A majority of people now believe that pre-space billionaires should focus their resources on climate change, a survey of the UK public found.

In 2021, a handful of celebrity billionaires, including Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, shot into space. Their alien exploits have made headlines and discussions on social media. And now new research has shown that not all is positive.

Three quarters of those surveyed believed that wealthy people use their resources to address the problems of planet earth – not to spend millions on space travel.

The study was commissioned by Transmission Private, a reputation management firm that says it is a “stinging censure” for the activities of these “space billionaires”.

“The research suggests that a large segment of the public rightly or wrongly believes that some members of the billionaire class are out of touch with the problems of the planet,” said Jordan Greenaway, a partner with the company.

Seven out of 10 also believed wealthy people should pay more taxes to cover the cost of climate change – only 8 percent said those with ultra high net worth were contributing enough already. This exceeds the proportion of the population who generally demand higher taxes on the rich.

“This is a sentiment that could pave the way for more public calls for targeted climate taxes on the lifestyles of wealthy people in the New Year,” Greenaway added.

The rise of space tourism

The potential backlash comes after a year of pushing companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Virgin Galactic to do something Space tourism more common. But they claim their research will help minimize the environmental impact of missile launches, and Develop technologies that can help with the climate crisis.

On his website, Bezos’ Blue origin It “believes that humanity needs to expand, explore, find new energy and material resources, and move industries that pollute the earth into space.”

And some experts, including retired NASA astronaut Nicole Stott, agree that space travel may be necessary to inspire action against climate change.

“Those trips into space, the billionaires who do these things, the millionaires who do these things, that’s what it’s going to take,” she said said Euronews Green at COP26 in November.

“That assumes that innovations take place in many other areas where life has improved for us on earth. And space is just another example of that. “

Communicate climate change measures

Interestingly, the Transmission Private survey found that young people were less supportive of wealthy people who pay more taxes and were less likely to see space as a problem.

Only 66 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds believed that particularly wealthy individuals should focus their resources on the earth above space, compared with almost 80 percent of those over 65.

Greenaway believes that young people, in general, are more forgiving of wealthy individuals and their motivations. He points to another study that focused on COVID-19 which showed that young people were far more likely to say that wealthy people bear their share of the costs and responsibilities.

“Nevertheless, I think that there is an additional factor here: younger people tend to feel jointly responsible for coping with, overcoming and solving the climate crisis,” he explains.

“Younger people feel that the historic challenge of climate change is a responsibility that rests on all of us as a society and that we all have a responsibility to change our lives and that the solution is not just in the hands of a small group of People, be they politicians or, in this case, very wealthy people. “

What is crucial, however, is that these wealthy private individuals make their position on climate change clear – despite fear of criticism.

“While this fear is understandable, if many Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWIs) continue to try to sit on the sidelines of this debate, they will soon face a wave of very public discontent,” Greenaway concludes.