“Practice what you preach.”
Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, has maintained that his activism on the issue of climate change does not conflict with his usage of private jets all around the world.
According to Britannica, hypocrisy is the behavior of people who do things that they tell other people not to do: behavior that does not agree with what someone claims to believe or feel.
During an interview with the BBC aired last Friday, British broadcaster Amol Rajan confronted Bill Gates about why his climate activism should be taken seriously given that he continues to fly private all over the world.
Hypocrite Bill Gates argued to the reporter that it is okay for him to fly private and that he is not the problem, but rather a part of the solution.
“Well, I buy the gold standard, of funding Climeworks, to do direct air capture that far exceeds my family’s carbon footprint,” Gates said.
It can be recalled Bill Gates invested in Climeworks last year, a Swiss company specializing in carbon dioxide air capture technology.
“Today, Climeworks is proud to take its collaboration with Microsoft one step further by becoming its first long-term carbon removal supplier. The two companies signed a 10-year carbon removal offtake agreement, where Climeworks will permanently remove 10’000 tons of CO₂ emissions from the atmosphere on Microsoft’s behalf. This second and forward-looking commitment is one of the largest DAC agreements ever signed and proof of Microsoft’s conviction of both Climeworks’ technology and ability to scale,” according to the news release.
According to its website, “Climeworks uses a technology called ‘direct air capture’ to capture carbon dioxide directly from the air. When the removed CO₂ is combined with underground storage, it allows the permanent removal of excess and legacy CO₂ emissions, which can no longer contribute to climate change.”
Bill Gates added, “So should I stay at home and not come to Kenya and learn about farming and malaria? Anyway, I’m comfortable with the idea that not only am I not part of the problem by paying for the offsets, but also through the billions that my breakthrough energy group is spending that I’m part of the solution.”
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