Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder reinvented himself as a creepy advocate for climate alarmism and other leftist causes, recently stated that he would support the deployment of artificial “geoengineering” technologies to reduce global temperatures by reflecting the Sun’s radiation if the climate reached a “tipping point.” Just over a month ago, Gates backtracked on climate alarmism by pushing back on what he calls the “doomsday outlook.”
In a recent interview with Axios, Bill Gates expressed his views on the controversial topic of solar geoengineering, a subset of technologies aimed at cooling the planet by reflecting sunlight back into space. Gates is a major funder of research into these technologies.
Gates emphasized that the world is largely on track to avoid the worst climate impacts, thanks to the increasing adoption of clean energy solutions. However, he also acknowledged the possibility of especially dire consequences driven by climate tipping points, scenarios in which warming triggers reinforcing feedbacks or secondary effects that accelerate climate change. In such extreme cases, Gates said, “You would then need to reach for some other type of intervention.”
When asked if he would support the deployment of geoengineering in a scenario where climate tipping points are reached, Gates replied, “Yes, I’ve been a funder of trying to understand geoengineering.” Much of his funding in this area is not publicly disclosed, but it is known that he has provided support for Harvard University’s solar geoengineering program in the past.
Gates stressed the importance of distinguishing between supporting research and pushing for deployment. “No way am I pushing the world in that direction,” he clarified, adding that having knowledge about geoengineering could be “quite valuable.”
The tech tycoon also acknowledged the two main arguments against solar geoengineering, which he considers legitimate concerns that need to be addressed. The first is political: relying on solar geoengineering could potentially undermine efforts to cut fossil fuel use, which Gates sees as a major drawback. The second is scientific: researchers need a clear understanding of how injected particles would affect communities, including the risks of altered rainfall or drought patterns.
Gates’ ongoing support for geoengineering is particularly interested based on his recent backtracking on climate doomerism. As Breitbart News reported in October:
Gates now thinks scientific innovation will curb any threats — real and perceived — to the planet’s climate and it’s instead time for a “strategic pivot” away from focusing on limiting rising temperatures to fighting poverty and preventing disease.
The 70-year-old said in the memo the world’s primary goal should now work to prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions in the world’s poorest countries.
AP reports if given a choice between eradicating malaria and a tenth of a degree increase in warming, Gates told reporters, “I’ll let the temperature go up 0.1 degree to get rid of malaria. People don’t understand the suffering that exists today.”
The Microsoft co-founder wrote his 17-page memo – as seen by AP – hoping to have an impact on next month’s U.N. climate change conference in Brazil.
Read more at Axios here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
