Well, F yeah!! Thank you, Mr Bezos. Mad props to you.
(To cynicism and idealism, I say: know when to take a win.)
Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
51–60 of 237 posts
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#52Be smarter to just back a political movement, but that would actually work, and diminish Bezos's own power.
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#53Couldn't he just buy out the major coal energy companies and force them to become 100% wind+solar+etc within x years.
A lot of the worst polluters are state owned coal plants. There are some private energy producers, but from what I understand, most energy companies just act as interstate brokers between local agencies.
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#54Do 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.
It's kind of irrelevant how much harm a single company does, since that company exists to serve a demand that would simply be filled by other companies if it didn't exist. Maybe those theoretical other companies would have marginally better business practices vis-a-vis the environment, but it's not like they would operate in a wholly alternative economic system.
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does the gross revenue of a public company he owns some of have to do with it?
Having the CEO make decisions that change Amazon's climate impact is a much larger lever than donating money. I'm not opposed to donations, or lifestyles, but what the largest economic entities do on a day to day basis is where the real climate change action is... or isn't.
That's exactly what I was I struggling to communicate clearly.
Thanks.
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Isn't it possible that Bezos is not a hero due to moral complications, but also that this effort of his will have a positive impact?
Yes, absolutely. No argument there.
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#57Couldn'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 been a calculation he made that has better long term benefits.
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#58After 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…
Why does this matter?
If he truly is pledging $10B, it can only be a win for society and the future of humanity. It shouldn't really matter if he gets a tax break or not.
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#59Do 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.
It all depends on whether you're comparing to a counterfactual or not. If you compare the emissions caused by AWS to those emissions simply not happening then that's a pretty severe source of carbon. If you compare it to companies hosting all that computing themselves then I think it's a pretty clear economic win. If you think that a lot of that would be self-hosted but many of the uses simply wouldn't exist then it'…
SO MUCH THIS. People are always so quick to climb up Jeff's colon without bothering to compare to the status quo.
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#60Is this just another Gates-foundation style tax swindle?