Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, threw a jab at the billionaires funding private space companies, telling BBC “We need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live.”
The 39 year-old made his comments while promoting the first ever Earthshot Prize, which is funded by the Royal Foundation and is “designed to incentivise change and help to repair our planet over the next ten years.” Five winners will be announced this Sunday and be given 1 million pounds each.
In our quote of the day, William continued:
It is “crucial to be focusing on this [planet] rather than giving up and heading out into space to try and think of solutions for the future.”
Prince William
William added that he had “absolutely no interest” in going to space, and said there was a “fundamental question” about the environmental impact associated with space flights. He said young people are experiencing “a rise in climate anxiety” because their futures are being threatened.
“If we’re not careful,” he said, “we’re robbing from our children’s future through what we do now. And I think that’s not fair.”
Business titans Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson have all been pouring their fortunes into space exploration. (Although, to be fair, Musk has become the world’s richest man by popularizing electric cars, which will help reduce carbon emissions.)
On Wednesday, Bezos’ company, Blue Origin, took 90-year old actor William Shatner to space. Shatner defended his billionaire patron in July, saying of the moguls funding private companies, “It’s their money. They can do what they want with it.”
