists: the opportunity to truly reach outer space. Both tour packages will provide passengers with a brief ten-minute frolic in zero gravity and glimpses of Earth from space. Not to be outdone, Elon Musk’s SpaceX will provide four to five days of <a href="https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-dragon-will-fly-space-tourists.html">orbital travel</a> with its Crew Dragon capsule later in 2021.</p>
<p>What are the environmental consequences of a space tourism industry likely to be? Bezos boasts his Blue Origin rockets are <a href="https://twitter.com/blueorigin/status/1413521631717122059?s=20">greener</a> than Branson’s VSS Unity. The Blue Engine 3 (BE-3) will <a href="https://www.space.com/blue-origin-jeff-bezos-new-shepard-first-crewed-launch-explained">launch</a> Bezos, his brother and two guests into space using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants. VSS Unity used <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57798167">a hybrid propellant</a> comprised of a solid carbon-based fuel, hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB), and a liquid oxidant, nitrous oxide (laughing gas). The SpaceX Falcon series of reusable rockets will propel the Crew Dragon into orbit using liquid kerosene and liquid oxygen. </p>
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<p>Burning these propellants provides the energy needed to launch rockets into space while also generating greenhouse gases and air pollutants. Large quantities of water vapour are produced by burning the BE-3 propellant, while combustion of both the VSS Unity and Falcon fuels produces CO₂, soot and some water vapour. The nitrogen-based oxidant used by VSS Unity also generates nitrogen oxides, compounds that contribute to air pollution closer to Earth.</p>
<p>Roughly <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2016EF000399">two-thirds</a> of the propellant exhaust is released into the stratosphere (12 km-50 km) and mesosphere (50 km-85 km), where it can persist for at least two to three years. The very high temperatures during launch and re-entry (when the protective heat shields of the returning crafts burn up) also convert stable nitrogen in the air into reactive nitrogen oxides.</p>
<p>These gases and particles have many negative effects on the atmosphere. In the stratosphere, nitrogen oxides and chemicals formed from the breakdown of water vapour convert ozone into oxygen, depleting the ozone layer which guards life on Earth against harmful UV radiation. Water vapour also produces stratospheric clouds that provide a surface for this reaction to occur at a faster pace than it otherwise would. </p>
<h2>Space tourism and climate change</h2>
<p>Exhaust emissions of CO₂ and soot trap heat in the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. Cooling of the atmosphere can also occur, as clouds formed from the emitted water vapour reflect incoming sunlight back to space. A depleted ozone layer would also absorb less incoming sunlight, and so heat the stratosphere less. </p>
<p>Figuring out the overall effect of rocket launches on the atmosphere will require detailed modelling, in order to account for these complex processes and the persistence of these pollutants in the upper atmosphere. Equally important is a clear understanding of how the space tourism industry will develop. </p>
<p>Virgin Galactic anticipates it will offer <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/0d9c9174-9374-4c48-a25b-3ae7dd6764b3">400 spaceflights each year</a> to the privileged few who can afford them. Blue Origin and SpaceX have yet to announce their plans. But globally, rocket launches wouldn’t need to increase by much from the current <a href="https://www.spacelaunchreport.com/logyear.html">100 or so performed each year</a> to induce harmful effects that are <a href="https://everydayastronaut.com/rocket-pollution/">competitive with other sources</a>, like ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and CO₂ from aircraft. </p>
<p>During launch, rockets can emit between four and ten times more nitrogen oxides than <a href="https://naei.beis.gov.uk/data/map-large-source">Drax</a>, the largest thermal power plant in the UK, over the same period. CO₂ emissions for the four or so tourists on a space flight will be between 50 and 100 times more than the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2019/jul/19/carbon-calculator-how-taking-one-flight-emits-as-much-as-many-people-do-in-a-year">one to three tonnes</a> per passenger on a long-haul flight.</p>
<p>In order for international regulators to keep up with this nascent industry and control its pollution properly, scientists need a better understanding of the effect these billionaire astronauts will have on our planet’s atmosphere.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164601/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eloise Marais receives funding from UKRI, the European Commission and DEFRA. </span></em></p>Here’s what a space tourism industry led by Bezos, Branson and Musk might mean for the planet.Eloise Marais, Associate Professor in Physical Geography, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1641422021-07-11T16:56:07Z2021-07-11T16:56:07ZVirgin Galactic: space tourism takes off with Branson’s inaugural flight<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410698/original/file-20210711-70680-1xjfnre.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=153%2C187%2C2089%2C1153&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Virgin Galactic takes off.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.virgingalactic.com/">Virgin Galactic</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57797297">successful flight</a> to the edge of space, he and his company Virgin Galactic have firmly established themselves in the history books as space tourism pioneers. </p>
<p>While not the <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/spacex-blue-origin-space-tourism">first tourist to enter space</a>, 70-year-old Branson is the first to make his journey with a commercial spaceflight company, marking a giant leap for the space tourism industry being championed by some of the world’s most famous billionaires.</p>
<p>Unlike its rivals, Virgin Galactic launched its spacecraft from a carrier craft – not from the ground. Branson and three Virgin Galactic mission specialists travelled along with two pilots in the company’s SpaceShipTwo craft “VSS Unity”, which was carried by a WhiteKnightTwo aircraft to an altitude of 50,000 feet before being launched from the carrier craft. The mothership aircraft, named VMS EVE (after Branson’s late mother), launched the afternoon of July 11, after a short weather-related delay. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1414257452267163649"}"></div></p>
<p>VSS Unity then ignited its own rocket, taking it to a height of over 50 miles above Earth. The four passengers experienced weightlessness and observed the curvature of the planet’s surface before reentering the earth’s atmosphere and landing at the company’s spaceport America base in New Mexico. </p>
