{"id":449385,"date":"2021-12-28T00:57:25","date_gmt":"2021-12-28T00:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=68137"},"modified":"2021-12-28T00:57:25","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T00:57:25","slug":"herald-scolds-world-over-contrast-between-space-and-earthly-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/12\/28\/herald-scolds-world-over-contrast-between-space-and-earthly-wins\/","title":{"rendered":"Herald scolds world over contrast between space and earthly wins"},"content":{"rendered":"
Pacific Media Watch<\/a> newsdesk<\/em><\/p>\n New Zealand’s leading daily newspaper has praised the “gift of inspiration” over global cooperation in launching the James Webb space telescope at the Christmas weekend<\/a>, but has decried the failure of the international community to seriously tackle the growing covid-19 public health crisis cooperatively.<\/p>\n The New Zealand Herald<\/em> declared today in an editorial<\/a> that the timing, cooperation, and development work involved launching the successor to the Hubble telescope “is in marked contrast with the still muddled, individual country-based approach to the pandemic”.<\/p>\n The launch also could not help but “signify the yawning gap between what people are capable of and what they commonly settle for”, the newspaper wrote.<\/p>\n The launch of the James Webb telescope was a collaboration between the space agencies of the United States, Europe and Canada with people from 29 countries having worked on the project, reports AP.<\/p>\n “It blasted away from French Guiana on a European Ariane rocket. As with previous space missions, it involves vision, ambition and precise calculations that have to work perfectly to pull it all off,” the Herald<\/em> said.<\/p>\n “The telescope has a 1.5 million km journey ahead, far beyond the moon, with a task of eventually gazing on light from the first stars and galaxies.<\/p>\n “It all hinges on the telescope’s mirror and sunshield unfolding on cue over nearly two weeks, having been tucked away to fit into the rocket’s nose cone.<\/p>\n “If that goes right, the telescope will be able to look back in time a mind-boggling 13.5 billion years.”<\/p>\n Fascinating year for science<\/strong> Noting Nasa’s science mission chief Thomas Zurbuchen’s comment welcoming the launch — “what an amazing Christmas present” — the newspaper contrasted the collaborative achievement with the “muddled, individual country-based approach” over covid-19.<\/p>\n “While the rocket was launching humanity’s imaginative time machine, hundreds of thousands of people on Earth were getting a ‘gift’ of covid at Christmas. Both Britain and France hit more than 100,000 cases on Saturday,” the Herald<\/em> said.<\/p>\n “The cost of the space project is tiny compared to the US$725 billion the US spent on defence<\/a> in the 2020 financial year — more than the next 11 countries<\/a> combined. Next year’s bill is US$770 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n “It is closer to the US$50 billion amount the OECD has estimated it would cost to vaccinate the world’s population<\/a> against the coronavirus and protect the global economy.<\/p>\n “Far more money than that — US$12 trillion — was spent by countries in financial support<\/a> between March and November 2020.<\/p>\n Time to hatch global covid plan<\/strong> “Now, a year later, each country is dealing with the omicron wave its own way, and progress in distributing vaccines to poorer regions is slow. People feel frustrated the vaccines haven’t guaranteed a return to life as we knew it.<\/p>\n “The vaccines themselves are an amazing scientific achievement: developed quickly and still doing their job of protecting the vast majority of vaccinated people against severe covid disease.<\/p>\n “A study by the World Health Organisation and a European Union agency estimated in November<\/a> that the vaccines had saved nearly half a million lives in a region of 33 countries.<\/p>\n “But it is hard for people to really absorb achievements that involve prevention: When they work as hoped, at least some people believe it’s proof the threat was overblown.”<\/p>\n\n\n
\nThe US$10 billion telescope project had capped a “fascinating year for space science<\/a>” after the “incredibly precise landing of a rover and a helicopter drone on Mars, which resulted in the first powered flight on another planet”, said the Herald<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\n“Although that support was urgently needed, surely there was also time to hatch a US$50 billion global plan for a coronavirus endgame before the vaccines came on stream in late 2020.<\/p>\n