Bill Gates & Climate Change: Why His Latest Comments Shocked the Climate Community

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Billionaire Bill Gates says The world
is too focused on cutting carbon

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emissions and not focused enough on
helping people who are starving or sick.

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His argument.

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If people are fighting to survive,
they won't care about climate change.

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But here's the twist.

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Many climate justice organizations
have been saying this the

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exact same thing for decades.

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So why is it only now making
headlines now that Bill Gates said it?

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We're gonna discuss that on
today's episode of the How

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to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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Let's start the show.

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Hey everybody.

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Welcome back to another exciting episode
of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, and
this is the podcast where you find

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out what's happening with the ocean,
how you can speak up for the ocean,

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and what you can do to live or
a better ocean by taking action.

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On today's episode, we're gonna be
talking about a blog post that Bill Gates

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put up that is making the rounds along
social media and other places that are

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commentating on it because it's a bit of a

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surprising approach or surprising
article, but not surprising, in general.

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So essentially what we're looking
at today is like really who gets to

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shape the global climate conversation?

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Right.

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That's really what we're looking
at today and why the framing

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of this conversation matters.

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That's what we're gonna be talking about.

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So it's like, is Bill Gates
actually helping this conversation

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by putting his blog post forward?

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Or is he hijacking a message
that's been championed by

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activists and scientists for years?

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That's what we're gonna dive into today.

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I think it's something that we need to
kind of look at because when I heard this

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online, I actually heard it on, Dylan.

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I think a Dylan Page is a TikTok
or who brings her along news.

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If you don't follow him, follow
him on TikTok or Instagram.

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And I think he does a YouTube show too.

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He's really interesting 'cause he covers
a lot of news that we don't normally see.

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I thought that's pretty interesting.

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He talks a lot about this blog post or
this editorial piece that, Bill Gates put

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on his website that's making the rounds
and essentially it kind of frames into

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his recent essay, I guess if you want to
call it The Three Truths About Climate.

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He notes three things and
we're gonna talk about that.

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So Gates argues that the
doomsday narrative is wrong.

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Climate change is serious, but
it's not the end of humanity,

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which could be arguable, I guess.

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he says that the world should focus
less on carbon targets and more

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on improving lives, addressing
hunger, disease and poverty first.

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And then, for the last point of
the quote, for the poorest people,

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climate change is not the only or even
the biggest threat to their lives.

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So now I wanted to just say.

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Yes.

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Bill Gates is a billionaire.

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Yes.

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He, does a lot of charity to
champion bringing the health

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of people around the world up.

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not to suppress it, but to bring it up.

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He's got a charity that does that.

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I know it can be controversial to
talk about that, so I'm not gonna

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talk about the politics about that.

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But he's got a foundation that invests
heavily in, renewable startups, so

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green energy, clean technology, startups.

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It's interesting to see
him take a tank like this.

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Now, it caused a stir because.

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It surprised people to be
like, Hey, wait a minute.

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You talked about climate change
before that we need to address it.

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and so like, what are you
really talking about here?

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Some praised him for what he's doing.

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He is saying, yeah, we actually
have to look at it more of

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a realistic kind of way.

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And then others are like,
well, hold on a second.

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You're downplaying the mitigation
and you're creating like a false

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choice between saving people's
lives and saving the planet.

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Later.

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So saving people's eyes first, and
then we will save the planet later.

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We can do both, I think is what
a lot of people are saying.

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The press kind of, frames
it a different way.

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So the AP News Associated Press says
it's a pivot toward reducing human

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suffering, which is interesting.

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The guardian says, Gates says climate
crisis won't cause humanity's demise.

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That's interesting.

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And then business insiders said,
pushing back on Doomsday climate

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views, what this essay does.

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So that's kind of like an
interesting thing, right?

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But here's the thing, this is not new,
this is new for Bill Gates and maybe

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he's been saying it for a long time.

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And finally put it down on
paper to make the news rounds.

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'cause we know that once Bill
Gates speaks, people will listen.

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Whether you like it or
not, people will listen.

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And to be honest, like I am little
bit here and there with him.

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I like his charitable work that he does.

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I think it's really great that, you
know, a billionaire does this kind of

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stuff, but he's also a billionaire
that wants to keep his money.

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As an aside, story, he was on
the Colbert, show, I guess the

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late night with Stephen Colbert.

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And, Colbert asked him, he's like,
well, why don't you just give up?

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What do you need with like.

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A hundred billion dollars and
he's like, why don't you just

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give like 99 billion away?

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And Bill Gates basically
responded, well, I wanna keep that.

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Why can't I keep that and do
whatever I want with that money?

