by Rachel Stewart

Bill Gates.

As loathe as I am to discuss the perennial snake in the grass – apologies to snakes – he made a statement about climate change on Oct 28 – interestingly a day after the UN said humanity missed 1.5C climate target and warned of devastation – that might have you thinking that he’d changed his mind about his belief in it.

I mean, this is the man who in 2021 wrote a book titled ‘How To Avoid a Climate Disaster’ in which he said, “we have to get to zero emissions”. Now he’s flipped the script and said, “we’re never gonna’ get there”. You think?

The reporting on his “strategic pivot” has landed exactly where you’d expect it to. If you are a climate doomsdayer then it’s “shocking”. If you are a denier then it’s entirely fitting.

And, despite the framing of the story by partisans on both sides, Gates hasn’t actually changed his mind on anything. It’s called talking out of both sides of your mouth at the same time. He likely doesn’t think about for one second – and never has – that climate change is an existential threat. That’s true for all climate opportunists.

Listen to these media hacks trying to make sense of it and failing – as was typical of most legacy media. They can’t see past their sycophancy.

And he’s not involved in the climate narrative to save humanity. He believes strongly in population control and oh, coincidentally, vaccines. Mucho vaccines. And money. Which equals power and control. Over the whole planet at this point.

If you read his climate memo and listen to his subsequent interviews you’ll realise very quickly that the wording is slimy, and deliberately so. Is he or is he not the billionaire who’s invested heavily in new technologies designed to reduce emissions?

Like solar engineering, for example. You know that batshit crazy British-led scheme to release chemical particles into the stratosphere of God only knows what – because they won’t tell you – to replicate the eruption of Mt Pinatubo so as to ‘cool’ global temps.

So what do I mean by “slimy” wording. Here’s a snippet from his memo to the peasants – us – of the world. “The doomsday outlook [on climate change] is causing much of the climate community to focus too much on near-term emissions goals, and it’s diverting resources from the most effective things we should be doing to improve life in a warming world.”

Plus, he uses the word ‘innovation’. A lot. In my world, that word usually means that polluters don’t pay. Because, despite your own personal view on the causes of climate change, pollution does have an impact on the planet. And humans. Right?

As a huge investor in AI and their energy-sucking models, Gates’ rhetoric is entirely fitting. He bangs on about wanting farmers to learn to use AI tech in Third World countries, so they know how to plant crops more efficiently as temperatures rise. No doubt using GM seeds – another thing he’s heavily invested in. He is also betting on AI being the panacea to “global green efficiencies” and “saving humanity”.

There’s a word for this. Moral superiority. As if his vast fortune buys him a halo and brain wattage. But his philanthropy! Daily we are bombarded with carefully constructed stories of his selfless giving. Relative to his wealth he gives away a fraction of it. The US tax laws work entirely in his favour. He gets to look like the good guy at a cut rate price.

He also gets to impose his world view on those poor, uneducated Africans who he believes desperately need his colonial-flavoured largesse. By calling his old-fashioned financial lobbying ‘charity’ he gets endless public accolades and applause. Even the cosy interviews he regular sits down for are full of fawning and soft-ball questions because he funds a hell of a lot of those same media empires through his Bill Gates Foundation. The BBC springs quickly to mind.

I’m not saying he’s never achieved anything good in the world. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. What I am saying is that he has his hand firmly on the levers of world power to the degree that he is ostensibly his own quasi-state.

If you take him seriously on anything other than more wealth accumulation and power for his own ends, then you need to “strategically pivot” as well.

Listen to the full episode of Riding Shotgun here.