“The moon is a gift from the universe,” Bezos said, according to The Wall Street Journal.
— from a story by Sarina Trangle on Investopedia.com, November 17, 2025.
If you can believe the Wall Street Journal, Jeff Bezos — the billionaire founder of Amazon.com — wants us to start putting factories, data centers, and other industrial operations on the moon.
Now that we’ve polluted the earth and caused climate change to steadily worsen as a result of industrial development, we have the opportunity to do the same thing to the moon.
Except that the moon doesn’t have an atmosphere, or any “climate” to speak of, so we probably wouldn’t cause climate change there. But I bet we could do a fine job of polluting everything else.
This might sound crazy, on the face of it, until you think about the fact that it takes about three days to get to the moon, which is less time than it takes for a snail-mail letter to get from Pagosa Springs to Durango.
Mr. Bezos reportedly made these suggestions at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit, where he noted the striking contrast between human advancement and environmental decline.
“Almost everything is better today than it was,” he noted, “except the environment…” You can say that again.
“There is no Plan B. We have to save Earth.”
I think he meant, “There is no Planet B.” We have lots of Plan B’s, but no Planet B. But, we have the moon…
…which, according to Mr. Bezos, is a gift from the universe.
That got me thinking about “gifts” and where they come from.
Many years ago, I was gifted an enlightening book by an ex-girlfriend: The Gift, by Lewis Hyde. Subtitle: “How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World.”
I have only a vague idea why she sent me that book. I could speculate, but I was taught never to look a gift book in the mouth.
The book summarized Mr. Hyde’s fascinating research into the way ‘gift giving’ serves different functions in different societies around the globe.
One story I recall vividly from the book. (Assuming we can trust my memory.)
Apparently, the giving of gifts served an important function among the Native tribes of North America, to help establish trust and affection among the tribes, as well as to help define positions of status. Among these tribes, an object given as a Gift assumed a special kind of prestige, and as part of its eminence, the object forever remained “a Gift”. Whoever received a Gift was obligated to eventually pass it on to another person, most likely to a person belonging to the same tribal group where the Gift originated.
Among these Native American tribes, a Gift was forever a Gift, and must forever continue to change hands. The person possessing a Gift was not its owner, but rather, its caretaker. And not just a caretaker, but a cultural ambassador.
When Europeans arrived in North America, it happened occasionally that a tribal group would bestow a Gift upon a notable European person, to honor them or perhaps to encourage a more peaceful relationship.
Maybe a peace pipe? Or a fur robe?
The European person — having no understanding that, in the tribal tradition, a Gift must remain a Gift — would naturally assume ownership of the peace pipe and place it on display, on the fireplace mantle.
After some time passed, the tribe would become anxious. Why hadn’t the European person passed the Gift on to the next person? Why was it still sitting on the mantle? Finally, the tribal group would feel compelled to pay a visit, and demand that the Gift continue its sacred journey from one person to the next, as required.
Thus, according to Mr. Hyde, the rise of the European expression I often heard as a child: “Indian Giver”.
Needless to say, after I finished Mr. Hyde’s book, I gave it away as soon as I could. Just seemed the right thing to do.
The American culture in which Mr. Bezos and I exist has no concept of a Gift retaining its status as a Gift, in that same sense. In fact, I was taught as a child that it was ‘wrong’ to give away something I had received as a gift. It took a gift from an ex-girlfriend to free me from that delusion.
Now I hear that Mr. Bezos has defined the moon as a gift from the universe.
Obviously, he doesn’t mean “a Gift”. That would certainly be problematic.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.