Bill Gates’ climate doomer reversal is welcome — and can help save far more lives

New York Post ^ | Oct. 31, 2025, 12:40 p.m. ET | Bjorn Lomborg

[E. Pluribus Unum]

As politicians prepare to jet into Belém, Brazil, for the 30th annual UN climate meeting, philanthropist Bill Gates has provided a straightforward insight: climate summits like COP30 should prioritize what truly improves human lives, and not just chase reductions in emissions or temperatures. His point is both refreshingly overdue and, frankly, obvious common sense.

I have long argued that policymakers should always ask: What’s the smartest way to do the most good with limited resources? For billions of people in the developing world, tackling immediate challenges like poverty and disease outweighs chasing distant temperature goals.

In poor countries, parents are not kept awake by concern about achieving a 0.1°C temperature reduction in a century. They worry whether their children will survive a bout with malaria or get a decent education. As Gates points out, “the biggest problems are poverty and disease, just as they always have been.” Every year, more than 7.5 million people in poorer countries die from illnesses that can be very cheaply prevented or managed. Smart investments in health, nutrition, and education could every year save over 4 million people, while also building growth and resilience for the future.

Gates’s common-sense message is at the crest of a growing global shift in thinking. For years, no difference could be tolerated from dogmatic climate conformism. Making drastic emissions cuts at any cost was the paramount policy goal.

This extremist message was repeated ad nauseum by the United Nations secretary-general, endless politicians, and an army of hectoring celebrities. Anyone questioning the supremacy of the climate threat or expressing skepticism at the costly policies was derided as a “climate denier”.

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TOPICS: Conspiracy; Weather
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[MtnClimber]

After his COVID vax and climate stances, how can anyone trust him again?

[ryderann]

I*s Gates’s 180 due to Trump’s holding Epstein’s files?

[Zathras]

The MSM runs to rescue Gates after his comments last week about GW.

[Yardstick]

The article points out that it’s not just Gates who’s backing away from the absolutist position. Apparently it’s trending among the climate crowd to be a little more open to the idea that a little bit of economic realism might be okay.

Any chance this shift is connected with Uncle Sugar being less willing splash out American taxpayer money on the global climate agenda these days?

[larrytown]

Exactly - what OTHER thing is he involved with that he’s trying to keep on the down low?