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Shatner Vs. the Prince: Two Takes on Addressing the Climate Crisis
A “zero gravity” wake-up call
William Shatner, the iconic actor best known for playing “Captain Kirk” on Star Trek, went “out of this world” for real last week. When a nonagenarian actor goes “zero gravity” aboard a billionaire’s rocket, we have a history-making news day!
The space dust had scarcely settled on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket before critics began condemning the “squandering” of such vast sums on space tourism. That money could have been put to infinitely better use here “at home,” went the heated refrain.
Even Britain’s Prince William scolded: “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.”
“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.” — Prince William
Shatner was having none of it. “The prince is missing the point,” argued the 90-year-old actor who was clearly overwhelmed by his brief trek into the beyond. “The idea is not to go, ‘Yeah, look at me. I’m in space,’” he added. Shatner said he foresees a future where a power-generating base constructed miles above earth might actually supply…
