Jeff Bezos took the stage at VivaTech in Paris on Wednesday to make the case that humanity must move to the moon and eventually beyond, not just for the sake of exploration but to save the planet from the effects of technology and industry.
Speaking alongside Blue Origin chief executive Dave Limp in a session moderated by former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, the Amazon founder and Blue Origin executive chairman argued that shifting heavy industry off Earth is the only scenario in which economic growth and environmental preservation can coexist.
"[Our] garden planet can be returned to its pre-industrial revolution state," Bezos said.
"This is the only way in which the world is worse today than it was 500 years ago ... We can actually have both," he continued, emphasizing that the quality of life has improved for the entirety of humanity but that the planet suffered as a result.
His message was unambiguous on sequencing, namely that the moon comes before Mars, and skipping that step would be a mistake.