<p>While SpaceShipTwo did not reach the Kármán line – 62 miles altitude above Earth and often regarded of as the edge of outer space – the Federal Aviation Administration puts the dividing line lower, at 50 miles. </p>
<p>Virgin Galactic’s success has not been an overnight one. Founded in 2004 to provide paying customers a trip into suborbital space, the company has experienced many false dawns over the years with projected dates of flights <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/will-virgin-galactic-ever-make-it-to-space-Richard-Branson">proving overly optimistic</a> and a major setback involving a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-next-for-space-tourism-after-spaceshiptwo-33801">fatal accident in 2014</a>.</p>
<p>The company has made substantial progress in recent years, achieving its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/dec/13/virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-launch-california-edge-of-space">first suborbital flight</a> in December 2018. Virgin Galactic became the first commercial spaceflight company to list on the stock market in October 2019. While the stock has been volatile in the meantime, it has rallied by around 50% since securing approval from the US Federal Aviation Authority last month to proceed with passenger flights. </p>
<p>With an eye on the history books, Virgin Galactic immediately announced plans to advance Branson’s spaceflight aboard SpaceShipTwo to July 11, upstaging by nine days his rival billionaire Jeff Bezos’ <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/61c46b8e-002f-4bae-b64f-0bb3632964cb">planned trip into space</a>. </p>
<p>Virgin Galactic plans to start commercial space tourism flights early next year. This is welcome news for the 600 aspiring space tourists who have waited years since making their reservations at a reported price of $250,000 in the late noughties. The company has plans to <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/621ddc59-11fe-4101-8abf-701a53b2475f">produce dozens of spacecraft</a> in anticipation of increased passenger demand. </p>
<h2>Billionaires blast off</h2>
<p>In winning the first round of the space tourism race, Branson has – for now – eclipsed his fellow billionaires, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and SpaceX and Tesla’s Elon Musk, and has scored a major marketing coup. However, both Bezos and Musk have ambitious plans for space tourism, extending in the case of the latter to the moon and even Mars.</p>
<p>Bezos himself is due to launch into space on July 20 – 52 years since the first moon landing – aboard his company Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. Bezos will be accompanied by his brother Mark Bezos, American aviator Wally Funk who was part of jettisoned programme to send women into space in the 1960s, and a fourth passenger who won the auction for the remaining seat with a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/06/12/1005908618/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-space-auction-winner-28-million">winning bid of US$28 million</a> (£20.1 million).</p>
<p>Beyond these initial flights with their billionaire founders aboard, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin will be competing to take paying customers on suborbital flights. </p>
<p>The two companies will also derive revenue from taking science experiments and researchers into space. This will be far less expensive than the more elaborate task of sending experiments and people to the International Space Station. Later this year, Musk’s SpaceX plans to send four passengers on a three-day orbit around the earth, circling it in a Crew Dragon capsule at an altitude of 335 miles. </p>
<p>With the takeoff of space tourism and more generally the business of space, Bezos, Branson and Musk can no longer be dismissed as wealthy boys with toys. They have brought a renewed pioneering spirit and entrepreneurial zeal and intensity to the space sector. In doing so, they have made substantial progress in advancing the frontier of space and space tourism.</p>
<p>They have created cost economies through, for example, their innovative implementation of circular economy principles. For example, SpaceX’s embrace of <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/spacex-launches-first-astronauts-on-a-reused-rocket">reusable rockets</a> has drastically reduced costs.</p>
<p>Critically, these flights have been an inspiration to others. Private capital is now flowing into the space sector with its size forecast to increase almost threefold by 2040 to <a href="https://www.morganstanley.com/Themes/global-space-economy">become a US$1 trillion industry</a> (£719 billion).</p>
<p>While the first round of the new space race may have a winner, there are many more rounds to be completed. Given the high risk nature of space travel and space more generally, there will be setbacks as well as successes. Still, while the stakes may be high, the potential rewards are great. Branson’s successful journey marks an important moment in the commercialisation of space.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164142/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louis Brennan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sir Richard Branson’s successful spaceflight marks the beginning of a new chapter for space tourism.Louis Brennan, Professor of Business Studies, Trinity College DublinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1642792021-07-09T17:34:26Z2021-07-09T17:34:26ZWhat’s a suborbital flight? An aerospace engineer explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410639/original/file-20210709-27-tad0gm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1599%2C797&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Virgin Galactic's Unity VSS spacecraft went on a suborbital test flight in May 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pressftp.virgingalactic.com/virgingalactic/press">VIrgin Galactic</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Suborbital” is a term you’ll be hearing a lot as Sir Richard Branson <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/07/09/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-space-dare-devil/">flies aboard Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity winged spaceship</a> and Jeff Bezos flies aboard <a href="https://phys.org/news/2021-07-virgin-galactic-blue-space-tourism.html">Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle</a> to touch the boundary of space and experience a few minutes of weightlessness. </p>
<p>But what exactly is “suborbital”? Simply put, it means that while these vehicles will cross the <a href="https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/where-space">ill-defined boundary of space</a>, they will not be going fast enough to stay in space once they get there.</p>
<p>If a spacecraft – or anything else, for that matter – reaches a <a href="https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/rocket/rktrflght.html">speed of 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h) or more</a>, instead of falling back to the ground, it will continuously fall around the Earth. That continuous falling is what it means to be in orbit and is how satellites and the Moon stay above Earth.</p>
