Opinion | Travel to space and the Katy Perry effect – El Salto

The same week that it was made public that 2024 was the hottest year in Europe since there are records, Katy Perry and a handful of millionaires delighted us with the images of their space trip courtesy of Jeff Bezos. The two news are more related than it seems, since more and more studies show how the excessive consumption of billionaires accelerates the climatic crisis. For example, a 2019 study showed how the richest 1% on the planet issued more emissions than the poorest 66%. Yates, private jets .. and now space trips are the most graphic example of hyperfosylist way of the rich of the 21st century

Once descended from space, Katy Perry claimed her trip as a great feminist and environmental achievement: “This is not about me, it does not go on my songs. It is about collective energy, it is about us, it is about making (the) space for future women (…) and it is about this magnificent world that we see out there and we appreciate (…). This is all for the benefit of the earth.” He affirmed before the cameras after his 11 -minute space trip. He only lacked paraphrase Armstrong: “A small step for Katy Perry, a great step for the emancipation of women” could have affirmed. Maybe it seemed excessive.

These statements, and the controversy they have generated, remembered the sounds and sincere words of Jeff Bezos in 2021 after descending from the same aircraft: “I want to show my thanks to all the workers and customers of Amazon because you paid for this” that of Perry was the tenth first tripped trip made by the company Blue Horizon, owned by the Amazon magnate, this time led by her promised Lauren Lauren Lauren Sanchez. After 9 trips without penalty or media glory with this trip the company returned to generate headlines. For this, he promoted the trip as the first space trip manned only by women from Valentina Thereskova, the first woman to reach space in 1963. It is certainly a great achievement of capitalism to imitate the feat of the Soviet Union only 62 years later, limiting, in addition, the trip to some miserable 11 minutes, which pale in front of the three full days that passed in space the Soviet cosmonaut.

“The new” space race “led by Bezos and Musk has no other objective than the enrichment of a few and giving some sense to empty lives, but full of money, a minority”

It can be very critical about the classical space race, due to its warmongering character, for capturing large amounts of public resources that could be invested in other priorities, for waste and pollution generated … but at least it had a certain scientific background and served to accelerate technical developments for civil use. This new “space race” led by Bezos and Musk has no other objective than the enrichment of a few and making some sense of empty lives, but full of money, of a minority. All that at the cost of further accelerating the climatic crisis.

Some astronauts affirm that the perspective of our planet from space causes a great effect, increasing awareness about its fragility and reinforcing the connection with human beings as a whole. In Psychology this phenomenon has already been baptized as “Overview Effect.” Perhaps it is also necessary to give the class hatred derived from observing from the earth to the millionaires play to be astronauts. “Katy Perry effect” could be worth?