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And look, he's got a
point, it's his money.

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He made the money.

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Some people say not very well, like, and
he kind of played with some ethics as he

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got up there with Microsoft and so forth.

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and I'm not gonna go into that.

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It is what it is.

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It's a business thing.

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And that's what business
people do, it seems like.

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People are kind of like, he deserves
to do whatever he wants to do.

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Is it ethical?

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I don't know.

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Does he really need it?

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Probably not.

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I'm sure he can survive fine and be fine
with $1 billion, but he wants to have

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control of what charity he wants to do.

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Put together, and he wants control of
his money, so he got control of his

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money and that's what he kept it.

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So it's like a little bit like it's,
yeah, I get what you're saying, but you

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could do a lot more with your money.

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But like, who am I to tell what
people to do with their money?

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Like really, you vote for what you want
and you put money where your mouth is.

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And so he does that with charitable
stuff and I guess it is the way it is.

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But regardless, what he's
saying isn't really new.

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This has been going on with the climate
adjusted movement, have said for decades

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They can't fight climate change if
they're hungry, sick, or impoverished.

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That's really what has come down
to one of the biggest examples of

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that is Cancer Alley in the US.

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There's a impoverished neighborhood
that is situated right beside

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a number of oil refineries.

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So essentially all that pollution for
years has come over to that neighborhood.

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They've suffered because of it.

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Early death, cancer, a number of
different diseases that could be caused

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by emissions and stuff like that,
that have come out, like pollution

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that's come out of those refineries.

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These are not great refineries over the
years, especially like in the seventies,

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eighties, nineties, and so forth.

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They have suffered because of it.

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They can't worry about climate change.

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They can't be like, oh, the world is
heating up when their uncles, their

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aunts, their parents, their children
are dying early because of the inhalation

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of gases and metals and so forth that
are coming from these refineries.

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And they don't have any money to get
outta, they can't pay for the medical

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bills, and so there's a lot of problems
that are going on in their lives that

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they need to be fixed right away.

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This has been going on for a long time.

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Documentaries were made about
these types of situations not only

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for this cancer alley situation,
but for other places as well.

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Climate change action does mean addressing
inequality and giving power to communities

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most affected by climate impacts.

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That's what it means.

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So why is that when Bill
Gates says it, it's a choice.

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It's not a choice is Yes.

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Let's bring up communities to make
sure that one, they can survive.

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They are healthy, they can eat.

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They can make money.

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And then let's have that community
start to talk about climate change.

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But other communities like my community
and other communities around the world

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can still do stuff about climate change.

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And there still needs to be policies
that need to do climate change.

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People will take what Bill Gates says,
especially people in power now, and

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it'd be like, oh, we don't need to
make a big thing about climate change.

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Sure, we need to solve it at some point.

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We'll do that later.

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Let's just make sure everybody can eat.

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And let's be honest, another story
is like this past US election.

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The Democratic party who lost badly

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we're talking about things that,
people who are hungry and poor not

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necessarily care about right now,
but can't really focus on right now.

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Abortion, equality, like all that
kind of stuff seemed, according

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to the votes, not to matter.

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What they wanted to do was
be able to have a job and be

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able to pay for the groceries.

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Those were the big things
that people voted for.

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And now President Trump promised
that whether he's gonna give it

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to him or not, we don't know.

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But that's what he promised him.

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People voted for that
because they were starving.

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They couldn't afford groceries.

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They needed that to change.

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That's what he ran on.

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That's the campaign
that he ran and promise.

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Whereas the Democrats they kind of
ran on it, but not really the focus.

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A lot of the times of the news was
like, abortion, human rights, things

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like that, which are very important.

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But when you're starving,
you just want to eat.

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You have these differences in
like choices, making choices

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of Hey, I need to survive.

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I need the basic freedoms of life.

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I can take care of my family,
I can eat, I can make money.

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And then you worry about climate change.

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You have those communities worry about
climate change once they reach that point.

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So yes, you have to make sure that
those communities, the people can

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actually be uplifted into this sector
where we're talking about climate

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change and addressing climate change.

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But it doesn't mean we ignore it.

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It doesn't mean we don't focus on it.

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It doesn't mean we don't put
policies to put together.

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And I think that's a big thing.

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And it's something that
we need to really ask.

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The question here is now like,
what's the ramifications of the blog

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post really that Bill Gates put up.

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really, who gets to aside the
global climate priorities?

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Scientists, governments,
activists, or billionaires?

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Who gets to decide that type
of thing, like all of a sudden.

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This billionaire says, Hey, you know what?

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People are starving.

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Did you know that people are starving?

