Copyright futurism
Four years after publishing a book titled “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” billionaire Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates is singing a dramatically different tune on the environment. In a new memo published on his blog, Gates pushed back on a “doomsday view of climate change” that “nothing matters more than limiting the rise in temperature.” “Although climate change will have serious consequences — particularly for people in the poorest countries — it will not lead to humanity’s demise,” he said, downplaying the deep risks scientists have warned us about for many years now. “People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.” It’s a “stunning” change in tone for a billionaire who has spent billions of dollars to bring awareness to the inevitable dangers of global warming. Scientists have been clear: the climate crisis is nothing less than an existential threat for humanity, a global disaster whose consequences are already being felt around the world. “There is no greater threat to developing nations than the climate crisis,” Penn Center for Science, Sustainability & the Media director Michael Mann told CNN. Gates’ change in messaging is particularly concerning, considering the rapidly changing political landscape, with the billionaire class pulling support for climate action en masse. The Trump administration has actively attempted to scrub any information regarding climate change from agency websites, as part of president Donald Trump’s anti-science agenda. “One could imagine this being a continuation of wanting to move to the center and not wanting to be a target of the Trump administration,” Inside Philanthropy editor David Callahan told NYT. Experts particularly balked at Gates’ suggestion that we should help poor people instead of prioritizing the fight against climate change, saying it’s a false dichotomy deployed by climate skeptics. “There is no reason to pit poverty reduction versus climate transformation,” Columbia University Center for Sustainable Development director Jeffrey Sachs told CNN, calling the memo “pointless, vague, unhelpful, and confusing.” “Both are utterly feasible, and readily so, if the Big Oil lobby is brought under control,” he added. Following the Trump administration’s dismantling of foreign aid and the shutting of the US Agency for International Development, Gates has focused his efforts — and donations — on helping the developing world. His clean energy venture fund, Breakthrough Energy, which was founded in 2015, dismantled its climate policy group earlier this year. Gates also announced that the Gates Foundation, which has overseen billions of dollars in climate-related donations, will be shuttered by the end of 2045. More on Bill Gates: Bill Gates Gives Up on Climate Change
