opinion
World Climate Summit COP26
The whole absurdity of the fight against the climate crisis can be traced to Jeff Bezos
The richest man in the world at the climate summit: Jeff Bezos arrived in a private jet and promised billions in donations.
© Steve Reigate / Getty Images
At the World Climate Conference, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced that it would donate billions for climate protection. At the same time, he wastes enormous resources with leisure flights into space. His appearance in Glasgow was an example of how absurd the fight against the climate crisis is.
First of all: We, who live in the rich industrial nations, all have our share in the climate crisis: We drive combustion cars, we sometimes heat too much if we want to be cozy in the cold season, we fly around the world on vacation, We consume diligently, we eat more meat than is good for us, we produce garbage, we use energy for the Internet, TV, entertainment. We do some of it to make a living. In an industrial society whose companies do a lot of good, but also – as we had to learn – saw at the same time the branch on which we and everyone else in the world are sitting. Hence: Nobody has reason to feel like a “better person”.
And yet one has to look at what is happening at the world climate summit. The entire absurdity of the approach taken by the rich and powerful – those of us who can still effectively contain climate change – in the fight against the global crisis can be determined by the appearance of a man. We’re talking about Jeff Bezos.
Jeff Bezos: Billions for climate protection
The currently richest person in the world appeared in Glasgow and announced something very good: Two billion dollars are to flow through his “Earth Fund” into the reforestation of forests (especially in the USA and Africa) and into the change of agricultural systems. This would stop soil erosion, bind more greenhouse gas CO2 and achieve greater crop yields. By 2030, the Amazon founder wants to use the fund to make ten billion dollars for climate-friendly measures. He can be applauded for this, provided that the money ends up where it can be used effectively.
At the same time there is the other side. Bezos traveled – by no means the only one – in a private jet (allegedly powered by vegetable oil) to a climate conference, to which particularly high expectations are attached. And it was precisely at this conference that the 57-year-old talked about how he had become aware of how fragile and vulnerable the earth was during his flight into space; that “what we have” must be preserved and “what we have lost” must be restored.
He said this to people who have been saying exactly that for more than two decades, but hardly anyone has wanted to hear it. He said this to people who are actively working in politics, science and nature conservation to save the earth and who have been trying for what felt like ages to create awareness of the consequences of the climate crisis. And he told people whose homeland is already sinking into the sea; People like the President of the Palau Archipelago, Surangel Whipps, who expressed his despair in Glasgow: “Slow death has no dignity. Then bomb our islands instead of making us suffer just to see our slow, fateful decline. “
Between astronaut folklore and mockery
Jeff Bezos countered these people with a sentence – probably even sincere – that has long been part of astronaut folklore. With a personal insight, gained on a pleasure flight into space that has devoured enormous resources, and the plan to carry more very rich people into orbit for an adventure flight with the use of further enormous resources. We who live in the rich industrial nations may shake our heads at this. But people like Surangel Whipps must feel mocked and abandoned.
How would it be if a Jeff Bezos – with all the commendable donations – invested his enormous resources, and above all his ambition, instead of space tourism in the research and implementation of innovative climate protection technologies, in the development of appropriate industries and in the protection of those who are already doomed Sinking Islands like Palau, Vanuatu, Tuvalu or the Maldives ?! Hard to imagine what could be achieved then.
There is still room for commitment to the community
And whoever objects that Bezos has finally worked hard for his wealth and is already extremely generous anyway, what else do you want from him, you are right on the one hand. On the other hand, it should be remembered that his wealth is largely based on the sale of goods which he usually did not manufacture himself, and which, after being sold and used, turn into garbage, which in turn pollutes the environment and the world’s oceans. All of this under the often criticized working conditions for the employees: inside and the extensive avoidance of taxes. Seen in this light, there is still room for improvement in terms of commitment to the community to which it owes its success.
The world community needs people like Jeff Bezos. Not as tax evaders and space hoteliers. But as innovative and ambitious fighters against the global catastrophe. Only then would an appearance like the one in Glasgow no longer be absurd.