Mega-Rich Environmentalists Respond To Questions About Their Use Of Private Jets

From The Daily Caller

Daily Caller News Foundation

Chris White Tech Reporter

December 09, 2019 11:15 AM ET

Billionaire Bill Gates and former Vice President Al Gore responded to criticism that their use of jets somehow conflicts with their desire to fight global warming, Axios reported Monday.

Gates suggested to Axios’s Amy Harder that his heavy investments in green energy are effectively enough to outweigh his private jet usage. The Microsoft founder owns a private jet and is one of the wealthiest people in the world.

“I am investing in climate change very broadly and substantial amounts of money,” Gates, who heads a coalition of billionaires who are investing in clean energy tech, said in an interview with Axios over the summer.

He added: “I don’t think there is anyone doing more, but if there is, congratulations to whoever that is.” (RELATED: Exclusive: TheDCNF Asked Paris Climate Accord Backers If They’d Support Banning Private Jets. Most Didn’t Respond)

Gore, a politician-turned well-healed activist and vegan, made a similar point when confronted. “He recognizes how important these everyday choices are, while spending most of his time working to catalyze a global effort to change laws and policies,” a Gore representative told Harder.

The former vice president told CNN in 2017 he didn’t own a private jet, but in 2013 admitted to “sometimes” chartering a private jet. Gore has also been criticized for his enormous home energy usage, which is estimated to be 34 times the average American household.

Representatives for Gore did not respond to a request for comment when the Daily Caller News Foundation asked him in 2018 if he would be willing to ban the of use of private jets to help address climate change. The Gates Foundation also did not respond when the DCNF reached out.

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B d Clark
December 10, 2019 2:22 pm

Gates is a hypocrite, it’s alright for him because hes “doing something” us mere mortals are also doing things, but we wont be able to afford to fly because of the very policies hes advocating.

Luke
Reply to  B d Clark
December 10, 2019 4:15 pm

Gates is going to donate 99% of his wealth to charity. Didn’t you know? He sure was whiny about Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax though, which would actually result in 99% of his wealth being transferred away from him. Gosh, it’s almost like he lied when he signed onto that group’s letter advocating for the death tax on farms and lumber yards and other small companies that used to be regularly destroyed by it. Oh, I see, 99% will go to the Gates charity. Gosh, who might make up the board of directors?

Sam Pyeatte
Reply to  Luke
December 10, 2019 6:06 pm

Gates should be able to do what he wants with his money – it is no ones business but his. I am just glad Microsoft is a successful company.

Wallaby Geoff
Reply to  Sam Pyeatte
December 10, 2019 6:20 pm

Then tell him to stop preaching to us, we have the same right.

yarpos
Reply to  Wallaby Geoff
December 10, 2019 10:35 pm

Is he preaching to us? he was asked a question and answered it

He has also said some very pragmatic things about the useless nature of “renewables”

Michael S. Kelly
Reply to  Sam Pyeatte
December 10, 2019 6:25 pm

I second that!

Patrick MJD
Reply to  Sam Pyeatte
December 10, 2019 6:27 pm

He and M$ would be nowhere if it was not for his mom and her industry contacts and some “dodgy deals”.

“I am investing in climate change very broadly and substantial amounts of money,” Gates, who heads a coalition of billionaires who are investing in clean energy tech, said in an interview with Axios over the summer.”

But at least he thinks money will fix the climate, which of course is the whole sc@m.

Luke
Reply to  Patrick MJD
December 10, 2019 6:51 pm

Don’t forget about his daddy, a big lawyer. Look up a guy named Gary Kildall.

bruce ryan
Reply to  Patrick MJD
December 11, 2019 6:28 am

A couple of good issues Gates has been working on. Nuclear energy, specifically the new design type 4. My hope is Trump will see the connection possibilities and make that happen. Polio eradication in the last few places on Earth.
Gates has been preaching that wind and solar are NOT the answer.

Duane
Reply to  Patrick MJD
December 11, 2019 9:15 am

Dudes – Bill Gates invented and successfully marketed useful business software for desktop computers, and in doing so created massive business and social value that all humans have benefited from for the last four decades, even poor people in third world countries, as well as the rest of us in the developed world. His mother didn’t do that, neither did his father.

Jealous of his success much? SMH

Reply to  Patrick MJD
December 11, 2019 10:27 am

No Duane, not jealous here & while keeping in mind what he’s done in the past, the proper question is “What is he doing now?”

Patrick MJD
Reply to  Patrick MJD
December 11, 2019 4:42 pm

“Duane December 11, 2019 at 9:15 am

His mother didn’t do that, neither did his father.”

Keep believing that Duane. My guess is that you were not even born when Gates was stealing IP with the help of his mom and dad.

Duane
Reply to  Patrick MJD
December 12, 2019 7:36 am

Patrick – your guess is wrong. I was serving as a reactor operator on a US Navy fast attack submarine when Gates and his partners invented a BASIC interpreter for a minicomputer that eventually resulted in the IBM DOS that revolutionized mankind’s existence. Probably while you were either crapping in your diaper, or else you hadn’t yet been hatched.

