Put Polluting Industry Off-Earth

A short clip from the Bezos video can be found [here], and the uncut full version [here].

So, the world is better than ever. The only domain where progress still hasn’t prevailed is environmental destruction—which remains unchecked. But Bezos already has the solution, one he claims to have developed as a child: all dirty industry will be exiled into space, most of it to the Moon. The Moon is to become a toxic landfill. A kind of cosmic Russia, with reeking rivers and steaming ponds, but guarded by robots.

Ok, thanks, Jeff! We then read in the Neue Zürich Zeitung that Switzerland ranks comfortably in the middle of OECD countries when it comes to educational competencies. So, no need to worry that 21% of Swiss citizens are functional illiterates and struggle with basic arithmetic (see NZZ article). The U.S., Germany, and France have similar or even worse figures.

Which makes the Elysium scenario—with Jodie Foster as Secretary of Defense (see the trailer [here])—look more and more likely. Only, it’s not yet clear where the beautiful and wealthy will choose to settle. Perhaps the illiterates will be sent off with the polluting industries and police robots to the Moon. Maybe the elites chose to remain behind where forests will grow back,and pesticides are no longer needed - since there is no market left for agricultural products, and the few who prosper in the paradise regained will only eat organic.

But before we get there, capital will first deepen the crisis - so that the final solution appears inevitable. Even in France, the share of organic agriculture in total production is already declining (Le Monde).

The good news in all this mess is that the worse the world gets, the greater the demand for certification. It’s to prove you’re not nearly as bad as everyone else.
Guys, we’re building here on an exponential growth market for standards and certifications.

And since even robots and polluting industries on the Moon can’t do without carbon, we’ll be certifying carbon capture factories that harvest CO₂ from the upper layers of the atmosphere, convert it into ultra-densified nano-carbon, and eject it straight from low Earth orbit to the Moon. The higher the atmospheric CO₂ concentration, the better it works. So, friends and foes—emit all you can. It fuels the interstellar economy. We’ll care about Earth later, when there aren’t so many people left.