Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says that he is investing a large portion of his money into the development of space technologies, as he claims that “we are in the process of destroying this planet” and will eventually need to live and work in space.
Jeff Bezos, who is currently the richest man in the world, is investing billions of dollars into the development of space technologies through his aerospace company Blue Origin, according to a report by CNBC News, which added that the Amazon CEO says developing space technologies is critical for humans to have a long future.
“We are in the process of destroying this planet,” said Bezos in an interview with CBS Evening News. The Amazon CEO added that he images a day when all industry responsible for creating and emitting population is moved to the moon.
“Eventually, it will be much cheaper and simpler to make really complicated things in space, and then send those objects back down to earth — so that we don’t have the big factories and pollution generating industries that make those things now on Earth,” said Bezos, adding that “Earth can be zoned residential.”
According to CNBC News, the Amazon CEO noted that it would likely take “hundreds of years” before these technological advances become a reality, and that when that time comes, people will even have the option to live in space if they choose to do so.
“People are going to want to live on Earth, and they are going to want to live off Earth,” said Bezos, “There are going to be very nice places to live off Earth as well. People will make that choice.”
The report added that astronaut John Glenn — who was the first American to orbit the Earth — wrote a letter to Bezos in 2016 praising him for his work, and mentioned that space travel may someday become as common as air travel.
“I think that is entirely believable,” concurred Bezos. “If you went back in time a hundred years and told people today that you would be able to buy a ticket and fly across the world on a jetliner, they would have thought you were crazy. But that’s the kind of change that can happen in just 100 years or less.”
The Amazon CEO also mentioned that his aerospace company is testing its transport, New Shepherd, which will be used for tourism, to take humans on short trips into space.
“Everybody who goes to space says they come back a little changed and they realize how beautiful this planet is and how small and fragile it is,” said Bezos. “Something that we can’t see when we are down here, but from up there it becomes obvious.”
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