<p>Anything that launches to space but does not have sufficient horizontal velocity to stay in space – like these rockets – comes back to Earth and therefore flies a suborbital trajectory.</p>
<h2>Why these suborbital flights matter</h2>
<p>Although the two spacecraft launched in July 2021 will not reach orbit, the accomplishment of reaching space in private spacecraft is a major milestone in the history of humanity. Those aboard these and all future private-sector, suborbital flights will for a few minutes be in space, experience a few minutes of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-zero-gravity-that-people-experience-in-the-vomit-comet-or-space-flight-133144">exhilarating weightlessness</a> and absolutely earn their astronaut wings.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410641/original/file-20210709-19-1fdb8il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A diagram showing paths around the Earth." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410641/original/file-20210709-19-1fdb8il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410641/original/file-20210709-19-1fdb8il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410641/original/file-20210709-19-1fdb8il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410641/original/file-20210709-19-1fdb8il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410641/original/file-20210709-19-1fdb8il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410641/original/file-20210709-19-1fdb8il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410641/original/file-20210709-19-1fdb8il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Suborbital flights (paths A and B) reach space, but because they aren’t moving fast enough over the Earth, gravity will pull the object back to the surface.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Newton_Cannon.svg#/media/File:Newton_Cannon.svg">Brian Brondel</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A well-thrown baseball</h2>
<p>Conceptually, the flights that Branson and Bezos will be on are not terribly different from a baseball thrown into the air.</p>
<p>The faster you can throw the baseball upward, the higher it will go and the longer it will stay in the air. If you throw the ball with a bit of sideways velocity as well, it will go farther down-range. </p>
<p>Imagine throwing your baseball in an open field. As the ball rises, it slows down, as the kinetic energy inherent in its velocity is exchanged for potential energy in the form of increased altitude. Eventually the ball will reach its maximum height and then fall back to the ground. </p>
<p>Now imagine that you could throw the baseball fast enough to reach a height of perhaps 60 miles (97 km). Presto! The baseball has reached space. But when the ball reaches its maximum height, it will have zero vertical velocity and start to fall back to Earth.</p>
<p>The flight may take several minutes, and during most of that time the ball <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-zero-gravity-that-people-experience-in-the-vomit-comet-or-space-flight-133144">would experience near weightlessness</a> – as will the newly minted astronauts aboard these spacecraft. Just like the hypothetical baseball, the astronauts will reach space but won’t enter orbit, so their flights will be suborbital.</p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-favorite">Weekly on Wednesdays</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164279/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John M. Horack does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are sending spacecrafts – and their billionaire founders – into suborbital flight. But what differentiates a suborbital flight from a trip around Earth?John M. Horack, Neil Armstrong Chair and Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1638982021-07-08T20:12:27Z2021-07-08T20:12:27ZBranson vs Bezos: as the billionaires get ready to blast into space, who’s got the better plan?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409882/original/file-20210706-17-1186z1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C17%2C2973%2C1976&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.blueorigin.com/news-updates/gallery">Blue Origin</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the next fortnight, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson will take off into space, because <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-07-06/jeff-bezos-richard-branson-elon-musk-space-race">they can</a>, on spaceships designed by their respective companies.</p>
<p>It’s a big moment for the private space industry. But the question comes to mind: who has the smarter plan? </p>
<h2>A billionaire’s space race</h2>
<p>On May 5 Blue Origin, owned by former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, announced it would fly its first crew of astronauts into space on <a href="https://www.blueorigin.com/news/bid-for-the-very-first-seat-on-new-shepard">July 20</a> — the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo11.html">Apollo 11 Moon landing’s</a> 52nd anniversary. </p>
<p>After 15 successful test flights, this will be the first crewed flight for Blue Origin’s New Shepard spaceship. One seat will be occupied by an undisclosed winner of a charity auction, who reportedly paid <a href="https://www.blueorigin.com/news/the-very-first-seat-on-new-shepard-sells-for-28-million">US$28 million</a> for the privilege. Two more seats will be taken up by Bezos and his brother Mark. </p>
<p>A fourth seat will go to Wally Funk. The 82-year-old pilot was a promising candidate in the 1960s Mercury 13 women’s astronaut training programme, but wasn’t able to go to space because of her gender.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409924/original/file-20210706-15-17q89cw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409924/original/file-20210706-15-17q89cw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=256&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409924/original/file-20210706-15-17q89cw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=256&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409924/original/file-20210706-15-17q89cw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=256&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409924/original/file-20210706-15-17q89cw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409924/original/file-20210706-15-17q89cw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409924/original/file-20210706-15-17q89cw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blue Origin’s New Shepard capsule.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Blue Origin</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It wasn’t long after Bezos announced his plans that Sir Richard Branson also joined in, setting a launch date of July 11 — nine days before Bezos’s departure. </p>
