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Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

nytimes.com

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Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#11

Post by ceejayoz »

xxpor wrote: post #5
rpiguy wrote: post #2

Billionaire invests $10B dollars to virtue signal and control the behavior of the poor, while not changing his lifestyle at all. 165M dollar environmentally excessive mansion, private jets, and a rocket program that dumps carbon into the air. I’ll be impressed when billionaires actually make sacrifices themselves, rather than just write checks. Checks are important, but let’s be real about these people.

I know this is completely not your point, but do rockets actually dump a lot of carbon? I thought most rocket exhaust was mostly water.

Use reclaimed methane from a landfill and you’re even having a net benefit!

Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#12

Post by tpmx »

rpiguy wrote: post #2

Billionaire invests $10B dollars to virtue signal and control the behavior of the poor, while not changing his lifestyle at all. 165M dollar environmentally excessive mansion, private jets, and a rocket program that dumps carbon into the air. I’ll be impressed when billionaires actually make sacrifices themselves, rather than just write checks. Checks are important, but let’s be real about these people.

(The numbers you're mentioning are miniscule.)

However:

Amazon.com revenue 2018: $233B USD.

Market cap: $1T USD

I agree this is virtue signalling.

Edit: Downvoters: Yeah, you made your point. I'm sure someone will be happy. Please go back to actual work now.

Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#13

Post by ericd »

rpiguy wrote: post #2

Billionaire invests $10B dollars to virtue signal and control the behavior of the poor, while not changing his lifestyle at all. 165M dollar environmentally excessive mansion, private jets, and a rocket program that dumps carbon into the air. I’ll be impressed when billionaires actually make sacrifices themselves, rather than just write checks. Checks are important, but let’s be real about these people.

Carbon emissions are fungible. Rockets are fine as long as we find ways to extract an equivalent amount of carbon. And carbon capture programs need a source of revenue to be built out, so this is more helpful than him turning down his personal emissions to zero.

It sounds more like you find it unfair that he gets to live the way he does.

Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#14

Post by _Microft »

xxpor wrote: post #5
rpiguy wrote: post #2

Billionaire invests $10B dollars to virtue signal and control the behavior of the poor, while not changing his lifestyle at all. 165M dollar environmentally excessive mansion, private jets, and a rocket program that dumps carbon into the air. I’ll be impressed when billionaires actually make sacrifices themselves, rather than just write checks. Checks are important, but let’s be real about these people.

I know this is completely not your point, but do rockets actually dump a lot of carbon? I thought most rocket exhaust was mostly water.

Yes, some do. Blue Origin's BE-4 engine will run on methane, SpaceX' Raptor engine does as well, Falcon 9s are using refined kerosine instead (i.e. 'gas'). The total amount emitted is negligible compared to aviation or shipping though.

Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#15

Post by whoisjuan »

xxpor wrote: post #5
rpiguy wrote: post #2

Billionaire invests $10B dollars to virtue signal and control the behavior of the poor, while not changing his lifestyle at all. 165M dollar environmentally excessive mansion, private jets, and a rocket program that dumps carbon into the air. I’ll be impressed when billionaires actually make sacrifices themselves, rather than just write checks. Checks are important, but let’s be real about these people.

I know this is completely not your point, but do rockets actually dump a lot of carbon? I thought most rocket exhaust was mostly water.

Rockets do emit CO2 but it is a very insignificant amount.

Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#16

Post by conception »

rpiguy wrote: post #2

Billionaire invests $10B dollars to virtue signal and control the behavior of the poor, while not changing his lifestyle at all. 165M dollar environmentally excessive mansion, private jets, and a rocket program that dumps carbon into the air. I’ll be impressed when billionaires actually make sacrifices themselves, rather than just write checks. Checks are important, but let’s be real about these people.

Just to cynically correct you, he hasn’t do t anything. He’s “committed “ to giving 10B. I don’t see a timeframe or a plan. This is all talk currently.

Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#17

Post by ericd »

xxpor wrote: post #5
rpiguy wrote: post #2

Billionaire invests $10B dollars to virtue signal and control the behavior of the poor, while not changing his lifestyle at all. 165M dollar environmentally excessive mansion, private jets, and a rocket program that dumps carbon into the air. I’ll be impressed when billionaires actually make sacrifices themselves, rather than just write checks. Checks are important, but let’s be real about these people.

I know this is completely not your point, but do rockets actually dump a lot of carbon? I thought most rocket exhaust was mostly water.

Depends on the fuel. With hydrogen powered rockets a la shuttle main engines, yes. Most of the recent pushes have been kerosene or methane fueled, though.

But in the scheme of things, it's really not worth complaining about them vs. our enormous vehicle fleets.

Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#18

Post by natalyarostova »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #7

Do we know how much emissions can be attributed to Amazon / AWS? I'm curious if this $10 billion fund could offset that or if it's too small to cover their own use. Though, to be fair to Amazon, this is at least a good goal: > Amazon expects 80% of its energy use to come from renewable energy sources by 2024, up from a current rate of 40%, before transition to zero emissions by 2030.

Attributing emissions to Amazon/AWS is not a trivial problem. What you'd really want to estimate is AmazonEmissions-CounterfactualEmissions, which is the emissions caused by companies that would jointly provide the services demanded by consumers from Amazon, in the counterfactual world where Amazon didn't exist.

Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#19

Post by throwawayhhakdl »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #7

Do we know how much emissions can be attributed to Amazon / AWS? I'm curious if this $10 billion fund could offset that or if it's too small to cover their own use. Though, to be fair to Amazon, this is at least a good goal: > Amazon expects 80% of its energy use to come from renewable energy sources by 2024, up from a current rate of 40%, before transition to zero emissions by 2030.

Project Vesta claims it would need $250B / year to sequester all the carbon we emit... https://projectvesta.org/

Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#20

Post by inerte »

After reading Winners Take All my level of cynicism is through the roof with headlines like this.

$10b of his own personal fortune? That won't results in tax breaks / deduction because can be considered a donation? Or does that include money Amazon-the-company is spending on "climate change" efforts, such as buying electric delivery trucks instead of gas ones? Investments in "green datacenters"? Is any of this new investment that's needed anyway for Amazon-the-company to operate, but now it's green so it gets added up to the $10b?

Is Bezos, worth $130b today be worth $120b tomorrow because of this? Or do we have to add up a hundred different things with some creative accounting and lots of goodwill?

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