@piersplowman1381.bsky.social:
Bill Gates is a baby rapist.
@dying-robot.bsky.social:
Bill Gates? close personal friend of New York Financier Jeffrey Epstein? that Bill Gates?
Ryan Katz-Rosene, PhD@ryankatzrosene:
Some preliminary thoughts on Bill Gates’ climate letter, and the “3 truths” he wants everyone to keep in mind at COP30:
1) Anyone who says climate change will or will not be the end of civilization is merely speculating. No one really knows, because we don’t know yet when warming will stop; how much climate will have changed by then; and what kind of unknowns lurk ahead at various thresholds of warming. Gates asserts that it will warm between 2-3°C by 2100 – but that’s not anything we “know” with enough certainty to gamble civilization over! Those assertions are based on leading assumptions about emissions trajectories; but current EEI models suggest those may lowball climate sensitivity; and furthermore they don’t take into account either climate feedbacks or tipping points. At present, the rate of warming continues to accelerate – and that casts serious doubt about assertions over current end of Century temperature changes. Moreover, warming (and sea level rise), doesn’t end in 2100 in current claims about 2.7°C … it continues thereafter, and so it is particularly hubristic to claim as a “truth” that civilization is not at risk of climate change. It seems reasonable to assume that’s “true” for the next couple decades, but any longer term bets are full of uncertainty and speculation.
2) The claim that temperature is not the best metric to measure progress on climate is a bit like the claim GDP is not the best measure of an economy’s wellbeing… it’s ostensibly true; but the reality is that temperature change (and GDP) do serve as relatively good proxies for measuring the human relation with climate and the economy (albeit imperfect ones). So, sure, pursue other measures like human health and wellbeing, but doing so is bound to muddy the waters of assessments of progress on dealing with climate change (there’s a reason why decades of efforts to replace GDP as the king of all economic metrics has failed);
3) Are health and prosperity the best defence against climate change? Up to a point, I guess, but… there is a threshold after which that tautology no longer holds true… Or at least a point at which health and prosperity need to be so unbelievably robust as to be completely unflappable in the face of changes to Earth’s System. So, as with the last claim – fine in theory, but perhaps only in the context of manageable levels of climate change in the first place…
Which leads me to the overall question I have about this essay: What is this critical rethink of climate really about? What’s Gates’ intention here with this letter? That I’m still working through, but as always with these things it’s thoroughly annoying that a single individual has so much power to shape the global discussion about this stuff simply because of their wealth.
Does this look like “the planet’s natural rhythm”….?
@ryankatzrosene:
About a third of global fossil fuel CO2 emissions emitted during the Industrial age have occurred in roughly the last 17 years. The previous third was emitted over a period of roughly 26 years. The first third was emitted over a period of about 131 years.
@redsnoopy69:
At some point, we are going to have to make fossil-fuel corporations pay for reparations. Fossil-fuel corporations know they are exacerbating climate change they should be paying for the damage that they are knowingly committing…
@nonsequitrd.bsky.social:
bill gates the eugenicist?
@newblue25.bsky.social:
What awful timing as Hurricane Melissa eats Jamaica.
Both Bills need to retire to an island somewhere.
@skybrush.bsky.social:
Reminder that Good Billionaires don’t exist, and even if they did, Bill Gates wouldn’t qualify.
@jessetaylorlewis.bsky.social:
Bill Gates got divorced because he wouldn’t stop going on vacation with his old girlfriend
He’s always been a giant piece of shit
I’ve always despised Gates, and despised his wasteful polluting products.
@leahstokes.bsky.social:
A billionaire who thought we shouldn’t give the poor free COVID vaccines, and hung out with Epstein, wrote some weird, vague stuff about how climate change “isn’t that bad” and now the media is covering that rather than a record climate fueled hurricane.
The age of oligarchy sure is exhausting.
The Gates blog basically says we should help poor people and reduce human suffering. This is clearly NOT incompatible with addressing climate change… a problem that creates untold human suffering. I truly don’t know why he wrote this article in the first place.
@efeth.bsky.social:
It seems like an attempt at creating a permission structure (for himself and others controlling capital) to hedge their bets or move entirely away from climate action. A lazy, bad attempt, but that’s the only way I can make sense of it
@zombiecube.bsky.social:
He’s been pissing me off since DOS.
@solosojourner.bsky.social:
Bill Gates says: “climate change will not lead to humanity’s demise.”
Translation: Bill Gates is in the Epstein Files.
Prof. Eliot Jacobson @EliotJacobson:
And over here, children, we see the three-year running mean global surface temperature anomaly reaching a new record high.
And over there, look children, it’s a category 5 hurricane devastating Jamaica.
