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‘Do not allow Jeff Bezos to return to Earth’ petitions win over 110,000 signatures
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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to fly to space next month aboard his rocket company Blue Origin’s first human spaceflight, but 110,000 people have signed two petitions to bar him from returning to Earth. (REUTERS/Katherine Taylor)
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mazon founder Jeff Bezos will be flying to space next month aboard the first human spaceflight launched by his rocket company, Blue Origin. Now more than 110,000 people have signed two petitions to bar him from returning to Earth.
The creator of the first Change.org petition, whose username is Ric G, wrote in the petition’s introduction that “billionaires should not exist … on earth or in space, but should they decide the latter, they should stay there”. Petitions created on Change.org are not binding, but their propositions can be influential. At the time of writing, the petition had garnered 98,851 signatures.
A second petition to “Not Allow Jeff Bezos Reentry to Earth” had garnered 21,736 signatures at the time of writing. It calls Bezos “an evil overlord hellbent on global domination”.
Back in 2018, in an interview with Business Insider, Bezos said, “The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel.” This sparked controversy across the internet, with Twitter users claiming that his reasoning was unethical.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof proposed another option, “Or @JeffBezos could use his fortune to make primary education universal worldwide, single handedly ending global illiteracy, changing the world forever. Now that would be a moonshot!”
Last month, Bezos announced through an Instagram post that his brother would join him on the journey.
“Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space. On July 20, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend.”
On June 12, an anonymous bidder acquired a seat on board the flight for $28 million. The brothers and the bidder will be joined by a fourth crew member whose identity has not yet been made public.
