ENVIRONMENT
The Problem with Bill Gates Evidently taking time away from his deep-state duties in microchipping the world through vaccines, Bill Gates recently released a book on climate change - How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. It has been praised as an authoritative, accessible plan for how to deal with climate change but not everyone is convinced.
Amidst Jeff Bezos’ disdain for pleasant working environments (you really shouldn’t have to release adverts to prove your staff are happy) and Mark Zuckerberg’s penchant for our personal data, I had always seen Bill Gates as the ‘Good Billionaire’, his foundation has undeniably done great things in the fields of health, education and global development - so I was surprised to see such criticism of him from the climatologists and geographers that I follow on Twitter. Moreover, this is criticism that goes beyond the odd jab on Twitter; Climatologist Michael E. Mann (whom A-level geographers will recognise as creator of the infamous hockey stick graph) also has a new book out in which he criticises Gates’ focus on finding an “energy miracle” when we have an army of renewable alternatives. It seems that Gates, ever the entrepreneur, is hyper-focused on finding a technological wonder that will solve all of our problems - even if the answer is likely more practical with subsidisation of renewable technology.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that Bill Gates is trying to tackle this crisis. It’s not so much that he’s espousing the wrong views but that he’s espousing views that have existed for years. There is nothing harmful (or, however, new) in his analysis, but many scientists are understandably concerned that views of an unqualified business magnate are being held above researchers with decades of experience in this exact field. When Bill Gates suggests that carbon offsets “helps fantastically”, people take his word as gospel, even when the science says otherwise.
Yet, there’s an argument to be made that there are benefits in Bill Gates’ approach. It’s clear from the sea of headlines about his new book that people clearly listen to what the former Microsoft CEO has to say; even if it’s something that has been said already, the importance of a figurehead for issues like climate change cannot be denied. I don’t doubt that Bill Gates wants to fix the problem of climate change, but perhaps we should be looking to scientists for guidance instead of retired CEOs. Arguably, it’s not a roadmap to success that we need at the moment. We are, for the most part, aware of how to improve our climatological situation. The problem lies not with the response but with the willingness of our governments to respond. Until recently, the leader of the Earth’s sole superpower thought that “windmills” caused cancer through the noise that they emitted - we have a responsibility as an electorate to ensure that our governments are ones that recognise the threat climate change poses and are willing to radically respond, otherwise we will be stuck regardless of how many books Bill Gates writes.
William Brown, Year 13 Reeves House