<p>Branson will travel as part of a six person crew on Virgin Galactic spaceplane VSS Unity. It will be the fourth time the VSS Unity, the specific SpaceShipTwo spacecraft, has been <a href="https://www.virgingalactic.com/articles/virgin-galactic-completes-first-human-spaceflight-from-spaceport-america-new-mexico/">flown to space</a>, but the first with a full crew.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/want-to-become-a-space-tourist-you-finally-can-if-you-have-250-000-and-a-will-to-sign-your-life-away-160543">Want to become a space tourist? You finally can — if you have $250,000 and a will to sign your life away</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Tailored plans</h2>
<p>Both flights will be short, and based on different definitions of where “space” begins.</p>
<p>Bezos’s Blue Origin has chosen to define this as the internationally recognised <a href="https://www.fai.org/news/statement-about-karman-line">Kármán line at 100 kilometres altitude</a>. The peak of the New Shepard’s trajectory will be just past this limit.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic has chosen the US Air Force’s definition of space at about <a href="https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/where-space">80km</a> altitude. Their SpaceShipTwo generally reaches a peak altitude of around 90km during flight. </p>
<p><strong>Blue Origin’s New Shepard</strong></p>
<p>Blue Origin’s New Shepard is a fully autonomous rocket (with no pilots) which takes off almost fully vertically from its <a href="https://www.blueorigin.com/news/ns-15-mission-to-conduct-astronaut-rehearsal">launch site in remote West Texas</a>. </p>
<p>It is powered by a <a href="https://www.blueorigin.com/engines/be-3">BE-3 liquid-fuelled rocket motor</a>, which burns for around two and a half minutes until the spacecraft reaches 55km of altitude, at a speed of 900 metres per second. With its almost vertical trajectory, this is enough altitude and momentum to reach space.</p>
<p>Once the rocket motor stops burning, the booster holding the rocket motor and fuel separates from the crew capsule and returns to Earth.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410076/original/file-20210707-27-6tyznt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410076/original/file-20210707-27-6tyznt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410076/original/file-20210707-27-6tyznt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410076/original/file-20210707-27-6tyznt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410076/original/file-20210707-27-6tyznt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410076/original/file-20210707-27-6tyznt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410076/original/file-20210707-27-6tyznt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New Shepard Booster landing after an uncrewed test flight.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Blue Origin</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The whole flight will only last ten minutes, with astronauts experiencing weightlessness near the peak altitude, before their capsule re-enters the atmosphere and drifts back down to Earth. Parachutes will help with deceleration.</p>
<p><strong>Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo</strong></p>
<p>Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo spaceplane will be carried up to 15km altitude by a carrier aircraft, the WhiteKnightTwo. At this point it will launch itself into space, starting above the thick lower atmosphere.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409934/original/file-20210706-25-1cm3xw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409934/original/file-20210706-25-1cm3xw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409934/original/file-20210706-25-1cm3xw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409934/original/file-20210706-25-1cm3xw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409934/original/file-20210706-25-1cm3xw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409934/original/file-20210706-25-1cm3xw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409934/original/file-20210706-25-1cm3xw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo shown attached to its carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo, outside Spaceport America in New Mexico, the world’s first commercial spaceport.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Virgin Galactic</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>SpaceShipTwo will detach from WhiteKnightTwo and start its hybrid rocket motor engine which burns for a minute, giving the spaceplane enough momentum to reach its 90km peak altitude.</p>
<p>Similar to the New Shepard, passengers will experience several minutes of weightlessness before re-entering the atmosphere. </p>
<p>Due to its low speed upon re-entry, SpaceShipTwo will perform a “feathered re-entry”, where it will rotate its wings up and use them to keep stable, like a shuttlecock, as it falls down to 15km altitude.</p>
<p>It will then once again become a spaceplane and glide back to the ground under the control of pilots, ready for re-use.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409938/original/file-20210706-19-19g3lz6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409938/original/file-20210706-19-19g3lz6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409938/original/file-20210706-19-19g3lz6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409938/original/file-20210706-19-19g3lz6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409938/original/file-20210706-19-19g3lz6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409938/original/file-20210706-19-19g3lz6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409938/original/file-20210706-19-19g3lz6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Virgin Galactic’s planned flight path based on earlier test flights.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Virgin Galactic</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A rocket versus a spaceplane</h2>
<p>There are several differences and similarities in the companies’ approaches. </p>
<p>Both will have short flights, allowing them to make use of suborbital launch trajectories. This means they will achieve the right altitude to reach space, but won’t go into orbit. This approach requires much less fuel than an orbital flight.</p>
<p>Suborbital trajectories also make re-entry significantly slower, so the heavy heat shielding that would be required when returning from orbit won’t be needed. Also, both aim to re-use their spaceships to lower the costs of operation over time.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410075/original/file-20210707-17-nf71nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410075/original/file-20210707-17-nf71nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410075/original/file-20210707-17-nf71nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410075/original/file-20210707-17-nf71nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410075/original/file-20210707-17-nf71nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410075/original/file-20210707-17-nf71nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410075/original/file-20210707-17-nf71nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View from space during one of Blue Origin’s uncrewed New Shepard test flights.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Blue Origin</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Beyond that, however, their approaches are quite different.</p>
