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Microsoft founder Bill Gates is softening his stance on climate change, alleging that the global threat caused by man-made emissions won’t mark the end of the human race. “Although climate change will have serious consequences — particularly for people in the poorest countries — it will not lead to humanity’s demise,” the billionaire philanthropist said in a memo published on Monday night. “People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future,” he wrote. “Emissions projections have gone down, and with the right policies and investments, innovation will allow us to drive emissions down much further.” Gates, who has spent billions in the fight against climate change and whose foundation provides financial support for The Independent’s coverage in Africa, also hit at using temperature for a measure of climate progress and cautioned that the current “doomsday outlook” on Earth’s future under climate change is causing people to focus too much on near-term emissions goals and is “diverting resources from the most effective things we should be doing to improve life in a warming world” such as improving agriculture and health. The software leader’s position appeared to be a shift in his previous views, and did not reference scientists’ continually dire climate predictions. Although, Gates later stressed that his position is not a reversal, according to The New York Times. “If you think climate is not important, you won’t agree with the memo. If you think climate is the only cause and apocalyptic, you won’t agree with the memo,” the Breakthrough Energy founder told reporters. In the memo, Gates said that he’d “let the temperature go up 0.1 degree to get rid of malaria” — despite the fact that climate change is largely responsible for extending the reach of malaria- and other disease-carrying mosquitoes. He also touted the use of artificial intelligence in tackling the “growing demand for energy without increasing carbon emissions,” but did not discuss its contributing role to the climate crisis. AI runs on huge amounts of electricity and water, both of which can lead to more greenhouse emissions. Microsoft has embraced AI over the last couple of years, like many major competitors, investing billions in the technology. Although the tech giant still aims to be remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits by 2030, its emissions have increased by more than 23 percent over the last five years, partially due to AI. Since the memo’s release, Gates’ comments have been blasted by experts and praised on Elon Musk’s social media platform X by anti-climate activists. “Bill Gates is deeply misguided on climate,” climatologist Dr. Michael Mann said in a social media post. David Callahan, the editor of Inside Philanthropy, suggested to The New York Times that Gates’ memo could be aimed at repositioning the debate around climate change or “a continuation of wanting to move to the center and not wanting to be a target of the Trump administration.” President Donald Trump and Republicans have increasingly refused to acknowledge the realities of climate change — in public, at least — calling it a “hoax.” Gates, who has long been an advocate for climate optimism, has previously taken heat for controversial climate comments, claiming the Earth would “be fine” and that planting trees is “complete nonsense.” Climate scientists say that unless humanity can stop producing atmosphere-warming fossil fuel emissions, the Earth will experience extreme weather and other changes faster than humans can adapt. There has been progress made on global emissions recently, which the United Nations said are projected to fall around 10 percent by 2035. However, the planet is seeing many of the disastrous effects of climate change already, with record ocean temperatures fueling massive, supercharged hurricanes, historic rainfall and flooding events, heat waves becoming longer and more severe and island nations losing land due to sea level rise. The week’s Hurricane Melissa intensified rapidly over Atlantic Ocean waters that were 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than average — conditions that were made up to 700 times more likely because of human-caused climate change, according to the non-profit Climate Central. Just four years ago, Gates had said that the impacts of climate change, including rising global temperatures, would make conditions “essentially unlivable at the Equator by the end of the century… [leading to] the instability of hundreds of millions of people trying to get out of those regions where a lot of the world’s population is, and particularly the poorest in the world.” “Avoiding a climate disaster will be one of the greatest challenges humans have ever taken on," he explained.