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They've been working on that.

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His charity has been
working on that for decades.

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People are starving, people
are unhealthy, they're sick.

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They need food, and they need
money, so let's give them that.

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Then we'll worry about climate
change, but yeah, we know that.

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So we're doing both.

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That's really what it comes down here.

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What's interesting is that when a
person like Bill Gates speaks, he

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gets the national attention, the
international attention, especially

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like case in point where all these,
like the guardians covering 'em,

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the AP news is covering them.

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That's the big thing And let's
be honest, like climate justice is

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becoming more mainstream now that more
and more people are talking about.

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But when other organizations that
have been talking about it for

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decades were saying it, they're
like, no, you're just, being DEI,

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you're doing this, you're doing that.

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It's not really what we need.

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They've been pushed down.

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Small island nations and indigenous
leaders have long connected human

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survival and climate action like
that's been talked about all the time.

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For the last li at least, maybe four,
there's been like an ocean justice

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conference that happens every oceans week.

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And the reason why it started is
because and this is in the us, the

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regular Oceans Week like CHOW, like
Capitol Hill Oceans week wouldn't

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cover ocean justice type topics.

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The powers that be like the people
who are really dealing with this.

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The organizations decide to do their
own conference during Ocean's Week

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because it was important to talk
about ocean justice during Ocean's

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Week, which included climate.

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It's a weird concept for me.

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Now, there could be benefits.

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There could be benefits of Bill Gates
talking about this, and now that

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it's made national and international
media and the attention is on what

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he's saying, then maybe people
realize that we need to do both.

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But unfortunately, what could
be misinterpreted is the fact

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that, hey, you know what?

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Let's just go back to making sure
people are good with food and money,

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and then we'll worry about climate
change later, but we can't afford that.

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We're hitting tipping points.

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We're seeing industries go down.

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00:10:52,698 --> 00:10:56,598
We're seeing major storms that have
never been seen before on islands like

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Jamaica and Cuba and Turks and Caicos,
and maybe even Bahamas of Bermuda, where

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you're having category five hurricanes
that go from a two to a five within

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a day because the oceans are so warm.

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And they're rapidly increasing in the
category levels of these hurricanes.

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The hurricane, Melissa, that hit Jamaica
recently got up to 185 miles an hour.

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00:11:16,481 --> 00:11:21,284
On an island like Jamaica that already
struggles for infrastructure and so forth

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00:11:21,391 --> 00:11:23,428
the airports were completely wiped out.

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00:11:23,538 --> 00:11:27,889
The homes were completely wiped out, and
the people who are down there vacationing

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00:11:27,889 --> 00:11:32,749
at the resorts, many of them were worried
more about their luxurious resort and

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00:11:32,749 --> 00:11:34,699
getting a buffet than they cared about

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00:11:34,699 --> 00:11:38,899
the fact that people that lived on the
island still went to the resorts to

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make sure that their customers, the
tourists were gonna be okay, even though

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they probably didn't have a home to go
to when they got back, let alone food.

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00:11:45,923 --> 00:11:47,483
And they were complaining
that they were getting bagged

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00:11:47,483 --> 00:11:48,563
lunches instead of a buffet.

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00:11:48,563 --> 00:11:49,583
Like ridiculous.

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00:11:49,583 --> 00:11:53,363
Like just the priorities of people
and not understanding the effects

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00:11:53,363 --> 00:11:57,729
of climate change on people, that
it's gonna affect whether people get

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00:11:57,729 --> 00:12:01,869
sick, are impoverished, get their
homes ripped apart by major hurricanes.

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That all has to do with climate change.

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It's making it everything worse.

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So we have to do both.

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We have to make sure that people are okay,
and we also have to make sure that we

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reduce emissions so that climate change
isn't going to make things worse for the

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people who are most vulnerable, especially
on small island communities like Jamaica,

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like Cuba, Like Bermuda, like Bahamas
and other places around the world.

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We've seen this shift over the last
10 years in marine science, in marine

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conservation, and it's been a slow
shift and there's been resistance, but

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it's been better where conservation
organizations are going to communities

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00:12:36,289 --> 00:12:37,999
and asking, do you need our help?

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And if so, how can we help?

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What are your priorities?

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What are you trying to do?

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00:12:42,844 --> 00:12:45,851
To make sure that that community is okay?

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00:12:45,961 --> 00:12:48,661
Vulnerable communities,
small island communities,

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00:12:48,691 --> 00:12:50,311
fishing villages and so forth.

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00:12:50,524 --> 00:12:51,904
And we're seeing that on land too.

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00:12:51,934 --> 00:12:54,638
We're seeing it with climate,
making sure that people are okay.

