Last week, Prince William actually said something which many of us (begrudgingly) agree with, which is that space cowboy billionaires should stop spending billions of dollars on space travel and use that money to solve some of earth’s problems. William said this on the same day that William Shatner went to space on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Shatner came to earth and had lovely things to say about the experience, but then he heard all of the criticism lodged at him for his space-travel tourism and he began clapping back. While Baldemort didn’t name-check Shatner specifically, Shatner did take Bill’s comments personally:
William Shatner is responding to Prince William’s criticism of space travel. ET’s Nischelle Turner spoke with the 90-year-old actor on Thursday, one day after he traveled to space, and Shatner was quick to defend his journey, and space travel as a whole.
“He’s a lovely Englishman. He’s going to be king of England one day,” Shatner told ET of the Duke of Cambridge. “He’s a lovely, gentle, educated man, but he’s got the wrong idea.”
For Shatner, though, the journey held a different meaning, one that thought ahead to protecting the Earth, not finding an alternate place for its people to inhabit.
“The idea here is not to go, ‘Yeah, look at me. I’m in space.’ The landing that consumed all that… energy and people to take a look and go, ‘Oh, look at that.’ No,” Shatner said. “I would tell the prince, and I hope the prince gets the message, this is a baby step into the idea of getting industry up there, so that all those polluting industries, especially, for example, the industries that make electricity… off of Earth.”
“We’ve got all the technology, the rockets, to send the things up there… You can build a base 250, 280 miles above the Earth and send that power down here, and they catch it, and they then use it, and it’s there,” he continued. “All it needs is… somebody as rich as Jeff Bezos [to say], ‘Let’s go up there.'” At the end of the day, Shatner said, “The prince is missing the point. The point is these are the baby steps to show people [that] it’s very practical. You can send somebody like me up into space.”
As for the duke’s argument that there are issues that need to be addressed on Earth, Shatner said he “of course” agrees.
“So fix some of the stuff down here,” Shatner said. “… But we can curl your hair and put lotion on your face at the same time.”
I agree with the fundamental belief that industries can walk and chew gum at the same time, that there’s room for space tourism and private companies’ exploration of space for industry alongside a larger movement to move to green energy. But Shatner makes it sound like this is actually the first step for humans colonizing and polluting space. And the fact is, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Elon Musk are NOT investing their fortunes to improve life on earth. They’re exploiting earth’s resources and then f–king off to space. Now, this isn’t Shatner’s fault. He only accepted a ride and he was clearly moved by the experience. This isn’t “on” him to defend, he’s not the face of this. Similarly, I don’t really think Prince William should be the face of environmental initiatives.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red.
I sure never thought that William Shatner would be one of the last of the Trek cast members.
George Takei hates William Shatner and I think that tells us everything we need to know about William Shatner.
It doesn’t explain his longevity, however.
I hate the idea of Space tourism. Its going to kill our space ecosytem and end up being on the verge of pollution like earth. Such a shame many rich people only follow the $$ and do not give shit about improving this earth.
The technology that the money spent for space has real effects on earth. Where do you think all the technological improvements for much more eco-friendly materials and non-polluting energy sources come from? Everything invested in space technology comes back and vastly improves life on earth. Your phone, your computer, your green energy like solar, chemical, and electric power – how to live sustainably, all of that jumped leaps and bounds with space related development.
Learning how to manage waste is HUGELY important for space travel. Pollution is extremely important when you live in a bubble and off-gassing is a life-threatening issue.
IBM was founded in 1911. I’m pretty sure we’d still have computers without space travel.
@MAC we would, but they wouldn’t be the size of your phone or laptop, or home computer. The big push to miniaturize was to done through space development. Many of that with contracts with the government to fund that development they later used to sell to the public.
All corporations (who are smart about their money) have government contracts for research and development that they use to make products they can later sell to buyers. It is extremely a win win situation for the corporation to use government funds for R&D.
Please listen to @goofpuff because it sounds like most of you are taking soundbites w/o realizing how space research has pushed technology forward, even environmental research.
I absolutely wish our billionaires would get their — together and finance terrestrial solutions to our environmental problems, but I also want to see space travel become feasible, less expensive, and possible for the average person willing to put in the work.
He’s a lovely, gentle, educated man. Where in the world did he get gentle? Did he mean sensitive to criticism?
I have my doubts about “lovely and educated” too.