<p>Blue Origin’s New Shepard is essentially a large “<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/f_sounding.html">sounding rocket</a>” These are small research rockets which perform suborbital hops so science experiments can be performed during brief trips to space. </p>
<p>It also uses a liquid rocket motor which, while harder to design, is generally safer since it can be throttled during operation (and even shut off if required).</p>
<p>New Shepard, which has performed 15 successful uncrewed test flights, is overall a simple spacecraft. This will likely make it cheaper and safer in the long run.</p>
<p>In contrast, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo is much more advanced. It is launched mid-air and is rocket-powered — an approach that hasn’t been properly explored since NASA and the US Air Force’s <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/specials/60th/x-15/">X-15 program</a> in the 1960s. </p>
<p>For a successful flight, SpaceShipTwo must be launched while being carried by a carrier aircraft, must ignite its rocket motor in the air, stow its wings for re-entry and then un-stow them again to glide home. This complicated procedure has already come unstuck multiple times. </p>
<p>A recent SpaceShipTwo flight was aborted due to a computer malfunction after its rocket motor ignited. It landed safely but <a href="https://www.virgingalactic.com/articles/virgin-galactic-update-on-test-flight-program/">didn’t reach space</a>.</p>
<p>And in 2014, the accidental activation of the feathered re-entry system during ascent to space led to destruction of the first SpaceShipTwo model, the VSS Enterprise, tragically killing <a href="https://www.space.com/30073-virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-crash-pilot-error.html">the co-pilot</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410077/original/file-20210707-15-1wq74kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410077/original/file-20210707-15-1wq74kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410077/original/file-20210707-15-1wq74kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410077/original/file-20210707-15-1wq74kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410077/original/file-20210707-15-1wq74kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410077/original/file-20210707-15-1wq74kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410077/original/file-20210707-15-1wq74kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">VSS Unity in space during a test flight, with its wings stowed away in preparation for feathered re-entry. This specific model has completed 21 successful test flights, with three reaching space.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Diversity versus simplicity</h2>
<p>While the costs of a seat on both spaceships will be eye watering, only Virgin Atlantic have announced an official price tag: US$250,000 per seat on a SpaceShipTwo flight. It’s expected Blue Origin’s New Shepard will be <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2019/blue-origins-ceo-says-first-space-trips-new-shepard-will-cost-hundreds-thousands-dollars/">priced similarly</a>.</p>
<p>The simplicity of Blue Origin’s system means it will probably be better equipped to reduce costs over time. But simplicity may also be its downfall. Meanwhile, SpaceShipTwo is a more complex spacecraft with pilots. This could prove more attractive to customers.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1TVs2lWk_GI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The rocket-powered ascent to the edge of space during Virgin Galactic’s first SpaceShipTwo test flight.</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163898/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris James does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It wasn’t long after Jeff Bezos announced his plans to go to space that Sir Richard Branson joined in, setting a launch date to beat Bezos by nine days.Chris James, ARC DECRA Fellow, Centre for Hypersonics, School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1624562021-06-09T18:03:52Z2021-06-09T18:03:52ZIs tax avoidance ethical? Asking on behalf of a few billionaire friends<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405448/original/file-20210609-14356-15ah5fg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C32%2C1994%2C1398&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Should America's billionaires be paying more tax?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/democratic-presidential-candidate-former-new-york-city-news-photo/1209988648?adppopup=true; https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/spacex-ceo-elon-musk-speaks-at-the-international-news-photo/855370170?adppopup=true; ; https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-attends-a-commemoration-ceremony-held-news-photo/1173086694?adppopup=true">J. Countess/Getty Images, Joe Raedle/Getty Images, Arif Hudaverdi Yaman/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some of the U.S.’s wealthiest individuals reportedly pay just a tiny fraction of the billions of dollars added annually to their fortunes in federal income tax – sometimes they pay nothing at all.</p>
<p>Investigative journalism outlet ProPublica <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax">says it has obtained a “vast cache” of information</a> from the Internal Revenue Service that purports to show the lengths that American billionaires go to to avoid paying taxes.</p>
<p>It claims to provide an insight into how prominent billionaires such as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Michael Bloomberg take advantage of “tax avoidance strategies” beyond the reach of ordinary people.</p>
<p>Though there is general public consensus on the illegality of tax evasion – the act of deliberately not paying taxes that are due – much more variance exists in how the public evaluates and scrutinizes tax avoidance strategies that seek to minimize the amount an individual pays through legal loopholes. There is no suggestion that the billionaires in the ProPublica report did anything illegal. A <a href="https://de.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-election-poll/trump-calls-tax-avoidance-smart-most-americans-call-it-unpatriotic-poll-idUKKCN1242FY">poll taken just before the 2016 election</a> found that nearly half of Americans agreed with Donald Trump – another wealthy individual not averse to tax avoidance strategies – who noted that paying minimal or no taxes is “smart.” But two-thirds said it is “selfish” and 61% declared it to be “unpatriotic.”</p>