You sound like an angry liberal whiner.

B d Clark
Reply to  Sam Pyeatte
December 10, 2019 6:28 pm

Any man who uses his money to fund and their by deceive and propagate a lie, is my business, the same people who want to take away my ability to light a fire, while they fly around in jets , will become my soul business ,if money is used as a tool to drive every one back to the stone age without fire,, it’s not money it’s a card being played to destroy you.

Read the consultation document in the link
https://gov.wales/clean-air-plan-wales page 53

MarkW
Reply to  Sam Pyeatte
December 10, 2019 6:28 pm

I agree that Gates should be allowed to do what he wants with his own money.
I just wish Gates would feel the same about everyone else.

Richard of NZ
Reply to  MarkW
December 10, 2019 7:01 pm

As there are some doubts as to the ethics involved in Gates accumulation of his fortune I do not see him as anyone to look up to in any way. His fortune appears to have been accumulated by means of very sharp practices and as such should be returned directly to the many who were over charged over the years.

Duane Truitt
Reply to  MarkW
December 11, 2019 9:17 am

You’re peddling socialist poppycock.

Go out and invent an industry that totally revolutionized human kind and the entire world of business, then you can whine about Bill Gates.

hiskorr
Reply to  Sam Pyeatte
December 10, 2019 6:57 pm

Agree, just as coal and oil company owners, investors and workers should be able to do what they want with their money and labor– it’s their own business. Gates should mind his.

Reply to  Luke
December 11, 2019 8:35 am

Oh, I see, 99% will go to the Gates charity.

And such “charities” anymore are just tax-evading money-laundering operations.

Duane
Reply to  beng135
December 11, 2019 9:18 am

Gates has no need of evading taxes. He is the richest man in the world. He makes sound business investments and also sound charitable contributions. Get over your jealousy.

Reply to  Duane
December 11, 2019 10:31 am

Cluelessness is strong in this one….

Luke
Reply to  Duane
December 11, 2019 11:33 am

Now, write the exact same things that you have about the Koch brothers you “green” shill.

Luke
Reply to  beng135
December 11, 2019 11:16 am

Of course.

donb
Reply to  B d Clark
December 10, 2019 4:18 pm

The rich buy their way out of any responsibility, leaving the poor to bear the burden.

Rhoda R
Reply to  donb
December 10, 2019 6:33 pm

What they are buying is modern day Indulgences. Moral preening based on wealth rather than any real moral accomplishments.

StephenP
Reply to  Rhoda R
December 11, 2019 12:26 am

The rich used to build churches as (hell) ‘fire escapes’.
They now think they can do that same by carbon offsetting.

Dlee
Reply to  StephenP
December 11, 2019 2:16 am

Eloquently said

Reply to  Rhoda R
December 11, 2019 4:21 am

“For sport he wore no hood, which was trussed up in his wallet; riding with his hair disheveled, bareheaded except for his cap, he thought he was all in the latest fashion. His eyes were glaring like a hare’s. He had a veronica sewed on his cap, and his wallet, brimful of pardons hot from Rome, lay before him on his saddle.”
– The Pardoner’s Tale, Tales of Caunterbury, Geoffrey Chaucer, circa 1390

“Pardons hot from Rome…”

Like Chaucer’s Pardoner, the leaders of the catastrophic human-made global warming scam have negative credibility. They may have believed in their CAGW hypothesis at one time, but no rational person could be this deluded for this long.

At some point, they realized they were promoting a falsehood, and instead of relenting, they decided to double-down. Nobody should believe them…

Kevin
Reply to  B d Clark
December 10, 2019 5:13 pm

Not really sure how much impact stopping private jets is going to have on climate change nor do most of us really care. Gates is a hypocrite to be sure, however, the year BearManPig won the Nobel Prize for the liar liar pants on fire fiction picture book, Gates was doing the world a load of good. In fact, he matched $ for $ money raised by Rotary International to eliminate Polio from the face of the earth. Indeed, techniques used to vaccinate for polio will be used as a template to vaccinate large populations from now on. Rotary International was one of the many that lost to BearManPig that year. Rip into Gore all you want, Bill Gates at least has done a lot of good. Hypocrite or not. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR_Qfb9UutU

Ron
Reply to  Kevin
December 11, 2019 4:05 am

Sorry Bill either it’s a climate emergency or its not. Choose!

