Bezos pledges $2bn for restoring nature

[Mr. Sparkle]

Source: BBC

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has said his Bezos Earth Fund will spend $2bn (£1.5bn) restoring landscapes and transforming food systems. He told the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow that he had grasped nature's fragility when he travelled into space. Entrepreneurs including Mr Bezos have been criticised for spending money on trips into space instead of solving problems on Earth. Amazon has also been criticised by its workers over environmental practices.

Speaking to the COP26 conference, Mr Bezos said: "In too many parts of the world, nature is already flipping from a carbon sink to a carbon source." The Bezos Earth Fund plans to spend $10bn fighting climate change overall. In Glasgow the founder of the world's biggest online retailer described the experience of travelling on his rocket ship, New Shepard, in July as a revelation of Earth's vulnerability. "I was told that seeing the Earth from space changes the lens from which you view the world but I was not prepared for just how much that would be true," he said. "Looking back at Earth from up there, the atmosphere seems so thin, the world so finite and so fragile. Now, in this critical year and what we all know is the decisive decade, we must all stand together to protect our world."

In September, the Bezos Earth Fund pledged $1bn towards conserving nature and indigenous peoples and cultures. Announcing the follow-up $2bn pledge on Tuesday, Mr Bezos said that two-thirds of Africa's productive land was degraded but this could be reversed. "Restoration can improve soil fertility, raise yields and improve food security, make water more reliable, create jobs and boost economic growth, while also sequestering carbon," he told COP26.

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59132104

[PSPS]

1. So, our very lives now depend on the whims of oligarchs. Heaven forbid they pay any taxes!

[Calista241]

8. While they should all have to pay taxes

Donations like this focus spending on their areas of interest. If that $2b was paid into the general fund of the US Govt, it would be spent like any other dollar the US govt collects, with some going to the military, social security, roads, etc.

By having a flat $2b to donated like this, the money can be focused on the cause they're supporting, in this case climate change.

[Javaman]

15. a guy like bezos can do both as can many billionaires.

i cut him zero slack.

[Dave in VA]

2. So he can use his

weekly allowance to help save the human race. How generous of him.

[ananda]

12. I know. 2b is just a drop in the bucket for him.

LOL

[Casady1]

3. Tax write off

[nuxvomica]

4. Wow! I already figured out the environment was fragile and endangered

But I can't go around claiming it's because I went into space. I bet he's just doing spaceflight-dropping, like when an interior decorator asks him to pick out curtains for his study, he says, "I like the print and I like the solid green, but after going into space I realized that the solid blue is probably better. Oh that space, it changes you. You can't know how much until you've been there!"

[slightlv]

5. If it takes going into space

to get thru these billionaires minds, then do it. Something has to. We're ordinary people. We live in the trenches. We don't have to have super special multimillion experiences to know we and everything around is endangered. We don't have to spend billions to know that everything is interconnected. We know at the gut-level that everything... from the smallest blade of grass, to the stray kitten in the street, to the homeless man scrounging for food, to the billionaire sparking his rocket are all connected. Common sense, man... it was never common... except in the common man.

Once they see the big blue marble, and it really is making an impression, then more power to them. We can use all the help we can get. They're late to the bandwagon... but most money works, just keep it flowing. And therein lies the problem. Will it keep flowing? Or do you have an underlying agenda? If so, keep it and go back up to space and stay there. We don't need your type here any longer. We're in this for the long haul. Make your sanctuaries on Mars or somewhere. Earth is all we have, and we're determined to clean up your messes once and for all. Good riddance to bad trash!

[50 Shades Of Blue]

6. "Pledged"

[ancianita]

7. Two billion? Crumbs to a trillionaire. But better than nothing. He's testing how it's stewarded,

probably, which is fair. Then he can decide which innovations are cost-benefit providing the biggest change and will pour in much more later. From what I've read of philanthropists they often do these kinds of initial offerings.

Pledging isn't paying, granted. The speed and scale of stuff that's proven to work well is what his money can buy more quickly than governments. And so he's likely waiting to see something he can actually invest in over the longer term, which isn't subject to uneven monetary support depending on a change of majority in government.

So in general I don't blame him. Because often, another issue is that experts can't really tell whether some innovations can be sped up or scaled up, because initial smaller scale tests don't see the secondary effects that can show up with speed and scale.

[Hav]

9. Hilarious and predictable reactions in the replies

I'd take whatever is offered voluntarily if it helps a cause.

[Mz Pip]

10. Good for him.

I’m not going to trash Bezos for this. 2 billion is a lot of money so good for him. So what if he gets a tax write off. I write off my charitable donations. Most people do.

[JohnnyRingo]

11. Call it a smoke screen if you want....

... but it's a positive move.
I guess he could pay $2b in taxes and hope Congress spends it on climate change.

[demosincebirth]

13. Better to raise his employees wages

[packman]

14. Glad to see something good coming out of that space crap

Maybe he should spend a week in an inner-city slum or spend some time in a soup kitchen to get another perspective.

[llmart]

16. His company has done more to trash the planet than his $2bn can repair.

Just the amount of packaging that has been generated by his company, most of which ends up in a landfill, and the fact that he's made it sooooo convenient to increase the amount of conspicuous consumption makes my head hurt.

[lapfog_1]

17. He told the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow that

He told the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow that he had grasped nature's fragility when he travelled into space.

---

Oh barf... just fuck me. Good grief.

[Mysterian]

18. He should donate it to the Democratic Party

If the USA falls to the fascists, there won't be an environment to save.

[flamingdem]

19. Good news

Really. If all the uber wealthy stepped up we'd get somewhere.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

20. Bezos's real message: "I've been to space and you haven't."

At least he puts his money where his mouth is. It's nice to see someone who is a real billionaire and who to help the earth, as opposed to a washed up game show host and twice impeached president whose message is always the same: "Look at ME!"