Space race ignores fragile Earth, says Duke

THE next generation will ask why humanity put so much effort into the space race while leaving their own planet “vulnerable”, the Duke of Cambridge has suggested.

The Duke, writing a joint article with Michael Bloomberg to launch their environmental partnership, said equally “bold and decisive” action was now needed to protect Earth and its communities, just as humans had advanced “so far in space”.

Saving the planet, they said, would create jobs in new industries, making economic sense as well as protecting public health.

Mr Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York and the United Nations special envoy for climate ambition and solutions, has joined the Duke’s Earthshot Prize as a global adviser, mentoring winners of the £1million award to ensure their inventions are “scaled and replicated” worldwide.

“An hour of change and challenge is upon us again, but this time the question isn’t whether we can reach the Moon. It’s whether we can save the Earth,” the Duke and Mr Bloomberg wrote, in an article published on USA Today. “The science tells us that this is the decade to act – and that waiting is not an option. Without bold and decisive action, future generations will look back and ask: How could they advance so far in space while leaving their own planet – and their own communities – so vulnerable?”

It follows global headlines about the most recent “space race”, in which Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon, and Sir Richard Branson, Virgin boss, are battling for commercial space flight.

Critics have called it “pointless”, a “mere vanity project” and not a test of the world’s superpowers but “merely the egos of three billionaires”.