The Debate: Is investing in space tourism irresponsible?

The same week that was made public that 2024 was the hottest year in Europe since there were records, Katy Perry and a handful of millionaires delighted us with the images of their space trip courtesy of Jeff Bezos. The two news stories are more related than they seem, as more and more studies show how the over-consumption of billionaires accelerates the climate crisis. For example, a 2019 study showed that the richest 1% on the planet emitted m…

Out of touch and into space: what’s the environmental impact of the Blue Origin trip?

What’s going on here? Last week private space company Blue Origin launched with an all-female crew onboard.  The highly publicised trip took six famous women into space for merely eleven minutes, enough time to raise concerns about the trip’s environmental impact. What does this mean? Blue Origin claims that this voyage has zero carbon emissions- releasing only water vapour. However when emitted high up in the atmosphere, water vapour can contri…

Why space tourism is an environmental disaster

On April 14, six female celebrities flew to space with Blue Origin. This was the 11th human spaceflight conducted by Blue Origin, a space technology company founded by tech billionaire Jeff Bezos. Looking at how the event was marketed, it is clear that it was intended to be celebrated as a step for women in STEM, especially as this was the first all-women spaceflight since Valentina Tereshkova’s single space mission in 1963. Instead, the crew fa…

The Debate: Is investing in space tourism irresponsible?

Blue Origin’s star-studded space flight caused more backlash than awe, but is all space tourism frivolous? Two writers hash it out in this week’s Debate Yes: A single space flight emits more carbon than 1bn individual will in their lifetime Tourism is not the harmless middle-class pastime we’ve all been brainwashed into believing, thanks to a never-ending diet of slick, over-produced adverts. No. Tourism is an insidious scavenger. While you tram…