By Jo Nova
Back in 2020 nothing was more important than climate change. Swept away by the crisis, Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos set up a $10,000 million dollar fund to ‘fight climate change and protect nature’. It was the largest piece of atmospheric philanthropy known to mankind. But it’s become a bit of a ghost account.
The money was supposed to be spent by 2030, but six years in, 72% of the funds still haven’t been allocated.
Bezos Earth Fund Is Off Pace to Meet $10 Billion Climate Giving Pledge
By Ben Elgin and Sophie Alexander, Bloomberg
Officials at the Bezos Earth Fund said they remain committed to disbursing $10 billion by 2030. With four years left on the timeline, however, only 28% of the promised funds have been allocated so far.
In interviews and statements, Earth Fund executives reaffirmed their plan to spend $10 billion by the end of the decade. “Many of our strategies remain the same,” a spokesperson said…
Now that Trump sucked the government subsidies away from pet climate projects, you’d think the Bezos funding would be more “needed” than ever.
It’s not just Bezos who is backing away slowly
Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Catalyst Halts New Investment, Lays Off Staff
Breakthrough Energy, the Bill Gates-backed group that bankrolls climate tech, has stopped making new investments from one of its key funds to scale up nascent green technologies, just as the market for these startups is being squeezed by President Donald Trump’s assaults on climate policy.
After supporting 10 startups and spending “high hundreds of millions of dollars,” a Breakthrough Energy spokesperson said, it has now suspended new investment from the fund.
They all have their excuses for the turnaround
Jeff Bezos says AI will solve climate change. Even though AI is consuming vast quantities of gigawatts, pushing old coal plants back into action, it will undo the crisis about climate change (especially if it accidentally looks at the scientific data, eh?)
The Bezos Earth Fund believes AI will be a solution to the climate crisis.
By Elike Roohi, Alliance
According to the Fund, it is ‘harnessing [AI’s] power to transform how the world addresses climate and nature’.
Dr Stephan Singer, a senior global energy policy adviser with Climate Action Network International, said in a report by the Guardian in 2024: ‘The projects of the Bezos fund do not address the key issues of the fundamental climate crisis we are facing – they are nice but unfortunately cosmetic.’
Dr Singer was discussing the Fund’s big bet on carbon offsetting schemes, widely understood to do little to mitigate global heating.
Bill Gates says technology has already saved us
Gates was thrilled at how well the decarbonization plan was going. If we pretend that giant unaccountable organizations like the IEA make useful predictions, rather than hyperbolic spam, then things are going much better than they might have been in the IEA doomer imaginary future.
Bill Gates Highlights Massive 40% Drop in Projected CO₂ Emissions
In a LinkedIn post published yesterday, Microsoft co-founder and climate investor Bill Gates shared an optimistic update on global energy-related CO₂ emissions that challenges much of the prevailing doom-and-gloom narrative.
The key graphic Gates posted tells the story clearly:
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- In 2014, the International Energy Agency (IEA) projected that, under then-current policies, the world would be emitting roughly 50 billion tons (50 Gt) of energy-related CO₂ per year by 2040.
- The IEA’s latest 2024 assessment, using the same “current policies” framework, now puts that 2040 figure at just 29 Gt — a stunning 42% reduction in the expected emissions trajectory in only one decade of forecasting updates.
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The 2020s was the ‘decisive decade’, said Bezos. Indeed.
They’ll never say the skeptics were right.
Allow me to recap.
We’re all gonna die unless we Net Zero by next week.
But we need massive energy for Data Centers for AI so it turns out we can’t by next week.
Don’t worry … not a problem.
We’ll use the AI to save us.
Because we know the magical promise of AI will be just like the magical promise of free renewable energy from the Sun and wind.
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Question.
“Is AI plagiarism?”
Mind you, I call it AB; Artificial Bull*hit.
Their ” information” still needs to be FACT-Checked.
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Don’t they just have to build more windmills and solar panels to provide “free” (sic) power for all the AI?
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It must be hard to unwind all those flaky promises to ‘save the world’, Bezos probably needs the money to keep blowing up his rockets.
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I asked Gulag AI:
It said:
So even fully woke Gulag admits the problem.
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I also asked Grok, which is less woke (Australia gets a special mention):
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Or, as our parents reiterated their parents’ advice:
Do NOT put all your eggs in one basket.
Mind you, who can afford eggs these days?!?
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Well the AI dept. at gulag can say it. Regular employees better not.
Doesn’t traditional industry, hospitals, schools, rock-n-roll bands, laundry mats, resturants, and so forth, also need cheap continuous base load power?
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Sir, that type of thinking is known as COMMON SENSE which is not only not allowed, it’s as rare as hen’s teeth. Now where did I put those eggs…
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A good friend of mine (we NEVER talk politics) is terrified of AI because of it’s power munching and thirst for water. He also said “well done” to me when I changed my diet away from 500 gm steaks to 200 gm steaks because it’s good for the planet. Please.
Read a History book lads ‘n’ ladies. Every Malthusian prediction so far’s had a use by date. The 20th (and early 21st) Century has seen a spike in Malthusian BS thanks to mass media. I told some idiot on FB the other day that Ehrlich was wrong and his retort was “No, you’re wrong.” I mean how (I mean why) do you argue with that? People are so stupid!
Some other idiot I told off was whining that we’re building a new stadium in Brisbane. She said “we should be building a new hospital!” I asked her how a hospital would grow the pie? No answer.
OK, so I’ve just introduced a three pronged argument that I’d have thought any sane reader could understand: shut up, think critically, and get to work. But no, I have been accused of having a low IQ or something. Mmmm, I wish I was stupid. Stupid people are happier I tell myself, but then the three morons above are stupid and deeply unhappy. What a race we are.
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And once more grok produces evidence that it will say anything you want it to say. But only after being misleading and deceptive.
After a brief discussion about whether the $10B by Bezos was philanthropic or commercial…
Q: so bezos would not personally or through one of the entities he controls gain any intellectual property or profit at all
A: No, it’s not accurate to say there is zero possibility of any benefit or IP access to Bezos or entities he controls.
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Bottom line: This is structured as philanthropy, not a for-profit investment vehicle. Bezos does not get direct financial returns or exclusive IP ownership. However, certain grant programs include licenses that provide affiliates (potentially including business interests connected to Bezos) with broad usage rights — which some recipients and universities see as a non-trivial advantage. It’s not pure “no benefit whatsoever,” but far from a disguised profit scheme.
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