By Meg, 13 and Ella, 14
On Monday 14th April, Katy Perry and five other women blasted into space for an 11-minute tour. The tour, organised by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos flight company Blue Origin, was dubbed an empowering day for women. But was it really?
“It has nothing to do with feminism,” says Ella. “It would be exactly the same if men did it.” The it is the major environmental impact and the high cost – it costs $28 million to buy a ticket for future tours.
Lauren Sanchez, who participated in the tour and is also Jeff Bezos’s fiancée, said it made her “want to protect the planet.” To some, it may look ironic that it takes someone to leave the planet to want to protect it.
The average age of the passengers was 49, this shows the contradiction between the older generation and younger generation’s consciousness of the environment.
The environmental waste of an 11-minute space tour must be huge. It will add to the growing climate change problem, which is slowly becoming our generation’s problem, when the older generation still has time to fix it.
“I think it’s quite unnecessary. Because what does it really achieve? To some it may be empowering, but it doesn’t put feminism in the best way,” says Meg. “It’s not the best for climate change, it’s an over expense. It’s only something that rich people can afford.”
Space tourism is only something the ultra-rich will be able to afford. But would you go to space if you had the chance?
“I wouldn’t,” says Meg. “It costs a lot of money. It costs a lot for the environment as well.”
“I would only go if there was a scientific reason to go to space,” says Ella, “to look for something or to explore.
“I think to go for that reason is selfish.”
Katy Perry said: “we were making space not taking up space.” In reality, they’ve stolen space for younger generations by using it for commercial gain.
This story was written by two young people as part of the Headliners Young Journalist programme. This project was made possible by the Million Hours Fund.
