Jeff Bezosfounder of Amazon and one of the richest men on the planet, is clear that modern times are better than the past. As an example, infant mortality and global poverty rates have generally improved compared to other times.
During the Summit DealBook of the New York Timesheld last month, Bezos noted that “when people talk about the good times, that is an illusion,” according to statements collected by CNBC News. According to the millionaire, Today “almost everything is better than before”However, there is a single exception: “The natural world”, which has paid a high price for the progress of humanity.
According to statements cited by the media, Bezos stated that the world’s oceans, rivers and forests have been polluted and exploited with the aim of sustaining human population growth over the last 500 years.
For 20 years, Bezos has allocated billions of dollars annually to finance the aerospace company Blue Origin, working on lunar landers, spacecraft, rockets and space stations. According to CNBC Newsthis and other companies could help combat the problem of lack of natural resources on Earth, since other planets could provide “infinite energy, infinite raw materials,” according to the businessman’s phrases quoted by the media.
The NASA supports this theory by confirming that “among the most promising space products that could enable substantial reductions in the mass, cost and risk of human space exploration” are the oxygen, methane y aguawhich are considered “fundamental” for the maintenance of the crew, as well as their space propulsion and energy systems.
Some of them may derive from places like the atmosphere of mars which, according to the space agency, is rich in carbon dioxide, or the lunar soil, in which there are water deposits.
“NASA’s priorities for advancing in situ resource utilization (ISRU) include the exploration of volatile deposits at sites of interest to determine resource potential and to properly design extraction and utilization equipment,” space agency officials added in an article.
Bezos is sure that, through his company Blue Origin and this strategy maintains life on the planet.
Until now, Blue Origin has completed nine manned space flights. The most recent took place in November of last year. Bezos is sure that this “will be the best business he has ever been involved in,” referring to the economic potential of the space industry, although “it will take a while,” according to his estimates.
Bezos’ vision for the role of space differs markedly from that of another technological titan: Elon Musk. While the owner of Tesla y SpaceX seeks to colonize Mars and make humanity “multi-planetary” – as highlighted on his company website – the founder of the digital commerce giant has a more terrestrial objective.
“There is no plan B. We have to save the Earth,” he emphasized.
For Bezos, space exploration is not an escape route, but a tool to ensure the sustainability of the planet. He assures that, despite technological advances, Earth is still the best place for human life:
“We have sent robotic probes to all the planets in the solar system. “This is the best,” Bezos said, according to statements gathered by CNBC News.
The words of the tycoon owner of Amazon about progress and perceptions of the past are reminiscent of the comments of Charlie Mungerwho was an investor and right-hand man of Warren Buffett. He warned that although the world had improved significantly during his lifetime, people tended not to recognize those advances.
“People are less happy with the current situation than when things were much more difficult. It’s strange for someone my age, because I was in the middle of the Great Depressionwhen the difficulties were incredible,” he stressed, as reported CNBC News.
