China’s New Silk Road Versus America’s Platinum Highway in the Sky
The 20th century was the American Century. But the Chinese are grabbing ownership of the 21st century with the most audacious global infrastructure project in history—their New Silk Road, otherwise known as the Belt and Road Initiative. This 20 trillion dollar Chinese transport-project is pulling together 65 nations and 4.4 billion people and is already making America look like a backward nation in Asian eyes. Can America counter Beijing with a vision that’s just as bold?
New global visions are not coming from Washington. Yet one planet-changing American vision exists, and it’s in its early stages of execution. So says Howard Bloom, author of six books, co-founder of the Asian Space Technology Summit, and founder of America’s Space Development Steering Committee. Bloom will reveal what that American vision is Sunday May 27th at the National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles.
A hint: the pioneers of the new vision, the vision that could allow America to lead in the mid-21st century, are Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. And Musk and Bezos’ actions could crack open the coconut of a whole new kind of economy, a space economy. In the space economy the resources of just one modest asteroid—the platinum, cobalt, gold, and rhodium –can be worth more than the gross domestic product of Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and India combined. And, in fact, this new space economy is already generating $330 billion per year, more than the economic output of Denmark.
Elon Musk is working toward cities on Mars. And Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and of Blue Origin foresees a future in which a trillion people live in our solar system, in which resource mining and heavy industry take place in the heavens, and in which earth is a residential zone where humans build their cities, dance, play, and enjoy nature. And in which even the poorest humans grow rich on the treasures of space.
Now the question is this: can the space dreams of Musk, Bezos, and their fellow space-pioneers become realities fast enough to help America maintain its global leadership? Can Musk and Bezos insure that the 21st century belongs to America, not to China?
A lot depends on a cabal in Congress and the Senate.
For the details, see Howard Bloom’s seven-minute presentation at 11:04 am at the National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference, the Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Hotel, 6101 West Century Boulevard.
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