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Michael Mann To Bill Gates: What World Are You Living In?

 Bill Gates pictures himself as a technology and system innovator. In
October, the billionaire philanthropist recontextualized climate action,
global health, and development as mutually exclusive and in competition
with each other in advance of the international climate summit, COP30.

With his status as one of the original Silicon Valley tech bros, Gates wrote a
memo that minimized the inevitable consequences of climate change, saying,
“It will not lead to humanity’s demise. People will be able to live and
thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.”

Climate scientist Michael Mann disagrees heartily. “What world is Gates living in?” Mann asks. “The idea that climate action must come at the expense of efforts to address human health is a provable fallacy.” As Gates
downplays the role of clean energy and rapid decarbonization, Mann advises us that, “for those who have been following Gates on climate for some time, his so-called sudden ‘pivot’ isn’t really a ‘pivot’ at all.

It’s a logical consequence of the misguided path he’s been headed down
for well over a decade.” What Gates paints over is his investments in
fossil fuel-based infrastructure (ie. natural gas with carbon capture and
enhanced oil recovery) through his venture capital group, Breakthrough
Energy Ventures.

He has financed what he positions as profitable
geoengineering interventions like spraying massive amounts of sulfur
dioxide into the stratosphere to block out sunlight and cool the planet.
Gates chooses to target sectors that face numerous decarbonizing
challenges, like steel or air travel, instead of acknowledging the energy
infrastructure that can readily be decarbonized now.

He favors hypothetical
new energy tech, including modular nuclear reactors that Mann says
“couldn’t possibly be scaled up over the time frame in which the world
must transition off fossil fuels.”

 Clean Technica 29th Nov 2025, https://cleantechnica.com/2025/11/29/michael-mann-to-bill-gates-what-world-are-you-living-in/

December 3, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | spinbuster