<h2>Rights and responsibilities</h2>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-business-administration/college-profile-and-directory/bass-erin.php">scholar who studies business ethics</a>, I see these differences in how individuals view and rationalize tax avoidance as being dependent on a person’s <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Managing+Business+Ethics%3A+Straight+Talk+about+How+to+Do+It+Right%2C+7th+Edition-p-9781119194309">ethical foundations</a>. Ethical foundations are the principles, norms and values that guide individual or group beliefs and behaviors. They can shape what people <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-407236-7.00002-4">believe is important</a> – such as fairness, care for oneself or others, loyalty and liberty – and guide judgments about what is right, or ethical, and what is wrong, or unethical. </p>
<p>Philosophers have debated these ethical foundations for centuries, coming up broadly with three different perspectives that are worth exploring in the context of tax avoidance strategies.</p>
<p>Thinkers from <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant/">Immanuel Kant</a> to <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rawls/">John Rawls</a> have offered what has been called the <a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1963-0">deontological</a> argument. This emphasizes ethics based on adherence to rules, regulations, laws and norms. Such an approach suggests that “what is right” is defined as that which is most in line with an individual’s responsibility and duty toward society.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, utilitarian philosophers such as <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mill/">John Stuart Mill</a> and <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bentham/">Jeremy Bentham</a> put forward an argument that recognizes the costs and benefits, or even trade-offs, in pursuing what is right. Under this belief system, called <a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1963-0">consequentialism</a>, behaviors are ethical if the outcome is beneficial to the greatest number of people, even if it comes at a cost.</p>
<p>A third perspective comes in the shape of what is called the <a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1963-0">virtue ethical foundation</a> that is associated with <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle/">Aristotle</a> and other Greek philosophers. This suggests that what is right is that which elevates the individual’s virtues and efforts toward moral excellence – defined by both avoiding vices and striving to do good. In this way, ethical behavior is that which enables the individual to achieve his or her most excellent moral self. </p>
<h2>On morals and money</h2>
<p>When applied to the tax avoidance strategies of individuals, each perspective offers a unique understanding of why individuals differ on what they view to be “right.” </p>
<p>An individual who adopts the deontological perspective likely evaluates a public figure’s tax avoidance strategies – and that of others – with less scrutiny. As long as an individual follows the tax code, and acts legally, the tax avoidance strategies are likely to be viewed by that individual as ethical. </p>
<p>In contrast, a consequentialist is likely to evaluate tax avoidance strategies by also looking at how those taxes could have been used to benefit society – by paying for schools and hospitals, for example. When one individual – be it a billionaire or any other person – avoids taxes, <a href="https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/global-tax-avoidance-costs-countries-427b-each-year-says-report">it increases the costs</a> experienced by everyone else while also decreasing the benefits experienced by society as a whole. The cost to society in terms of lesser funding for programs and services supported by tax dollars may be even greater when a wealthy individual avoids taxes, given what is <a href="https://budget.house.gov/publications/report/funding-irs">likely a highter tax responsibility</a> than that of individuals with modest incomes. Thus, consequentialist individuals may well conclude that tax avoidance strategies are unethical.</p>
<p>An individual who adopts the virtue perspective of Aristotle might evaluate tax avoidance strategies in the context of an individual’s other virtuous behaviors. If someone avoids taxes but provides financial support to other institutions or entities that are meaningful to the tax avoider but also produce benefits for society, then the virtuous individual may view this behavior with less disdain. For example, someone may use tax avoidance strategies and direct some wealth to provide funding directly to an academic health care center for cancer research. But if that person employs tax avoidance strategies in the absence of any other virtuous behaviors, then the tax avoidance is likely to be seen and rationalized as unethical.</p>
<h2>Social influencers</h2>
<p>So whether tax avoidance strategies are viewed and rationalized as ethical or unethical likely depends on the ethical foundations of the person judging such actions.</p>
<p>But when it comes to public figures and the superrich, there are additional ethical concern at play here. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/41166057">Public figures are evaluated</a> not just on their own personal morality, but also by what influence their behaviors could have on others. If the superrich avoid taxes, it might signal to the public to do the same, which could have greater consequences. The public often demands more of the superrich – and ethics are no exception. The expectation is that these individuals, as leaders in society, should create <a href="https://www.industryleadersmagazine.com/the-impact-of-a-good-leader-and-good-leadership-in-society/">benefits for society through their behaviors</a>. As a result, these individuals <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/america-has-higher-standards-for-ceos-than-for-presidents-211525571.html">may be held to a higher ethical standard</a> and their behaviors more closely scrutinized.</p>
