By Juliana Di Leonardo
When my grandfather was still alive, he would often mention that he would love to travel into space. He was curious about our neighboring planets and the worlds that exist outside of our home, Earth. His yearning to see what was beyond our atmosphere was contagious yet terrifying. I too experienced a similar love for the stars, planets, and galaxies, however my desire to learn remained connected to the ground while gazing at the night sky or my nose in a book. I never had the desire to travel to the unknown above, but I know my grandfather would be excited to know that people are beginning to have the opportunity available to them today, however I don’t believe he would approve of the effect it has on the current fragile state of the world now.
Acharya Tulsi Ji (Photo provided by: Arvind Vora)
Recently, attention has been aimed towards Blue Origin, an American space technology company founded by Jeff Bezos. This newly established endeavor of his might seem exciting, especially to the many who believed that we would be more technologically advanced by this time, but Bezos is foremost an American businessman best known as the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, and his actions speak louder than his intentions suggest. His “mission”, stated on his website, claims that Blue Origin envisions a future where millions of people will live and work in space with a single-minded purpose to restore and sustain Earth which may sound lovely but is just an easily digestible guilt free phrase. This newfound space tourism is his next money-making scheme that patronizes wealthy individuals and celebrities with short eleven-minute trips that dip through the edge of space for approximately four minutes.
It saddens me that most people who live on this planet are struggling to survive whether it be from hunger, war, disease, cancer, mental illness, homelessness, addiction, or simply the woe experienced in trying to make ends meet while elitist individuals with extreme disposable incomes will spend between two hundred and three hundred thousand dollars just to have a brief trip to outer space when they could easily alleviate the human suffering that exists today. It sickens me that celebrities such as Katy Perry personally took this trip and claimed that she felt full of love afterwards, but what does that even mean? There are people who use mindfulness practices to connect with their surroundings without needing to dump an excessive amount of money into a billionaire’s pockets who is greenwashing his space tours. He claims that Blue Origin is sustainable because his rocket emits water vapor. However, water vapor is considered a greenhouse gas which is not meant to be in the atmosphere. Experts have spoken out explaining that it alters the chemistry of the stratosphere, depleting the precious ozone layer and forms clouds that affect climate.
Currently, I think it’s safe to say “Houston, we have a problem” because wasting precious resources and money isn’t going to help humans or the environment. We need to incorporate aparigraha, the concept of non-possessiveness, non-greed, and non-attachment, instead of using up the Earth and abandoning the life that is already here. For this week’s anuvrat, please focus on the impact that you already have in your community and know that your time and money can be spent in ways that will make a difference for humans, non-human animals, the ecosystem, and your home.
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Juliana Di Leonardo is the Vice President of Humane Long Island. She is a yoga and ballroom dance instructor, model, and artist. Her advocacy for animals exploited by the fashion industry was credited in the 2021 documentary “The Face of Fashion is Fear” and recognized by PETA with a Hero for Coyotes award. (Image provided by author)
