CBS host warns Trump admin plans for moon base could usher in new age of space colonialism

CBS News host Vladimir Duthiers questioned the Trump administration’s plan to establish a base on the moon and drew parallels to Earth’s history of colonialism.

On “CBS Mornings Plus” on Wednesday, Duthiers and co-host Adriana Diaz discussed the White House calling for more human space exploration and administration plans to build a nuclear reactor on the moon to precede an eventual U.S. lunar base with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Diaz asked if it was “inevitable that we’re going to have to go to the moon and try to colonize the Moon?”

Tyson said that the United States is being “reactive” in a race to the moon with China, and stated, to the laughter of the panel, that he does not want to “live on the moon.”

But Duthiers questioned if colonizing the moon was a good idea.

“We know how the age of colonialism worked on this planet,” the host said. “Should we be trying to colonize and saying that there’s a keep-out zone that no other countries can participate in having?”

Tyson replied by pointing out that it would be difficult to colonize an area that does not have people.

“Well, the — the real problem with the colonization history in Western civilization is that there were people already there,” Tyson said.

Duthiers and Diaz agreed, and Tyson added that “there are no moon beings that were displaced as far as we know.”

Tyson later criticized administration plans to decrease funding to NASA.

“What’s not on brand is to cut science programs, not only in NASA, but across the board, and then say, we want to excel in this one spot,” Tyson said.

“Well, in the 1960s, science was a major investment profile of the United States,” he continued. “And by the way, it’s not on brand even for Republicans, because Republican administrations since the Second World War have had a higher annual increase, average annual increase, in the science budget than even the Democrats.”

“So Trump’s decision to cut science is not on brand for even being a Republican,” Tyson added.