@Jais I don’t know, but I’m greatly enjoying how much it probably irritated Elegant, Lovely Bill to hear himself described that way. I have a feeling he won’t see it as “masculine” enough for him.
Well…I, too, had to begrudgingly agree with Baldemort. The whole thing is ridiculous and unnecessary.
*heads up — really mean comment ahead*
And it’s not that I loathe Jeff Bezos (I do) but I kinda hoped his dick-ship blew up during re-entry.
He’s a lovely englishman…..he’s gentle and educated…….I can’t even, LOL.
And of course there was going to be pushback on William’s comments. I agreed with his comments, but he’s insulting very wealthy people who he needs money from for his ongoing projects (cough Earthshot cough). You could say that its a case of “Friends tell the truth” or something, but instead it just feels like William going for the low-hanging fruit, like I said the other day about this.
Exactly. William doesn’t have a clear, focused brand. He’s very reactive and most of his decisions is based on him wanting to beat Harry and usurp Charles for the throne. The RRs are trying to create a contrast between the Sussex’s and the rest of the royals. The royals are supposed to be “regal” and “royal” and “statesman like” and the Sussex’s are supposed “Hollywood” and “woke”. That’s not gonna work if the Cambridge’s keep chasing after the Hollywood spotlight and jumping on the woke bandwagon as well. It’s mixed messaging.
I grew up wanting to be an astronaut and I’ll be a Star Trek fan until I die. And even at my age now, I’d still go up in space if I had the opportunity. I’m happy Shatner was able to have this experience.
Sorry but this sets a low bar for going into “space”. Guess my definition would include being able to circle earth.
An educated man sure,I mean even though he and Kate received higher education I dont know why they picked those particular degrees. It seem like they picked them out of a hat and had no plans to even use them in a practical sense.
@Noki, they knew they wouldn’t need to
Certainly not William,but Kate she really put her eggs in one basket. But ofcourse even if William ended up not picking her she would have plenty options as the ex of the future King. She would have gotten a cushy job somewhere.
Sounds like they are looking for new places to pollute? I think Shatner should stick to his lane and just comment on the wonder and fragility of the earth.
“I would tell the prince, and I hope the prince gets the message, this is a baby step into the idea of getting industry up there, so that all those polluting industries, especially, for example, the industries that make electricity… off of Earth.”
This is just a load of nonsense and a cop out from people like Bezos and Musk. The money that is being wasted on space tourism should be used to improve the lives of people on Earth which includes fixing the environment. As I said last week, I wish William had gone further to criticise capitalism but he’s a beneficiary of capitalism so he can’t be that radical so instead we get this mealy mouth critique of one of the main funders of his prize. I think the bigger story is William has taken money from Bezos for his Earthshot prize.
Unpopular opinion, I think William’s comments were complete horseshit. For one, the idea of William thinking he can tell these men what to do with their own money when several of the charities under his watch are closing is laughable. Maybe instead of trying to be Harry with his little earth project he should spend the money supporting his charities. Secondly, going to space and cleaning up the the environment doesn’t need to be an either or situation. Both can be done. If the world was sitting around tackling one issue at a time, half of the progress that we have would have never been done. I was genuinely surprised at all the love William got here for his bullshit comments when he stands for nothing. He does nothing. He has no business telling anyone to stop progress in one area to focus on another, conveniently, an area which he just jumped on a year ago. This is just William thinking that everyone needs to pay attention to the thing he’s “working” on because of course what he says about this issue is the most important. You think he gives a damn about the environment when this wastrel uses helicopters like we use cars? Earthshot is nothing but one huge ego stroke.
Preach!
Amen.
This.
Exactly!
All day!
Right there with ya.
Yup
I thought it was BS as well all the praise his ignorant, reactionary comments were getting as well. He has no vision and is what I describe as a single issue candidate.
Just a little reminder that William Shatner is a grade-A asshole who’s very reactionary and conservative and contrarian. If you didn’t follow him for the last couple decades you wouldn’t know this necessarily but yikes. He’s awful in general.
And his judgment is shit, William isn’t lovely or gentle.
Yep. His current show is on RT (Russian television) and when asked about it, he basically hand-waved and said “it wasn’t my decision.” On the one hand, fair enough, but on the other, how does it feel to be part of a propaganda network pushing anti-American stories?
I like Space and on the nerdy side, do like the space travel stuff. I also can see the point that space travel and the technologies we use for it, could help develop solutions for a sustainable Earth but at the same time, it does feel like a pissing contest between billionaires. Didn’t Branson move up his date just so he could go before Bezos? Maybe they care and all but let’s not deny that there are huge egos being involved in this.
