The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Bill Gates Gives Up on Climate Change
Dear Diary. This is another sign of the times. The worlds few multi-billionaires are determining what will happen to our planet, not common people through democratically elected governments. Now Bill Gates has joined the likes of Elon Musk on the other side of the climate issue, both cozying up to Trump’s fossil fuel interests.
Such was not the case with Bill Gates as late as 2024 when he was pouring money into climate mitigation efforts when Biden was in power. Why the switch? Because it is unprofitable to go up against an authoritative President garnering a lot of power to control big business. Biden through the Inflation Reduction Act was having influence on Gates during his tenure. Not anymore. Sigh. Yes, crony capitalism probably will eventually end our civilization.
Here are more details from Futurism:
https://futurism.com/bill-gates-gives-up-climate-change
Mar 14, 8:54 AM EDT by Joe Wilkins
Bill Gates Gives Up on Climate Change
That’s enough of that.
Image by John MacDougall / AFP via Getty / Futurism
In decades past, as the effects of climate change slowly became undeniable, some looked to the super-rich — the billionaires with enough cash to really make a splash — for solutions.
They backed green energy campaigns and carbon capture programs, pushed plastics recycling and climate change messaging. New products hit the market as ethical consumption became the rule of the day: electric vehicles, solar panels, reusable bags, carbon-neutral dryer balls.
By the early 2020s, billionaires had positioned themselves as the masters of climate change policy, taking advantage of their great fortunes to become indispensable to environmentalism.
Now, however, many of those same billionaires are pulling support at an alarming rate. And Bill Gates — Microsoft founder, sixth richest man in the world, and alleged sex pest — is the latest among them.
New reporting by Heatmap is signaling the end of a “major chapter in climate giving,” as Breakthrough Energy — Gates’ climate change nonprofit — has locked the doors on its policy and advocacy office, laying off dozens of employees throughout Europe and the US.
Breakthrough’s lobbying was central to advancing climate policy through legislation championed by the Biden administration, including the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS Act, and the bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Though the billionaire’s for-profit green energy investments at companies like Arnergy and Mission Zero Technologies remain in place, Breakthrough’s belt-tightening will very likely end the nonprofit’s grant writing efforts. That’s a major blow to climate nonprofits, and further evidence that, for all their feel-good bluster, the mega-rich never forget their bottom line.
Ever since billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump won his second presidential election, tech barons like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, and of course Elon Musk have made no bones about shedding their progressive skin and embracing the new administration.
Gates, too, is cozying up to the returning president. In early January, the Microsoft founder spent three hours dining with his fellow billionaire, telling the Wall Street Journal he was “frankly impressed” by Trump’s grasp on the issues dear to him.
Though many no doubt feel betrayed by what seems like a sudden rightward turn, billionaires like Gates have always behaved like wolves in sheep’s clothing, prioritizing their fortunes above all.
For example, Gates was heavily involved in establishing the Global Fund, a privately-funded rival to the World Health Organization. While the Global Fund did improve global vaccination rates, the cost of basic medicines skyrocketed thanks to his introduction of for-profit actors into global health efforts — another sector made to rely on the generosity of billionaires.
Since then, Gates has had no trouble withholding COVID vaccines from impoverished countries, raking in profits from union-busting corporations, and throwing out money to buy media influence — to say nothing of his chummy friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
It all goes to show: billionaires were never going to save the world from climate catastrophe — they just needed us to believe they could.
More on the ultra-wealthy: Elon Musk Searching for Mysterious Billionaire Who’s Making Everyone Hate Tesla
Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is More Climate News from Tuesday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)