A follow-up to the story of William Shatner's trip
to outer space: the actor who played Captain Kirk
on Star Trek has gotten into a shootout with Prince
William of Great Britain, who recently made some
pointed remarks about Shatner's record-setting trip.
In an interview with a BBC reporter, Prince William
Stated "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." He then
followed his missive with a crack about Shatner's
spaceship having created a carbon footprint while
making a flight for the purpose of leisure. Really?
To begin with, there are precisely no inhabitants of
our planet seeking to move to another planet. Zero,
zip, nada. As for the alleged carbon footprint, the rocket
carrying Shatner and a few other passengers was
powered by liquid hydrogen and oxygen.
An atmospheric scientist told LiveScience.com just last
July that "The main emissions will be water and some
minor combustion products, and virtually no CO2."
So much for carbon footprints. Now, building the
rocket and sending it into space does create some
carbon emissions, but not to the degree that Prince
William and other like-minded people claim.
Besides, putting on a royal wedding with a bunch of
guests from around the world and a military flyover
produces much more carbon emissions, Billy Boy.
So what was William Shatner's response to Prince
William? In an interview with Entertainment Tonight,
Shatner remarked "He's a lovely, gentle, educated man,
but he's got the wrong idea, the idea here is not to go,
'Yeah, look at me, I'm in space!' " Shatner also said that
the Blue Origin flight was just another "baby step" into
the heavens. And your favorite Peasant would like to add
that the aforementioned space flight, along with all of
those that took place before, let alone all of the earthly
journeys to see what is on other continents and on the
other side of our world raises human ambitions, including
helping its human inhabitants to increase their knowledge
and understanding of the world. Does Prince William
believe that this is a bad thing, or didn't he consider
this truth? Pity he didn't do the latter before flapping
his royal yap.
In closing, isn't it better to have American billionaires
competing with NASA and with other nation's
governments for the business of space travel, much like
air travel in airplanes? And to have other billionaires from
other countries such as Richard Branson in this field of
endeavor as well? I always thought that competition
between providers of goods and services was a good thing.
What say you, Prince William?
MEM
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