What’s going on with this space tourism is a disgrace
Prince William says our best minds should be put to fixing the planet, rather than developing the space tourism pursued by billionaires such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos (Metro, Thu).
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think of supporting anything from Prince (ugh!) William – but he is on this occasion absolutely right.
How is space tourism in any way helping with the problems facing the world today? Not in the slightest!
William, when you have something sensible to say, keep saying it!
RMD Collins, North Somerset
I disagree with Prince William about the space exploration question. I think we do need to continue.
If we had carried on after the moon landings in the late 1960s, we would probably have had a moon base by now and gone to Mars as well. Hell, we might even have worked out how to use one of those transporter machines to send William Shatner (aka Captain Kirk) up to the Bezos rocket, Blue Origin’s New Shepard, without putting him through the stress of taking off in it as he did on Wednesday.
Dec, Essex
I totally agree with the Duke of Cambridge. Bezos and co are a disgrace. How many of them are there at it? We should look back to wealthy Victorian businessmen and how they spent money on bettering the world.
Valentina, Aylesbury
I totally agree with Kate Taylor (MetroTalk, Tue) that we cannot ignore the reality of eco-destruction but I need to correct her statement that ‘governments and big business have known about climate change for 30 years’.
It’s far worse than that.
I dug out my copy of Marvin Gaye’s inspired album, What’s Going On (1971), which includes a song pleading for some love for the planet, Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology). I also remember bearded Californian philosophy
students flagging climate change worries back in the 1960s.
I learnt recently, however, that the effects of carbon emissions on global temperatures was noticed for the first time by a Swedish scientist in the last few years of the 19th century, while Queen Victoria was still on the throne and before the birth of my own grandma. Perhaps some informed reader can supply the exact details?
Judy Baldwinson, via email