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00:12:54,638 --> 00:12:56,378
This has been going on for a long time.

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00:12:56,378 --> 00:12:58,688
So while all of a sudden does a
billionaire write something and

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00:12:58,688 --> 00:13:01,388
all of a sudden it's like, Hey, we
need to make sure people are okay.

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00:13:01,388 --> 00:13:02,948
Let's not worry about
climate change so much.

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00:13:02,948 --> 00:13:04,628
Like I'm seeing a lot
of people who are sick.

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Yes, we see this all the time.

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00:13:06,503 --> 00:13:09,646
We know this is happening,
It's just like blind ignorance.

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00:13:09,736 --> 00:13:13,486
It's almost like, Seaspiracy, remember
the movie Seaspiracy that Netflix puts on.

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00:13:13,596 --> 00:13:15,396
The first five minutes.

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The guy, the producer who did the
movie, which is a horrible movie,

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00:13:18,643 --> 00:13:20,053
by the way, a horrible documentary.

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00:13:20,124 --> 00:13:23,124
All of a sudden says, Hey,
this is what I discovered.

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00:13:23,124 --> 00:13:24,204
This is what I discovered.

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00:13:24,204 --> 00:13:24,894
I love the ocean.

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00:13:24,894 --> 00:13:27,504
I love being around the ocean, but
when I'm around the ocean, I discovered

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00:13:27,504 --> 00:13:28,464
that there's marine pollution.

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00:13:28,464 --> 00:13:32,754
I discovered that there's overfishing and
that the oceans are not healthy anymore.

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00:13:32,848 --> 00:13:35,878
I'm gonna go and I'm gonna
find out what the problem is.

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00:13:36,058 --> 00:13:40,708
And because he didn't know a lot about
just ocean conservation in general.

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00:13:40,738 --> 00:13:42,298
'cause he hadn't really
talked to a lot of people.

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00:13:42,298 --> 00:13:43,783
He targets the wrong people.

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00:13:44,366 --> 00:13:47,276
He targets the organizations that
are doing their best to try and

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00:13:47,276 --> 00:13:51,506
get stuff done and puts a target on
their back so that people get mad at

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00:13:51,506 --> 00:13:55,646
them instead of looking at the real
problems and avoids all the problems.

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00:13:55,826 --> 00:13:58,796
And it's like this white savior
syndrome that we keep seeing.

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00:13:58,969 --> 00:14:02,989
We have to listen to communities, but
we have to go into those communities.

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00:14:02,989 --> 00:14:04,369
We have to understand.

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00:14:04,483 --> 00:14:06,283
Talk to the people who have
gone into the communities.

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00:14:06,283 --> 00:14:08,623
If you can't go to this communities,
like I can't go to the communities.

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00:14:08,623 --> 00:14:11,236
I don't have the money to travel around
the world and do all this kind of stuff.

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00:14:11,346 --> 00:14:15,456
But I listen to people who have done
the work before through this podcast and

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00:14:15,456 --> 00:14:17,796
understand that it's a lot more complex.

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00:14:17,836 --> 00:14:20,626
That's what we always say like,
climate change reduction and

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00:14:20,626 --> 00:14:23,896
climate action is really complex
to do because there are people who

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00:14:23,896 --> 00:14:25,336
are suffering from other things.

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00:14:25,336 --> 00:14:27,586
And if we take away those
other things, then they can

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00:14:27,586 --> 00:14:28,906
focus more on climate change.

324
00:14:28,906 --> 00:14:31,579
But we can still have people
focus on climate change.

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00:14:31,686 --> 00:14:34,506
That's really the whole
point of this episode.

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00:14:34,566 --> 00:14:36,366
Focus on both.

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00:14:36,579 --> 00:14:39,729
And don't just wait for a billionaire
to be like, oh, by the way, we

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00:14:39,729 --> 00:14:41,079
should just do one or the other.

329
00:14:41,109 --> 00:14:41,619
No, no, no.

330
00:14:41,709 --> 00:14:42,489
Both.

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00:14:42,684 --> 00:14:45,474
I don't know if he meant it like
this or not, but it's definitely

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00:14:45,474 --> 00:14:49,134
being misinterpreted, which is
just like what happens every time

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00:14:49,134 --> 00:14:52,734
we do anything nowadays, even this
episode might be misinterpreted.

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00:14:52,764 --> 00:14:53,544
I don't know.

335
00:14:53,708 --> 00:14:57,338
But we have to be careful in how we
frame the conversation around climate

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00:14:57,338 --> 00:15:00,458
and who frames that conversation
and how much influence they have.

