Bill Gates Wants Us to Do Less About the Climate Crisis

Billionaire Bill Gates says we should back away from urgent emissions cuts and bet instead on tomorrow’s tech. But unless that innovation is democratically controlled, it will serve the same interests that caused the climate crisis in the first place.

When Bill Gates speaks about climate change, the world listens. That’s why his new essay, “Three Tough Truths About Climate,” is so troubling.

Gates argues there’s “too much” emphasis on “near-term emissions goals,” ostensibly for humanitarian reasons. He says we should focus instead on the more serious issues of “poverty and disease,” in part because technology will solve the most severe climate impacts. Yet the points in his essay are neither “tough” nor “true,” but belie the same ideology that has sabotaged climate action for half a cent