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I wish instead of focusing on taking humanity to a new planet more billionaires would focus on trying to sustain the planet that we already have.

beaconstudios 5y ago
Elon Musk is also doing that, with tesla - not just the cars but with the batteries and solarcity too.
adrianN 5y ago
The environmental problems we have can't be solved by a couple of billionaires. We need politicians to get their act together. Founding a new company that builds rockets on the other hand is something billionaires can do.
- horstmeyer 5y ago
  Money buys politicians.
- pmoriarty 5y ago
  "The environmental problems we have can't be solved by a couple of billionaires." Plenty of relatively poor people have devoted their entire lives to working to help the environment, despite knowing their impact will be much smaller than what even a mere millionaire could accomplish. Billionaires don't need to fix all environmental problems to make a very significant difference. The perfect is the enemy of the good.
- tolbish 5y ago
  It would be incredibly remiss to ignore the effects that billionaires have on policy.
me_me_me 5y ago
> focus on trying to sustain the planet And what if we cannot acheive it, because of political and economical system at play i.e. local maxima holding us back and prevents us from breaking away from current order of things?
- hnrq 5y ago
  Going to another planet will not help with that. Pretty much no matter what happens on Earth, it will still be orders of magnitude easier to live here than in another planet.
  - me_me_me 5y ago
    But it might. A colony on mars doesn't have to end up being a capitalistic flavour of the day.
- rebolek 5y ago
  Then we all die because trying to make sustainable life on another planet is even harder.
DennisP 5y ago
Musk spends half his time on electric cars, solar power, and grid storage, plus he just donated $100M for a carbon capture XPrize. He's probably had more positive impact on climate change than any other human on the planet. I doubt other car companies would be so far along on electric cars if Tesla hadn't forced the issue. Bezos hasn't been that focused on climate but in 2020 he did donate $10 billion to his Earth Fund.
- philwelch 5y ago
  He also pledged to make Amazon a carbon neutral company by 2040, which combined with the implicit goal of Amazon taking over the entire world economy (joking not joking) is a big deal.

beaconstudios 5y ago

Elon Musk is also doing that, with tesla - not just the cars but with the batteries and solarcity too.

adrianN 5y ago

The environmental problems we have can't be solved by a couple of billionaires. We need politicians to get their act together. Founding a new company that builds rockets on the other hand is something billionaires can do.

horstmeyer 5y ago
Money buys politicians.
pmoriarty 5y ago
"The environmental problems we have can't be solved by a couple of billionaires." Plenty of relatively poor people have devoted their entire lives to working to help the environment, despite knowing their impact will be much smaller than what even a mere millionaire could accomplish. Billionaires don't need to fix all environmental problems to make a very significant difference. The perfect is the enemy of the good.
tolbish 5y ago
It would be incredibly remiss to ignore the effects that billionaires have on policy.

me_me_me 5y ago

> focus on trying to sustain the planet And what if we cannot acheive it, because of political and economical system at play i.e. local maxima holding us back and prevents us from breaking away from current order of things?

hnrq 5y ago
Going to another planet will not help with that. Pretty much no matter what happens on Earth, it will still be orders of magnitude easier to live here than in another planet.
- me_me_me 5y ago
  But it might. A colony on mars doesn't have to end up being a capitalistic flavour of the day.
rebolek 5y ago
Then we all die because trying to make sustainable life on another planet is even harder.

DennisP 5y ago

Musk spends half his time on electric cars, solar power, and grid storage, plus he just donated $100M for a carbon capture XPrize. He's probably had more positive impact on climate change than any other human on the planet. I doubt other car companies would be so far along on electric cars if Tesla hadn't forced the issue. Bezos hasn't been that focused on climate but in 2020 he did donate $10 billion to his Earth Fund.

philwelch 5y ago
He also pledged to make Amazon a carbon neutral company by 2040, which combined with the implicit goal of Amazon taking over the entire world economy (joking not joking) is a big deal.