<p>As such, the question of whether the tax avoidance strategies of the ultrawealthy are “ethical” depends not only on the ethical foundation of the individual who views and judges the behavior, but also on the expectation of the ultrawealthy to create benefits for society.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-tax-avoidance-ethical-asking-for-a-friend-147967">article originally published</a> on Oct. 30, 2020.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162456/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erin Bass does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Wriggling out of paying taxes may be legal, but is it right? Aristotle, Immanuel Kant – and others – have their say.Erin Bass, Associate Professor of Management, University of Nebraska OmahaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1478932021-06-09T17:41:33Z2021-06-09T17:41:33ZSenator Warren’s wealth tax might prevent billionaires from paying nearly nothing in taxes – but it’s probably not constitutional<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405399/original/file-20210609-15050-1h64umm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=344%2C106%2C4562%2C3522&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jeff Bezos paid no taxes in some years despite gaining billions in wealth.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BezosSpace/45fbb45ab82947a98333d8f75e3bddfa/photo?Query=bezos&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=737&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo/Patrick Semansky</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A new report that shows America’s biggest billionaires <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax">paid barely any income tax</a> from 2014 to 2018 has <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/elizabeth-warren-renews-wealth-tax-call-after-report-that-americas-richest-pay-little-taxes-1598752">revived talk</a> of a <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/2021/06/08/wyden-renews-wealth-tax-push-after-billionaires-returns-leak/">wealth tax</a> – such as the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/510">one proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren</a>. </p>
<p>The report from ProPublica – which <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/why-we-are-publishing-the-tax-secrets-of-the-001">based its findings on a trove of tax records</a> submitted by an anonymous source – found that investor Warren Buffett paid US$23.7 million in taxes on $125 million in reported income, while amassing $24.3 billion more wealth during that same five-year period. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos saw his wealth soar $99 billion from 2014 to 2018, yet paid just $973 million in taxes on $4.22 billion in reported income.</p>
<p>In total, the 25 richest Americans saw their wealth rise $401 billion over this period as the value of their investments such as stocks and properties grew. They paid just $13.6 billion in income taxes, or 3.4% of their wealth gain. For context, ProPublica noted middle-class Americans in their early 40s gained just $65,000 in wealth during the period – and paid almost the same amount in taxes</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=56687">expert on tax policy</a>, I’m deeply familiar with how America’s system has exacerbated inequality. There’s at least one problem with Warren’s wealth tax as a solution, however: It may be unconstitutional.</p>
<h2>Income and wealth inequality</h2>
<p>Concerns about inequality have increased in recent decades.</p>
<p>Americans <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide-to-statistics-on-historical-trends-in-income-inequality">enjoyed substantial economic growth</a> and broadly shared prosperity from the end of World War II into the 1970s.</p>
<p>But in the 1980s, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2017/12/08/what-we-learned-from-reagans-tax-cuts/">President Ronald Reagan dramatically slashed taxes on the wealthy</a> – twice – cutting the top rate on wages from 70% to 28%.</p>
<p>Studies have shown that the drop in tax rates, combined with other “trickle-down” policies such as deregulation, <a href="https://www.thebalance.com/trickle-down-economics-theory-effect-does-it-work-3305572">led to steadily rising income and wealth inequality</a>. </p>
<p>The wealthiest 1% <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide-to-statistics-on-historical-trends-in-income-inequality">controlled 39%</a> of all wealth in 2016, up from less than 30% in 1989. At the same time, the bottom 90% held less than a quarter of America’s wealth, compared with more than a third in 1989. </p>
<p>Currently, the federal government <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/taxes/federal-income-tax-brackets/">taxes all income above $518,400</a> at 37% for single filers with <a href="https://www.thebalance.com/net-investment-income-tax-3192936">an additional 3.8% investment tax</a> on incomes over $200,000. Of course, as the ProPublica cache of tax documents shows, loopholes and tax dodges <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-we-calculated-the-true-tax-rates-of-the-wealthiest">result in actual income tax rates</a> significantly lower.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Elizabeth Warren sits at a Senate committee table as she speaks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405469/original/file-20210609-14697-1jn49oe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405469/original/file-20210609-14697-1jn49oe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405469/original/file-20210609-14697-1jn49oe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405469/original/file-20210609-14697-1jn49oe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405469/original/file-20210609-14697-1jn49oe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405469/original/file-20210609-14697-1jn49oe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405469/original/file-20210609-14697-1jn49oe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Warren argues her wealth tax would force billionaires to pay more in taxes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CongressIRS/1bdf00ba541e49598361378bc8cf8669/photo?Query=Elizabeth%20AND%20Warren&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=5944&currentItemNo=5">Evelyn Hockstein/Pool via AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Warren’s wealth tax</h2>
<p>Warren’s <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/510">wealth tax proposal</a> aims to change that. </p>
<p>In March 2021, the Massachusetts Democrat <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/01/business/elizabeth-warren-wealth-tax.html">introduced a bill</a> to tax households worth over $50 million and up to $1 billion at a rate of 2%, and anything over that at 3%. She <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1498/Wealth_Tax_Revenue_Estimates_by_Saez_and_Zucman_-_Feb_24_20211.pdf?1614702906">first proposed the idea of a wealth tax</a> during the Democratic presidential primary in 2019.</p>
<p>The legislation, which <a href="https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Wealth%20Tax%20Revenue%20Estimates%20by%20Saez%20and%20Zucman%20-%20Feb%2024%2020211.pdf">could raise an estimated $3 trillion</a> over a decade, is meant to reduce inequality by using revenue from the wealthiest Americans to pay for new federal programs to lift up some of the poorest.</p>
<p>Her tax <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1498/Wealth_Tax_Revenue_Estimates_by_Saez_and_Zucman_-_Feb_24_20211.pdf?1614702906">would affect an estimated 100,000 families</a>, or fewer than 1 in 1,000, according to University of California, Berkeley economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. The tax wouldn’t start until 2023. </p>