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00:15:00,581 --> 00:15:00,906
Like, yes.

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00:15:01,483 --> 00:15:03,403
Bill Gates is not a climate scientist.

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00:15:03,403 --> 00:15:05,833
He's not an oceanographer,
he's not a marine biologist.

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00:15:05,833 --> 00:15:07,693
He is a billionaire that did really well.

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00:15:07,693 --> 00:15:09,013
He's got a lot of influence.

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00:15:09,013 --> 00:15:13,813
He knows charitable strategic
thinking and actions and I get that.

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00:15:13,813 --> 00:15:16,033
And he's got influence 'cause
he's got a lot of money.

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00:15:16,033 --> 00:15:17,263
He's been on a lot of platforms.

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00:15:17,263 --> 00:15:20,713
He's been part of a lot of conversations
with government officials from all

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00:15:20,713 --> 00:15:23,813
over the world, and I understand
that, but they're not always right.

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00:15:24,023 --> 00:15:27,558
And I think instead of just coming out
and saying we have to do one or the

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00:15:27,558 --> 00:15:31,308
other, maybe start to think and talk to
people who are doing the work and know

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00:15:31,308 --> 00:15:33,708
a little bit more, but it just sounds
like he doesn't know a little bit more.

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00:15:33,708 --> 00:15:35,838
I don't wanna say that 'cause
I don't wanna seem mean, but it

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00:15:35,838 --> 00:15:38,238
sounds like he just doesn't know
a lot of it, what's happening.

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00:15:38,628 --> 00:15:40,608
And I think that's something
he really needs to do.

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00:15:40,818 --> 00:15:42,438
So that's sort of what I'm saying here.

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00:15:42,858 --> 00:15:45,618
This is something that
we need to focus more on.

355
00:15:45,618 --> 00:15:47,328
We need to be careful in
how we choose our words.

356
00:15:47,328 --> 00:15:48,633
We need to be careful of what we publish.

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00:15:49,141 --> 00:15:52,801
And we need to speak to more people
within the conservation world to

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00:15:52,801 --> 00:15:54,121
say, Hey, what are you guys doing?

359
00:15:54,121 --> 00:15:55,261
What have you been doing for a while?

360
00:15:55,261 --> 00:15:56,881
Or at least acknowledge
that it's been done.

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00:15:56,881 --> 00:15:57,871
Don't just take the credit.

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00:15:57,871 --> 00:15:59,851
It seems like he's just going,
Hey, I just discovered something.

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00:15:59,851 --> 00:16:00,451
We need to do this.

364
00:16:00,518 --> 00:16:01,358
You need to listen to me.

365
00:16:01,546 --> 00:16:03,136
So I'd love to hear your opinion on this.

366
00:16:03,136 --> 00:16:05,506
Let me know in the comments below
if you're watching this on YouTube.

367
00:16:05,506 --> 00:16:07,906
If you're listening to this episode
on your favorite podcast app,

368
00:16:07,906 --> 00:16:09,473
please let me know what you think.

369
00:16:09,583 --> 00:16:13,033
Hit me up on Instagram at how to
protect the Ocean That's At How

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00:16:13,033 --> 00:16:16,796
to Protect the Ocean, or Go to
speak up for blue.com/contact.

371
00:16:16,806 --> 00:16:17,586
Just fill out the form.

372
00:16:17,586 --> 00:16:18,789
It'll go to my personal email.

373
00:16:18,893 --> 00:16:21,203
I'd be happy to answer
back as soon as possible.

374
00:16:21,383 --> 00:16:23,873
Thank you so much for joining
me and listening every time.

375
00:16:23,956 --> 00:16:25,696
I really hope you got a lot out of this.

376
00:16:25,696 --> 00:16:27,136
I'd love to hear your ideas.

377
00:16:27,316 --> 00:16:28,516
Let me know what you think.

378
00:16:28,576 --> 00:16:30,946
And I wanna thank you so much for
joining me on today's episode of the

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00:16:30,946 --> 00:16:32,176
How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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00:16:32,176 --> 00:16:36,076
I'm your host Andrew Lewin, from the true
nor strong and free Go Blue Jays, but

381
00:16:36,076 --> 00:16:37,211
this will probably be out, so hopefully.

382
00:16:37,568 --> 00:16:40,268
We'll be world Series champions
by the time you listen to this

383
00:16:40,268 --> 00:16:41,468
'cause it'll be over by then.

384
00:16:41,564 --> 00:16:44,264
But go Blue Jays and thank
you so much for joining us.

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00:16:44,264 --> 00:16:46,184
Have a great day and happy conservation.