It Would Be Nice to Ignore Bill Gates on the Climate Crisis. But He's a Billionaire, So We Must Listen.
Let's address the central dilemma: The Microsoft founder denies political realities. Though he came to it late, he now accepts the realities of climate science. But he exists in stark, awkward denial about how politics works. His latest essay on climate, published last week, treats the issue as if it existed in a political vacuum. He pens words that disregard governmental authority, and as if extreme wealth didn't exist.
Central Claim
His key position states that money is insufficient, so the representatives at the environmental conference in Brazil should direct money away from "short-term pollution targets" towards climate "adaptation" and allocating funds for economic hardship and illness.
Yes, the funds available for any good cause are scarce, but it's not caused by inevitable rules, an unavoidable reality of communities. It's because oligarchic power has waged war on benign state spending, resulting in the elimination of development assistance and substantial decreases in support money of various states. Financial restraint stems from policy choices. The decision to impose it is driven by governments bowing to the wishes of billionaire class.
Available Resources
Massive amounts of wealth exist. Just after Gates published his new missive, Oxfam revealed that the net worth of the top ten US fortune holders increased by nearly $700 billion in the past year. This amount by itself, the increase in a handful of billionaires' net worth, is approximately ten times the money needed each year to stop deep deprivation worldwide. Through what means did they accumulate of economic resources into private hands? What prevents redistribution through effective taxation? The explanation involves their transformation of wealth into policy-making authority. The richer they become, the greater their ability to influence the state and economic system to their desires, securing ongoing financial growth. But the billionaire mentions nothing in his essay about methods and sources for additional funds for both climate action and poverty relief could be found.
'His writing appears primarily as reconciliation with Donald Trump.' The billionaire alongside Trump at an exclusive meal for industry figures in Washington.
Wealth Inequality Relationship
There's a direct link between the economic hardship Gates professes to address and the fortunes he ignores. In the US, housing insecurity is achieving unprecedented levels, and so is the share of assets owned by the top 0.1%. Although this may not describe Gates' personal approach, by suppressing salaries, increasing housing costs, busting trade unions and achieving lower taxes and diminished public funding, billionaires prosper while others experience hardship.
Study Results
A notable research in academic political journals, among the very few to have penetrated this secretive world, found that billionaires maintain completely separate political opinions from the general population. The rich participants surveyed, in stark contrast to mere earthlings, viewed government debt as paramount of the issues it listed, and environmental collapse as unimportant. They were much more inclined to demand that public retirement benefits and government medical care should be reduced, and much less inclined to think that jobless individuals deserve adequate living conditions, or that there should be stricter rules for petroleum corporations, banking entities and medical coverage companies. They were fiercely opposed to redistribution.
Policy Impact
Which perspectives dominate? The few wealthy or the many citizens? Though the study was conducted in the Obama years, it found that billionaires maintained closer relationships with government figures than average citizens. How about today? The situation hardly requires explanation.
Missing Elements and Presumptions
Here's another crucial exclusion from the billionaire's article: at no point in its 5,000 words does it mention Donald Trump. If Gates included this, he'd have to acknowledge that the second of his major assumptions is shaky: lower prices for sustainable technology inevitably produces environmental improvement. Certainly, it's positive that clean technology prices are falling dramatically than fossil fuels. But Trump and similar demagogues are employing every method to hinder the change.
Partly as a result, fossil fuels remain highly lucrative. This might explain, notwithstanding Gates' assertion about eliminating petroleum company stocks in 2019, its fossil fuel stock and bond holdings have, in fact, increased.
Psychological Factors
Regarding Gates, confronting extreme wealth power could appear inconceivable. This isn't just about conflicting with his perspective. I mean that, judging by his remarkable silences on the issue, he might be literally incapable of thinking about it. Perhaps this is a symptom of "billionaire brain": a deep inability to understand others' perspectives. Even though billionaires present research challenges, inferring from investigations about money's effect on mental processes could suggest that acquiring huge amounts of money is like taking a blow to the head. Fortunes seem to disturb particular brain operations, notably those concerning understanding and outlook.
Political Calculations
Yet, political maneuvering could be present: his article seems designed as appeasement toward Trump. Trump certainly took it that way: "I (WE!) just won the War on the Climate Change Hoax. Bill Gates has finally admitted that he was completely WRONG on the issue. It took courage to do so, and for that we are all grateful. MAGA!!!"
Background Information
Gates has historically been mistaken on climate matters, although not for Trump's stated reasons. He has continually trailed scientific consensus, reciting fossil fuel claims (clean technology could decrease pollution only through enormous spending) long after they've been discredited. He has spread confusion and misinformation, like the baseless statement in his latest article that the objective of Sri Lanka's catastrophic restriction on chemical fertilizers involved emission reduction.
Additional Tough Truths
The billionaire titles his piece Three Difficult Climate Realities. Therefore, here's another challenging fact he deliberately overlooks. Should, as appears probable, vital planetary systems reach critical thresholds and suddenly collapse, the consequences for people, not to mention the existence of other species (a subject he consistently omits), would eliminate the gradual advancement he predicts. Since ecological transformation probably won't occur slowly and predictably, but via abrupt transitions, the potential effects on human welfare are very difficult to forecast. His position that all resources should follow existing data-driven assessments of human betterment, even if it seems logical, generates substantial unreasonableness when addressing fundamental change, {prompting us to ignore the greatest