{"id":265359,"date":"2025-11-01T17:35:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T17:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/265359\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T17:35:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T17:35:15","slug":"has-he-changed-his-mind-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/265359\/","title":{"rendered":"Has he changed his mind? \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A generation of Americans has grown up believing that climate change is an existential crisis that threatens human existence. Some young adults say<\/a> they are hesitant to have children because of climate change. More than half of respondents in a 2021 survey<\/a> said \u201chumanity is doomed.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a message that has been reinforced in a genre of books and films called \u201cclimate dystopia<\/a>” and by warnings of prominent people like former Vice President Al Gore and tech titan Bill Gates.<\/p>\n

Now, in advance of a world climate summit in Brazil next month, Gates has toned down the alarm, saying, in effect, that reports of humanity\u2019s pending extinction have been greatly exaggerated. <\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough climate change will have serious consequences \u2014 particularly for people in the poorest countries \u2014 it will not lead to humanity\u2019s demise. People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future. Emissions projections have gone down, and with the right policies and investments, innovation will allow us to drive emissions down much further,” Gates wrote<\/a> on his personal blog.<\/p>\n

He went on to say that \u201cthe doomsday outlook is causing much of the climate community to focus too much on near-term emissions goals, and it\u2019s diverting resources from the most effective things we should be doing to improve life in a warming world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gates\u2019 remarks have been widely viewed as a pivot by one of the foremost Cassandras of climate change. In 2021, he published \u201cHow to Avoid a Climate Disaster<\/a>\u201a\u201d a book that argued for more efforts to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe case for zero (emissions) was, and is, rock solid. Setting a goal to only reduce our emissions \u2014 but not eliminate them \u2014 won\u2019t do it. The only sensible goal is zero,” Gates wrote while promoting the book.<\/p>\n

Now, just four years later, he\u2019s saying that what\u2019s been done so far, combined with future innovation, is enough to stave off disaster, and we need to focus on caring for our fellow human beings. <\/p>\n

The reaction was explosive, with some people accusing Gates of walking back his climate change views in order to appease the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Gates himself acknowledge that what he is advocating for is a pivot, likening it to to a \u201cstrategic pivot\u201d he made three decades ago at Microsoft.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a company, it\u2019s relatively easy to make a shift like that because there\u2019s only one person in charge. By contrast, there is no CEO who sets the world\u2019s climate priorities or strategies, which is exactly as it should be. These are rightly determined by the global climate community,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I urge that community, at COP30 and beyond, to make a strategic pivot: prioritize the things that have the greatest impact on human welfare. It\u2019s the best way to ensure that everyone gets a chance to live a healthy and productive life no matter where they\u2019re born, and no matter what kind of climate they\u2019re born into.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bill Gates changes his tune on climate change. Now he calls the \u201cdoomsday view of climate change\u201d wrong. <\/p>\n

Welcome to the club, Bill.<\/p>\n

Here 3 climate scientists debunk several of the doomsday myths: pic.twitter.com\/jV9TYxdzHt<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 John Stossel (@JohnStossel) October 28, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear whether Gates anticipated the reaction, both the high-fives from people who believe that the harms of climate change have been overstated, and the clapbacks from those in the climate-doom camp who thought he was on their side.<\/p>\n

A writer for The Verge accused<\/a> Gates of \u201ctone policing\u201d and said he sounded like \u201ca well-meaning rich guy not actually experiencing what\u2019s happening on the ground, or understanding what people really need.\u201d One person quoted in the article called Gates \u201cdangerously misguided and misleading.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Gelles, who reports on climate change for The New York Times, noted<\/a> that Breakthrough Energy, a venture Gates started in 2015 to support clean energy initiatives (including one in Utah<\/a>), said earlier this year that it would dismantle its climate policy arm. The Times article quoted David Callahan, the editor of Inside Philanthropy, who said \u201cOne could imagine this being a continuation of wanting to move to the center and not wanting to be a target of the Trump administration.\u201d <\/p>\n

But Callahan also told the Times that \u201calarmist rhetoric\u201d regarding climate change is not always effective. \u201cThe result of a lot of research is that it\u2019s much better to lean into the optimism than the pessimism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gates, who donated<\/a> about $50 million to a nonprofit backing Kamala Harris\u2019s campaign in 2024, has met with Trump at least two times this year, once in January<\/a>, after which he said he was impressed with the president\u2019s interest in a range of issues, and again in September<\/a>, when he joined other technology luminaries.<\/p>\n

His positive remarks about Trump, however, have done little to mollify Trump supporters who deride him as a \u201cglobalist\u201d and others who dislike his promotion of vaccines. Meghan McCain wrote<\/a> on X last month that Gates \u201cis an anathema to every conservative in the country and the movement that got Trump re elected.<\/p>\n