Bill Gates Is Rich, So We'd Better Listen To Him When He Supports Bjorn Lomborg, More Coal

[hatrack]

No doubt a few eyebrows were raised and possibly some palms smashed against faces earlier this year when the richest person on the planet came out in qualified support of policies to burn massive amounts of coal in the developing world. In June, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates took to his GatesNotes blog to promote the views of Danish political scientist Dr Bjorn Lomborg. Gates opined that “as we push to get serious about confronting climate change” it was wrong for rich countries to tell developing countries that they should cut back on burning fossil fuels. He wrote:

For one thing, poor countries represent a small part of the carbon-emissions problem. And they desperately need cheap sources of energy now to fuel the economic growth that lifts families out of poverty. They can’t afford today’s expensive clean energy solutions, and we can’t expect them wait for the technology to get cheaper.

Gates urged people to consider the view of Lomborg and his think tank, the Copenhagen Consensus Center. Alongside the blog post were two “GatesNotes” branded videos where Lomborg presented his arguments.

EDIT

But DeSmogBlog has discovered that Bill Gates’ support for Lomborg likely extends beyond a qualified endorsement on a blog and the production of two slick videos. What's more, Gates now curiously joins America's biggest coal company, Peabody Energy, on a list of those happy to provide a forum for Lomborg's controversial and risky view of the future.

EDIT

http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/10/28/how-bill-gates-and-peabody-energy-share-vision-coal-powered-future-through-views-bjorn-lomborg

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Yes, the developing world MUST recapitulate the industrial history of the West ...

they're not allowed to skip any steps ! No jumping straight to satellite stations and cell phones before they've finished building miles of highways and burying miles of copper cable ! Whatever we had to do, they have to do as well ! How can they ever appreciate what clean, modern, hi-tech societies they'll eventually become if they can't surround themselves with the crumbling remains and toxic waste dumps of a rust-belt industrial technology they haven't even developed yet ?