“this is a baby step into the idea of getting industry up there, so that all those polluting industries, especially, for example, the industries that make electricity… off of Earth.”
A whole lot of b***t.
While you could theoreticaly get industrie into space, the technology needed would work as a net-neutral cicular economy on the surface of the planet as well and you still has the transpot back and forth. And especially energy can not be simply send through space.
I think space explaration as a research mission is important and can definitly be part of the way to a sustainable economy, but not the space tourism as long as it is not sustainable.
Oh FFS these vanity flights are not to industrialize space …
How about cleaning up the earth first with all those billions.
neil tyson degrasse explained, that they are actually only travelling the equivalent of 5cm outside of the earths atmosphere , so i reckon there would need to be travels further afield to make it worth it for our needs or there is going to be a lot of space junk in no time. My only hope is that something worthwhile comes out of space tourism.
I like that Capt. Kirk called out the royal Klingon.
No fan of Bezos but I do think it should be noted in these stories that he donated over $4 million to William’s earthshot thing which iirc only has a full endowment of like $50 million so that’s almost a tenth of the funds. This was part of about $1 billion given out from Bezos’ climate fund last year of the $10 billion he’s committed over the next decade.
Should he be doing more, yes, but mostly he shouldn’t have been allowed to accumulate that much wealth in the first place to the point he might be the world’s first trillionare nor should William be able to helicopter on the taxpayer dime from castle to castle multiple times a month. It’s all a mess.
Colonialism, invasion and building industries with no regards for terrestrial wellbeing or other humans always ends in pain. It lead to genocide. It lead to countless extinct species and destroyed the balance of our ecosystem. Why repeat that mistake on a celestial scale? Lets help our fellow humans, Mother Earth and explore celestial realms without tying it to profit. Shatner should reflect on how he can apply the Prime Directive to all beings including those without sentience.
ITA with ‘ Similarly, I don’t really think Prince William should be the face of environmental initiatives‘. Most of BRF may *care* about the planet but aren’t willing to make the smallest sacrifice to help. It’s all passive PR stunts that allow them subtly claim some credit for the work of scientists and climate change activists.
This is why I admire Harry and Meghan. They’re so committed to their personal ethics that they walked away from the institution instead getting lost in the toxic privilege.
I actually think Shatner has a point in that innovation starts out like this and society takes baby steps forward that can be built upon. No judgment on if that’s a good or bad thing – I personally don’t want to go into space and wouldn’t want to live on the moon or another planet. Just saying there’s truth in that little nugget.
Also…I have been working in the environmental field for my entire career and I have seen the perceived lack of progress toward change (perceived because progress happens, but it tends to be slow and so perhaps not meaningful) is hampered by people and the systems we put in place. You can have droves of the most well meaning people working to create change, but if it doesn’t come from a leadership level, things keep grinding slowly.
Uh…didn’t we already take allll these baby steps, paid for by American taxpayers? You know, when we sent up actual astronauts who have multiple scientific degrees? Did Shatner and the d*ck waving billionaires forget about when we stepped on the moon and the multi-national space station where we have been conducting experiments in space for years? So why are they reinventing the wheel? Oh, that’s right, so a fake astronaut can talk down to a future future king who is actually right for once.
For age 84, He looks pretty darn good!
Shatner is 90
I’m wondering if this is more about showing the viability of privatizing space travel. You would have to be shooting off hundreds of rockets per day, kind of like cruise ships for it to be a viable trip for anyone but the top 1%. But space pollution has to be a huge concern. I’m not seeing the immediate impact here on earth. But that line about curling your hair and applying lotion? Ha, I hope Willnot took that one personally.
He is ignoring how much pollution it creates every time they go up to space. Literally helping the earth get hotter and making climate change disaster happen faster every time these wealthy selfish fools go up in space.
300 tonnes of carbon dioxide get released into the upper atmosphere where it will stay for years just for those 180 seconds in space. Making this into a regular even for the billionaires and their friends will have devastating effects on our world
Does anyone else get a whiff of Trump in his speech patterns?
I’m just generally of the opinion that William and Shatner should shut up. Both of them. Just change the fucking messengers. Then I’ll listen to whatever it is.
They’re both talking out of their butts lol.
I didn’t understand anything from the world salad said by this Boomer gentleman. Especially the part where he wants to fix the polluting industries through space tourism 😂