<p>President Joe Biden, for his part, hasn’t signaled support for a wealth tax. But <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-22/biden-to-propose-capital-gains-tax-as-high-as-43-4-for-wealthy?sref=Hjm5biAW">he is seeking to raise the top rate</a> the rich pay in income taxes from 37% to 39.6%. And, he wants to double the capital gains rate to help finance his infrastructure proposal. </p>
<h2>The problem with taxing wealth</h2>
<p>Unlike an income tax, a wealth tax <a href="https://theweek.com/articles/717294/wealth-inequality-even-worse-than-income-inequality">reaches the root</a> of both wealth and income inequality.</p>
<p>There’s only one snag: There are <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/warren-wealth-tax-constitutionality/">strong</a> <a href="http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/constitutional-concerns-are-a-major-risk-for-a-wealth-tax.html">arguments</a> that a federal wealth tax is <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-slaverys-lingering-stain-on-the-us-constitution-spoils-elizabeth-warrens-wealth-tax-proposal-for-now-110964">unconstitutional</a>. Wealth taxes violate Article I, Section 2, Clause 3, of the U.S. Constitution, which forbids the federal government from laying “direct taxes” that aren’t <a href="https://constitutingamerica.org/february-24-2011-%E2%80%93-article-1-section-2-clause-3-of-the-united-states-constitution-%E2%80%93-guest-essayist-w-b-allen-havre-de-grace-md-2/">apportioned equally among the states</a>. </p>
<p>A direct tax <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/02/22/how-slaverys-lingering-stain-on-the-us-constitution-spoils-elizabeth-warrens-wealth-tax-proposal_partner/">is a tax on a thing</a>, like property or income. An indirect tax is a tax on a transaction: for example, a sale or a gift. </p>
<p>The income tax is a direct tax and constitutional <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxvi">because of the 16th Amendment</a>, which specifically allows income taxes without apportionment. As for property, you may notice that <a href="https://www.financialsamurai.com/property-taxes-by-state/">only states levy real estate taxes</a>. In almost every case, the federal government cannot tax real estate or any other form of wealth absent a transaction. </p>
<p>Warren <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-01-30/elizabeth-warren-s-wealth-tax-is-probably-constitutional">cites a small group</a> of law professors who back her claim that a wealth tax passes constitutional muster. But the argument against constitutionality is strong enough that a lawsuit before the Supreme Court <a href="https://minnlawyer.com/2021/03/03/wealth-tax-problem-its-probably-unconstitutional/">is sure to follow any attempt to enact a wealth tax</a>. </p>
<p>Barring a victory before a conservative Supreme Court or <a href="https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/constitution">an arduous amendment to the Constitution</a>, the federal government is shut out of taxing wealth.</p>
<h2>Two other proposals</h2>
<p>Two other proposals to tax the rich have also emerged in recent years.</p>
<p>Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/04/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-tax-climate-change-plan/index.html">wanted to create</a> a new “60% to 70%” tax bracket for income earned from labor over $10 million. </p>
<p>One problem with that idea was that the wealthy <a href="https://www.fool.com/taxes/2018/01/27/4-tax-breaks-for-high-income-households.aspx">can avoid or lower that tax</a> by <a href="https://www.moneytips.com/how-the-mega-rich-avoid-paying-taxes">choosing when they receive the income</a>. A second is that the rich <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/omaseddiq/2018/03/10/how-the-worlds-billionaires-got-so-rich/#125b82df124c">earn most of their money from capital gains</a>, which <a href="https://www.bankrate.com/investing/long-term-capital-gains-tax/">are taxed at a much lower rate</a> than wage income. </p>
<p>Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/01/elizabeth-warren-bernie-sanders-propose-3percent-wealth-tax-on-billionaires.html">since signed on to Warren’s plan</a>, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/31/bernie-sanders-proposes-big-estate-tax-hike-including-77percent-rate-for-billionaires.html">in 2019 proposed</a> going after wealth but targeted instances when it’s being transferred to someone else – which is what makes it constitutional. He wanted to lower the threshold at which the estate tax applies from $11 million – which <a href="https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-many-people-pay-estate-tax">touches just 1,000 estates a year</a> – to $3.5 million, where the threshold stood in 2009. He would also levy a new 77% rate on estates over $1 billion. </p>
<p>Although this would bring in significantly less than his colleagues’ proposals, it is far superior because it both addresses the root of the problem – wealth disparities – and can be implemented immediately. And it wouldn’t pose a constitutional problem.</p>
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<h2>A rising tide</h2>
<p>I agree with all three lawmakers that the United States should return to economic policies that <a href="https://www.economist.com/free-exchange/2014/03/04/does-raising-all-boats-lift-the-tide">seek to lift all boats</a>.</p>
<p>Although American wealth and productivity has surged in the last 40 years, most Americans <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-economy-stagnant-wages-20180831-story.html">have not fared nearly as well</a> as the <a href="https://inequality.org/facts/wealth-inequality/">richest have</a> – and <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/you-may-be-paying-a-higher-tax-rate-than-a-billionaire">are paying higher tax rates</a>. In 2020 alone, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2020/12/16/the-worlds-billionaires-have-gotten-19-trillion-richer-in-2020/?sh=52eb3f857386">America’s billionaires saw their wealth increase $560 billion</a>, even as tens of millions <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm">were unemployed</a> or <a href="https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/one-in-seven-americans-rely-on-foodbanks-report-finds">depended on food donations</a> to get enough to eat. </p>
<p>The U.S. tax system is at least partly responsible for these gaps. A wealth transfer tax – rather than one that taxes wealth – seems to be the best approach to both pass legal muster and help solve the problem.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/elizabeth-warrens-wealth-tax-would-reduce-inequality-the-problem-is-its-probably-unconstitutional-156349">article published</a> on March 2, 2021.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147893/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beverly Moran does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new report found that America’s top billionaires paid very little income tax despite tremendous gains in their wealth.Beverly Moran, Professor Emerita of Law, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.