Prince William pans space tourism trips
LONDON: Britain’s Prince William has launched an attack on space tourism, urging more attention on problems closer to home ahead of the COP26 climate summit.
The comments by Queen Elizabeth II’s grandson were due to air in a BBC interview yesterday, a day after Star Trek star William Shatner became a real space traveller on Blue Origin’s second crewed mission.
The mission replayed the company’s maiden human flight in July, which included its founder Jeff Bezos of Amazon.
The mission was seen as a breakthrough for the emerging space tourism sector.
But Prince William said: “We need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet.
“[We’re] not trying to find the next place to go and live.”
Virgin Galactic, which offers a similar experience of a few minutes’ weightlessness and a view of the Earth’s curvature from the cosmos, was launched by its founder Richard Branson in July, a few days before Mr Bezos’ project got off the ground.
Prince William was speaking ahead of the inaugural Earthshot Prize awards ceremony on Sunday, his initiative to honour those working on environmental solutions.
Looking ahead to the COP26 summit in Glasgow on Oct 31, he warned world leaders against “clever speak, clever words, but not enough action”.
“It would be an absolute disaster if [my son] George is sitting here talking to you,” he said.
“In like 30 years’ time, [we’ll] still be saying the same thing, because by then we will be too late.”
Prince William’s father Prince Charles, a lifelong environmentalist, has also spoken out on the need for action ahead of the UN climate summit.
“He’s had a really rough ride on that, and I think you know he’s been proven to being well ahead of the curve, well beyond his time in warning about some of these dangers,” Prince William said.