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Bill Gates Admits That Climate Change 'Will Not Be the End of Civilization'
Reason ^ | 10.28.2025 | Jeff Luse

Posted on 10/28/2025 1:47:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway

The Microsoft co-founder recently penned a letter arguing that increasing global prosperity is the best way forward on the issue.

Next month, government officials, policymakers, and activists will flock to Belém, Brazil, for the United Nations' annual climate change summit. In the past, these conferences have focused on wealth distribution schemes and transitioning from fossil fuels. At this year's conference, Bill Gates is advocating for a different strategy: shifting the primary focus away from climate change altogether.

On Monday, the Microsoft co-founder penned a letter on his blog, Gates Notes, that argued for adopting "a different view and adjust[ing] our strategies for dealing with climate change." Specifically, Gates said, the world has "a chance to refocus on the metric that should count even more than emissions and temperature change: improving lives. Our chief goal should be to prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions who live in the world's poorest countries."

Gates continues by listing "three truths" to guide decision-making on the issue: "Climate change is a serious problem, but it will not be the end of civilization"; "Temperature is not the best way to measure our progress on climate"; and "Health and prosperity are the best defense against climate change."

These three principles stand in stark contrast to some of the hysteria promoted by climate activists, including Gates, who, despite remaining optimistic throughout the years that innovation is key to solving the problem, has issued dire warnings about future global warming. While promoting his book How To Avoid a Climate Disaster, which mostly makes the case for energy innovation to address the issue, Gates told a virtual audience in 2021 that the equator will "be essentially unlivable…by the end of the century" unless global practices change. This will lead to "the instability of hundreds of millions of people trying to get out of those regions where a lot of the world's population is, and particularly the poorest in the world."

Claims like these are grounded in a climate forecast scenario produced by the U.N., which assumes unprecedented expansions of global coal use, stagnant innovation, and no collective action to combat greenhouse gas emissions. While commonly referenced by climate change alarmists, climate scientist and American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Roger Pielke Jr. has called this scenario "impossible" and "widely wrong." Gates on Monday seemed to walk back these comments, writing that "emissions projections have gone down, and with the right policies and investments, innovation will allow us to drive emissions down much further."

Perhaps the most important statement that he made is that "using more energy is a good thing, because it's so closely correlated with economic growth." Since the days of Al Gore, climate activists have argued that economic and societal degrowth is the best way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This line of thinking has been especially pronounced in the Greta Thunberg era.

But economic growth is the engine that drives meaningful climate progress because climate change is, by and large, a luxury issue. A grid operator in India won't care about its company's greenhouse gas emissions profile if it can't provide electricity to its customers. A farmer in Kenya probably won't care if the fertilizer they're using was made with fossil fuels if that means that their crop yield will improve. The answer to the issue isn't to punish people for making these types of decisions; it's to encourage prosperity. As economies develop, businesses and individuals can invest in new and cleaner technologies, and societies can pour resources into adaptation measures to reduce climate-related deaths (which is already happening).

While Gates' pivot is notable, it does not mean that the issue of climate change will become less politicized. Several academics and advocacy groups have decried Gates' characterization of the issue. Still, Gates' letter could mark a shift in the mainstream line of thinking where more policymakers and members of the public recognize the best way to address climate change: reducing global poverty through capitalism and free markets.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: billgates; climatechange; vaccine
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Well, Gates might have failed with Climate Change, but I'm sure there are other things he can do to end civilization. Good luck, Bill!
1 posted on 10/28/2025 1:47:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

,,, good luck? No, luck’s on the sidelines. I hope he’s got Greta Thunberg’s empathy on this though.


2 posted on 10/28/2025 1:50:32 PM PDT by shaggy eel (A long way south of the border.)
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To: nickcarraway

The story changes fast when you need Terawatts of power for your data centers.


3 posted on 10/28/2025 1:52:09 PM PDT by fruser1
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To: nickcarraway

What a moron. Just because he is rich and “smart,” people believe what he has to say.

Hey Bill! You and your chicken-little ilk should be ashamed of yourselves and take responsibility for your fear mongering, but as a true Democrat, you will not.


