Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change • Hacker News Board

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

#61

Post by ocschwar » Mon, Feb 17, 2020, 8:56 PM UTC

Will_Do wrote: post #29

inerte wrote: post #20

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 in…

He will definitely save a bit of money on taxes. I suspect his marginal tax rate is ~24% (20% Cap Gains + 4% Medicare). So this donation will lower his net worth by ~7.6B. In any case, this is a giant amount of money by philanthropic standards. I doubt more than 4-5 people have ever given as much for all of the things they support.

Normally I'd resent the $2.4 billion tax dodge, but given who receives the money right now, I'm okay with.

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

#62

Post by standardUser » Mon, Feb 17, 2020, 8:56 PM UTC

rpiguy wrote: post #31

klausjensen wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think actually makes the most difference: a) Donating $10B b) Reducing his personal environmental impact to zero You are literally more interested in virtue signalling than making actual change.

I dislike gross displays of privilege. Being rich and advocating for everyone else to reduce consumption while maintaining your own lavish, polluting lifestyle simply because you have the money to “offset” it is obscene.

I dislike when the planet is being ravaged and most people who with vast accumulations of wealth are sitting on their hands/fortunes.

"Gross displays of privilege" are a distant second.

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

#63

Post by legitster » Mon, Feb 17, 2020, 8:57 PM UTC

viburnum wrote: post #52

Be smarter to just back a political movement, but that would actually work, and diminish Bezos's own power.

I don't understand this. Backing a political movement is probably the worst thing he could do. He's completely distrusted politically, and polls terribly with the general public. He would only taint any movement he backed.

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

#64

Post by standardUser » Mon, Feb 17, 2020, 8:58 PM UTC

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’ll be impressed when billionaires actually make sacrifices themselves"

Generally, when someone gives up a significant portion of the wealth to an important cause it falls under the category of "sacrifices".

Or would you rather he just drive less or something?

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

#65

Post by rdiddly » Mon, Feb 17, 2020, 8:59 PM UTC

Well, better to take part of the money you made storing carbon in the atmosphere, and use it to mitigate carbon in the atmosphere, than to use it for something else..... riiiiight?

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

#66

Post by jschwartzi » Mon, Feb 17, 2020, 8:59 PM UTC

tdstein wrote: post #35

kirstenbirgit wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think these kinds of opinions are really dangerous–we cannot just expect society to go back to the stone age. It's why the average human is blocking climate change out, the changes have to come in the form of e.g. CO2 taxes and broad regulation. Climate is not the responsibility of the individual citizen. It's bad enough as it is, we don't need to feel guilty every day about small things like using a plastic straw…

Sharing shit information like this is why the average human is blocking climate change out. No one is suggesting going back to the Stone Age. Your plastic straw use isn’t warming the planet. But, you should consider the impact flying a jet has on the earth.

Or eating meat. Or drinking milk. Or eating cheese. or eating corn. Or the thousand and one little things that you can do to vote with your wallet. And remember the point of the exercise doesn't have to be to stop doing it completely, but to do less of it and to consider whether you really want or need that. It's a far cry between maybe ordering the 8 oz instead of the 12 oz steak versus burning your house down and knapping flints for the rest of your days.

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

#67

Post by FillardMillmore » Mon, Feb 17, 2020, 9:00 PM UTC

rpiguy wrote: post #21

ericd wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No I find it unfair that many celebrity climate advocates preach limited consumption while consuming vast amounts of energy, carbon, etc. themselves.

Unfair in what way? If you wanted, you could preach limited consumption to everyone who listens and behave in the complete opposite manner of what you preach (to the greatest degree that your personal finances allow). Is it simply a matter of degree to you? Or is it a 'principle' thing? If the latter, there's plenty of hypocrisy to be found in the world - why focus on the billionaire who just pledged $10B to a cause that will benefit us all? Aren't there also wealthy people who preach limited consumption and don't make large private donations? At least Bezos is putting his money where his mouth is.

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

#68

Post by toomuchtodo » Mon, Feb 17, 2020, 9:00 PM UTC

KerryJones wrote: post #57

theklub wrote: post #22

Couldn't he just buy out the major coal energy companies and force them to become 100% wind+solar+etc within x years.

This is an interesting idea but impractical to implement. Not all companies are for sale, there are still real uses for coal, and "forcing something to happen" doesn't always makes sense. It's his job to be the best capital allocator he can be, and buying a company just to shut it down is a way to lose a lot of money. Since they are sinking on their own, fighting to find better solutions for the future might have bee…

You would find economic ways to disable these companies from operating. You mustn’t buy a whole company to do this. Maybe you buy a key piece of real estate they need and tie them up in court for years. Maybe you find key employees and hire them away and pay them to garden at the Spheres in Seattle. Maybe you convince a port to no longer allow the transfer of coal through there using economic coercion or donations to city hall. Or you acquire the water rights near a coal plant so it can’t run its cooling operations, forcing early retirement.

Lots of ways to skin a cat. Find the linchpin and apply as much force necessary with as little cash possible. One can be efficient and expedient simultaneously. I agree you have to do the math to pick the opportunities that allow for offsetting/retiring as much CO2 per dollar spent as possible.

I’ve put together notes along these lines if someone with deep pockets is interested. Economic warfare is the most exciting exertion of force imho.

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

#69

Post by francisofascii » Mon, Feb 17, 2020, 9:00 PM UTC

rpiguy wrote: post #21

ericd wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No I find it unfair that many celebrity climate advocates preach limited consumption while consuming vast amounts of energy, carbon, etc. themselves.

A celebrity advocate who pays millions in offsets probably thinks it is unfair when comparing themselves to other celebrities who do not.

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

#70

Post by tunesmith » Mon, Feb 17, 2020, 9:04 PM UTC

gpu_explorer wrote: post #28

These comments do surprise me yes. The amount of conflict in the remarks is because both parties are right. It's very wonderful for Jeff Bezos to donate $10B dollars. But also it's right about private jets, which generate much carbon pollution. It's fair to say that everyone has to do their part against climate problems. I for one make personal sacrifices yes. Less meat, less consuming, trying for local purchases as…

I recently did some calculations on car vs plane travel. For commuter flights, it surprised me to find out that for gasoline cars, car travel isn't better than a flight until you get to a carpool of four passengers. For electric cars, a solo driver is about the same as air travel (in an average airport flight) - a second passenger makes it better than air travel. (This was for a flight halfway across the country.)

So yeah, limiting long distance travel is the way to go. I just found it surprising because I think a lot of people might choose to drive instead of fly, thinking it's better for the environment - usually not unless you're carpooling.