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Bill Gates & Climate Change: Why His Latest Comments Shocked the Climate Community · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  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.
• 0:32
  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,
• 0:41
  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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  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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  On an island like Jamaica that already struggles for infrastructure and so forth
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  the airports were completely wiped out.
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  The homes were completely wiped out, and the people who are down there vacationing
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  at the resorts, many of them were worried more about their luxurious resort and
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  getting a buffet than they cared about
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  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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  And they were complaining that they were getting bagged
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  lunches instead of a buffet.
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  Like ridiculous.
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  Like just the priorities of people and not understanding the effects
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  of climate change on people, that it's gonna affect whether people get
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  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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  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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  To make sure that that community is okay?
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  Vulnerable communities, small island communities,
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  fishing villages and so forth.
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  And we're seeing that on land too.
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  We're seeing it with climate, making sure that people are okay.
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  This has been going on for a long time.
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  So while all of a sudden does a billionaire write something and
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  all of a sudden it's like, Hey, we need to make sure people are okay.
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  Let's not worry about climate change so much.
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  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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  We know this is happening, It's just like blind ignorance.
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  It's almost like, Seaspiracy, remember the movie Seaspiracy that Netflix puts on.
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  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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  by the way, a horrible documentary.
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  All of a sudden says, Hey, this is what I discovered.
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  This is what I discovered.
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  I love the ocean.
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  I love being around the ocean, but when I'm around the ocean, I discovered
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  that there's marine pollution.
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  I discovered that there's overfishing and that the oceans are not healthy anymore.
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  I'm gonna go and I'm gonna find out what the problem is.
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  And because he didn't know a lot about just ocean conservation in general.
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  'cause he hadn't really talked to a lot of people.
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  He targets the wrong people.
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  He targets the organizations that are doing their best to try and
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  get stuff done and puts a target on their back so that people get mad at
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  them instead of looking at the real problems and avoids all the problems.
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  And it's like this white savior syndrome that we keep seeing.
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  We have to listen to communities, but we have to go into those communities.
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  We have to understand.
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  Talk to the people who have gone into the communities.
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  If you can't go to this communities, like I can't go to the communities.
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  I don't have the money to travel around the world and do all this kind of stuff.
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  But I listen to people who have done the work before through this podcast and
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  understand that it's a lot more complex.
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  That's what we always say like, climate change reduction and
• 14:20
  climate action is really complex to do because there are people who
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  are suffering from other things.
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  And if we take away those other things, then they can
• 14:27
  focus more on climate change.
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  But we can still have people focus on climate change.
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  That's really the whole point of this episode.
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  Focus on both.
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  And don't just wait for a billionaire to be like, oh, by the way, we
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  should just do one or the other.
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  No, no, no.
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  Both.
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  I don't know if he meant it like this or not, but it's definitely
• 14:45
  being misinterpreted, which is just like what happens every time
• 14:49
  we do anything nowadays, even this episode might be misinterpreted.
• 14:52
  I don't know.
• 14:53
  But we have to be careful in how we frame the conversation around climate
• 14:57
  and who frames that conversation and how much influence they have.
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  Like, yes.
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  Bill Gates is not a climate scientist.
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  He's not an oceanographer, he's not a marine biologist.
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  He is a billionaire that did really well.
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  He's got a lot of influence.
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  He knows charitable strategic thinking and actions and I get that.
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  And he's got influence 'cause he's got a lot of money.
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  He's been on a lot of platforms.
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  He's been part of a lot of conversations with government officials from all
• 15:20
  over the world, and I understand that, but they're not always right.
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  And I think instead of just coming out and saying we have to do one or the
• 15:27
  other, maybe start to think and talk to people who are doing the work and know
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  a little bit more, but it just sounds like he doesn't know a little bit more.
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  I don't wanna say that 'cause I don't wanna seem mean, but it
• 15:35
  sounds like he just doesn't know a lot of it, what's happening.
• 15:38
  And I think that's something he really needs to do.
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  So that's sort of what I'm saying here.
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  This is something that we need to focus more on.
• 15:45
  We need to be careful in how we choose our words.
• 15:47
  We need to be careful of what we publish.
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  And we need to speak to more people within the conservation world to
• 15:52
  say, Hey, what are you guys doing?
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  What have you been doing for a while?
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  Or at least acknowledge that it's been done.
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  Don't just take the credit.
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  It seems like he's just going, Hey, I just discovered something.
• 15:59
  We need to do this.
• 16:00
  You need to listen to me.
• 16:01
  So I'd love to hear your opinion on this.
• 16:03
  Let me know in the comments below if you're watching this on YouTube.
• 16:05
  If you're listening to this episode on your favorite podcast app,
• 16:07
  please let me know what you think.
• 16:09
  Hit me up on Instagram at how to protect the Ocean That's At How
• 16:13
  to Protect the Ocean, or Go to speak up for blue.com/contact.
• 16:16
  Just fill out the form.
• 16:17
  It'll go to my personal email.
• 16:18
  I'd be happy to answer back as soon as possible.
• 16:21
  Thank you so much for joining me and listening every time.
• 16:23
  I really hope you got a lot out of this.
• 16:25
  I'd love to hear your ideas.
• 16:27
  Let me know what you think.
• 16:28
  And I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the
• 16:30
  How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
• 16:32
  I'm your host Andrew Lewin, from the true nor strong and free Go Blue Jays, but
• 16:36
  this will probably be out, so hopefully.
• 16:37
  We'll be world Series champions by the time you listen to this
• 16:40
  'cause it'll be over by then.
• 16:41
  But go Blue Jays and thank you so much for joining us.
• 16:44
  Have a great day and happy conservation.