4 posted on 10/28/2025 1:55:06 PM PDT by DennisR (Look around - God gives countless clues that He does, indeed, exist.)
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To: nickcarraway

“Bill Gates Admits That Climate Change ‘Will Not Be the End of Civilization’”

Of course not or we wouldn’t be here right now. There have been severe climate changes in the past.

When ice age glaciation starts up again it will be rough going for those in northern countries or even New England.


5 posted on 10/28/2025 1:57:47 PM PDT by plain talk
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To: nickcarraway
Bill Gates Admits That Climate Change 'Will Not Be the End of Civilization'

Why did anybody ever think that, because Bill coded the 'Basic" language, he was qualified to talk about 'climate change'?

If he had any kind of smarts away from computer programming, he would have noticed that the world's climate is always changing and that plant and animal life changes along with it, and that most plant and animal species survive and even thrive in the changed environments.
6 posted on 10/28/2025 2:00:59 PM PDT by adorno ( )
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To: nickcarraway
It's because Bill Gates discovered that fossil fuels and nuclear energy were his path to unlimited
AI riches.

What does Gates say to the knuckleheads who gave up career tracks and education paths over
what Gates was preaching ten years ago?

7 posted on 10/28/2025 2:01:20 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie ( O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious, and his mercy endures forever. — Psalm 106)
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To: shaggy eel

I thought Greta had moved off Climate Change before Gates did. Now she saves the world by blaming Jews.


8 posted on 10/28/2025 2:01:38 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Nice of Mr. Gates to put us all through his learning curve (as often happens with female politicians, btw).

But maybe it’s more strategic than that - perhaps he’s trying to get his foot in the door with Trump’s people, in order to have some ‘influence’ again. He wouldn’t be the first. After all, it worked for Rubio.


9 posted on 10/28/2025 2:07:22 PM PDT by BobL (Trusting one's doctor is the #1 health mistake one can make.)
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To: nickcarraway

,,, Thunberg will appear wherever there’s grievance that can provide her with press coverage. She’s a self worshipper first and foremost, trading on outrage.


10 posted on 10/28/2025 2:14:30 PM PDT by shaggy eel (A long way south of the border.)
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To: nickcarraway

How dare you Gates!


11 posted on 10/28/2025 2:16:56 PM PDT by central_va ( I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: nickcarraway

Population reduction is on the list I’m pretty sure. Right billy boy?


12 posted on 10/28/2025 2:17:43 PM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? On hold! Enlisted USN 1967 proudly. 🚫💉! 🇮🇱🙏! Winning currently!)
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To: shaggy eel

I don’t know about that. She seemed pretty fixated on just Climate Change as her only issue, until the last few years, when she realized it was carbon in the atmosphere, but Jews ruining the world.


13 posted on 10/28/2025 2:18:59 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: Governor Dinwiddie
[Bill Gates Admits That Climate Change 'Will Not Be the End of Civilization']

How DARE he??!! The little Israel-hating Doom Goblin WILL NOT be amused!


14 posted on 10/28/2025 2:19:31 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: nickcarraway

Maybe Climate Change will end Bill Gates.


15 posted on 10/28/2025 2:19:43 PM PDT by Judge Bean
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To: rktman

[Population reduction is on the list I’m pretty sure]

I’m certain. Bill Gates being the Godless Globalist that he is.


16 posted on 10/28/2025 2:20:47 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: nickcarraway

“Shut up, Meg”

😬


17 posted on 10/28/2025 2:22:47 PM PDT by Salamander (Please visit my profile page to help me go home again. https://www.givesendgo.com/GCRRD)
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To: nickcarraway

“Climate change is a serious problem, but it will not be the end of civilization”. Well, that’s good to know Billy, because the climate here in central KS changes pretty much every day.


18 posted on 10/28/2025 2:27:51 PM PDT by kawhill ("And we'll do what we must, and we'll cry without making a sound". Corbin, John)
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To: SaveFerris
"On the spectrum" Greta wakes up every day, 365 per year, already dressed in her Halloween costume.

19 posted on 10/28/2025 2:28:36 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie ( O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious, and his mercy endures forever. — Psalm 106)
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

LOL 🤣😆


20 posted on 10/28/2025 2:29:08 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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