“Ethical Markets thanks Global Citizens for pointing out that the 3 US billionaires’ space enterprises, which they refer to as “democratizing space”, are based on their avoiding paying taxes and subsidies from US government programs! Thus, these PR stunts are promoting a new way of privatizing space travel for the 1%!!
~Hazel Henderson, Editor“
“Space was our office yesterday. #EVA51,” said International Space Station astronaut Ricky Arnold in June 2018, the day after his latest spacewalk. Arnold and Station Commander Drew Feustel completed the sixth spacewalk at the station this year, which lasted lasting 6 hours, 49 minutes. The two astronauts installed new high-definition cameras that will provide enhanced views during the final phase of approach and docking of the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing Starliner commercial crew spacecraft that will soon begin launching from American soil. | NASA
It sounds like a dystopian science fiction novel — as climate change cooks oceans and forests, a pandemic endangers billions of people, and world hunger surges, a handful of mega-wealthy men are pumping billions of dollars into their own personal space travel companies.
But it’s happening right now and David Beasley, the head of the World Food Program, thinks that money could be put to better use.
In a tweet on June 26, Beasley called on Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and Elon Musk to contribute the $6 billion needed to save 41 million people in 43 countries who are at risk of starving this year. It might sound like a big ask, but for these billionaires it’s an amount that’s tantamount to pocket change.
Bezos is worth $192.6 billion, Branson is worth $6.3 billion, and Musk is worth $165.9 billion. Together, that’s $364.8 billion, which could prevent people from starving to death 60 times over, according to Beasley’s estimation.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, world hunger had been rising for years due to ongoing conflicts, regional economic stagnation, and the escalating effects of climate change on agriculture.
But the pandemic greatly accelerated this trend by destabilizing economies, undermining agricultural production, and disrupting humanitarian efforts that deliver food aid to populations in need. As a result, the number of people at risk of starvation doubled to 270 million. In four countries — Ethiopia, Madagascar, South Sudan, and Yemen — more than 600,000 people are already facing famine.
“Global Citizen is supportive of all efforts to get dollars flowing much faster to working charities, particularly as philanthropic endowments experience unparalleled growth and billions of dollars sit idle at a time when charities need it now more than ever to respond to unprecedented health, economic, and hunger crises,” said Michael Sheldrick, global director of policy and advocacy at Global Citizen.
Global Citizen launched the Give While You Live campaign with Forbes in 2020 to encourage billionaires to give 5% of their wealth annually to charitable organizations. In the midst of the pandemic, global inequality has grown more pronounced. While tens of millions experience growing levels of poverty, in the US alone, 56 new billionaires emerged during the first 11 months of the pandemic, and total US billionaire wealth increased by $1.3 trillion to $4.6 trillion.
Organizations like the WFP and UNICEF have been scaling up emergency nutrition programs to help the most vulnerable populations including young children and pregnant women, while also supporting families with food packages and livelihood assistance — but they face enormous funding gaps. Groups like the International Fund for Agricultural Development, meanwhile, are trying to help small farmers recover from the pandemic and curb any losses they may have faced.
Beasley’s initial tweet came in response to a CNN video that presented the “race to space” as a noble endeavor, something that someone like Bezos has wanted to do his entire life.
He’s even taking his brother with him, CNN reports, and anyone else who wants “the bragging rights” of getting closer to the moon.
Beasley later called on the entrepreneur Larry Ellison (net worth $106.8 billion) to contribute funds to prevent starvation.
Outer space has always enchanted human beings, figuring into cultural and spiritual traditions from the earliest known records. The vast distances between stars, the prospect of slipping past gravity and communing with other life forms — it’s a field of imagination that has inspired the greatest science fiction writers.