GOING TO SPACE IS COOL: BUT COULD IT BE A DISTRACTION TACTIC?

If you’ve ever spent time outside under a clear nighttime sky, gazing up at the stars, you’ve probably had a moment where you realized just how small your existence is compared to the rest of the world. To even think about what is beyond our blue skies could literally send you into an existential crisis, but I’m not here to talk about the stars and the planets, but rather our society’s obsession with going to space.

In the last few weeks, we’ve heard and seen the spectacle of Richard Branson finally fulfilling his lifelong dream of going to space. The serial entrepreneur and mogul took flight last Sunday, July 11th in an attempt to beat his adversaries (Bezos who runs Blue Origin and Elon Musk with his SpaceX ventures) to the outskirts of the unknown in what they claim will secure the future of humanity. While this might sound altruistic (and trust me the media messaging is compelling,)

I’m calling bullshit on not just Branson, but Bezos and Musk too. 

Am I the only one who thinks that we might have a few more things on our Earth agenda before we should move onto E.T. territory?

I would never use the phrase ‘fake news’ in jest, but I’m feeling like this quest for becoming “multi-planetary” is a distraction from the real work that still has to be done on Earth. Not only are we still attempting to survive a global pandemic, we’re also dipping and dodging temperamental weather changes, several coups d’etat attempts around the world, and let’s not even start with the table shaking cultural and social come to Jesus America is having with itself, its citizens and identity. I’m not trying to start a fight, I’m just saying we probably need to clean up on aisle 6 before convincing America that going to space will solve all of our problems.

I’m no space exploration expert, but I would love to give you a list of reasons why we should be tending to Mother Earth before we head downtown to other galaxies:

We don’t need the resources in space. Peter Diamandis, one of the founders of the asteroid-mining company Planetary Resources is in business because he believes that we can go to space and mine metals, minerals, and other energy sources from our solar system. Why would we focus on getting new resources from space, when we could focus that energy on refining and reallocating how we used our current resources? Going to space just feels like an expensive stunt, meant to reinforce an illusion (or delusion) that we don’t have enough resources to keep the world running. In truth, our societal and cultural issues aren’t about lack of resources…they are about greed, exploitation, and unfair allocation of existing (read: plentiful) natural resources. My head hurts because the obvious answer to this is to not start wars because we all want to over-consume. Also the entitlement and audacity of continuing to even colonize outer space is unreal; when will these rich white men come to their senses?

If we can’t figure out how to live on Earth sustainably…there is no hope for us in other galaxies. There are countless non-profits, government agencies and social impact companies (shoutout to our clients like Syzygy) that are devoted to helping humanity understand how to live more sustainably. I realize that we still have a long way to go (and consumerism doesn’t help this cause) but the blueprint and frameworks are in plain sight. Maybe I’m naive but why won’t these billionaires start massive projects like accessible electric charging stations for all cars (not just ones for Tesla); or nationwide reforestation to improve our soil and biodiversity; or I don’t know sustainable infrastructure — which by the way not only enables sound economic development and job creation, it also enhances quality of life for the general public and helps protect our vital natural resources and environment. We could do so much good in just one generation — but if we are honest, these initiatives require substantial upfront investment and we’ve seen in every major political cycle that the monetary ROI on the environment is a hard sell for the near-sighted politicians that could make these improvements happen.

The betterment of humanity won’t come from leaving the Earth. Bettering humanity starts with re-prioritizing people and our Earth, over profits. It feels cliché to say this but we need to come to terms with the fact that it will take a considerable amount of grit, willpower, and collective power to change our society and our approach to living on Earth. This next generation of our lives will be rough and we’ll likely be in unrest for the next decade. My hope is that we come to a consensus about what is important collectively and individually as well as be able to discern what we need to do versus what we think we want to do.

While I’m not sure about what we as a global community should tackle first, I am sure that getting our minds and hearts in the right place is a necessary first step. And in my opinion, humans come up with the best answers when they are healthy, well-rested, undistracted, connected to nature and incentivized to improve their Earth-side community.