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Kevin
December 11, 2019 5:18 am

yeah pity the cheap vaccine is giving polio to 3rd world kiddies. the 1st world injectable is less likely to but still not perfect either
clean water and toilets would be money better spent
things that require POWER to provide to ie Water and remove ie sewerage
Gates ran that stupid toilet stunt
the winner cost thousands and wasnt excatly user friendly for small setups or poor villages
plenty of safer options already existed and the money could have gone to supplying those.

in this link the Aaby study might interest you
https://www.sott.net/article/409031-The-Impact-of-Vaccines-on-Mortality-Decline-Since-1900According-to-Published-Science

Cube
Reply to  B d Clark
December 10, 2019 5:16 pm

Gates is worse than a hypocrite. I’ll never forget back in the day when MS buried Word Perfect by publishing an API for Wondows that didn’t work, and shutting down access to Windows developers so thar no one could figure out how to fix their applications.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Cube
December 11, 2019 5:19 am

open office fixes Bills never ending ripoff

Kenji
Reply to  B d Clark
December 10, 2019 5:44 pm

If I buy a Tesla, and put solar panels on my roof … how many private charter flights is that worth? 4 per year? 6 per year? And what if I use ALL the correct pronouns, bring my own reusable hemp bags, and support slavery reparations? How many more private flights am I entitled to? Oh, oh, oh ! And I never use plastic straws!

george1st:)
Reply to  B d Clark
December 10, 2019 10:22 pm

Common sense is uncomputable , but climate science is believed to be factual inspite of all the variables.

Reply to  B d Clark
December 11, 2019 3:59 am

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/12/31/bill-gates-backs-advanced-nuclear-power-to-solve-the-climate-crisis/#comment-2573283

I wrote this on Bill Gates blog in ~2017 – he is slowly coming around to reality on energy, but still regards increasing atmospheric CO2 as a problem. It is not a problem.

Regards, Allan

https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Energy-and-Civilization

Bill wrote:
“The main disagreement I have with Smil is about how quickly we can make the transition to clean energy.”

Bill, I really like your work on malaria and on vaccines – I probably like a lot of other things you are doing too.

But Bill, I have spent my career in energy and have studied global warming alarmism since 1985 – you are an intelligent man, but it appears that you are being ill-advised on climate and energy.

Below is reference to a primer on the subject – take your time, study it, and contact me via my website if you want to discuss.

The term “climate change” is so vague and the definition is so changeable that it is NOT a falsifiable hypothesis. It is therefore unscientific nonsense. The term “catastrophic human-made global warming” is a falsifiable hypothesis, and it was falsified long ago – when CO2 rose sharply after ~1940 while temperature declined from ~1945 to ~1977. As my co-authors and I wrote in 2002, “the alleged global warming crisis DOES NOT EXIST”.

Current forms of clean/green energy are not green and produce little useful (dispatchable) energy. All they do is destabilize the grid and drive up energy costs, which increases Excess Winter Deaths among the elderly and the poor. Sure there may be better forms of energy out there – but current “solutions” are costly fiascos, due primarily to intermittency. My co-authors and I wrote this conclusion in 2002, and since then tens of trillions of dollars of scarce global resources have been squandered on green energy nonsense.

[end of excerpt]

ozspeaksup
Reply to  B d Clark
December 11, 2019 5:02 am

and you reckon that EVERY so called charity or donation etc hes into doesnt get him massive taxbreaks prob equal to what he should pay or a goodly part of what he does pay
never mind what “legitimate” breaks his accountants slide by to reduce it..
amazon fkbk and goog sure shaft every nation theyre in while claiming social credits for their goody two shoes green ness
if the mongrels\paid the correct tax economies would sure benefit, as it is the owners and boards etc make the money, shareholders make a small percentage

John the Econ
December 10, 2019 2:23 pm

“…his heavy investments in green energy are effectively enough to outweigh his private jet usage.”

Translation: I’m rich and you are not.

John the Econ
Reply to  John the Econ
December 10, 2019 2:31 pm

So tell me Bill: Exactly how much does one need to invest in green energy to neutralize their hypocrisy, um, I mean private jet usage? Is it a fixed amount or a percentage of your wealth? I need an exact figure, please.

Cube
Reply to  John the Econ
December 10, 2019 5:18 pm

Buying virtue. Just like back in the day when the ealthynpurchased absolution from the church.

Craig from Oz
Reply to  John the Econ
December 10, 2019 6:15 pm

If we look past the hypocrisy elephant in the room we will find a second elephant.

“Investments”

Now in the normal use of the word an investment is something you expect to get a return on. Now it could be argued that his ‘investment’ is ‘in the future… for the children… for the planet…’, but you could also argue he is not going to turn his nose up at any money that comes his way.

(you could also argue that if Gates et al ARE actually investing in the planet then it shows that ‘green energy’ could never survive without outside help and the simple fact Gates is ‘donating’ (my words) money to such projects is proof that even he knows they are enormous money sucks that simply don’t work.)

So, like John said;

“I’m rich and you are not.”

Jonathan Ranes
December 10, 2019 2:28 pm

Close the door behind you billionaires. No way gates is a CO2 true believer.

markl
December 10, 2019 2:30 pm

Do as I say, not as I do.

commieBob
Reply to  markl
December 10, 2019 4:19 pm

There are a few people who walk the talk. Not many. Ralph Nader is the only example I can think of.

For a person of some renown, Nader lives a monk-like existence — renting a small apartment, using public transportation, and wearing the same shoes for decades.

MarkW
Reply to  commieBob
December 10, 2019 6:30 pm

As long as he doesn’t wear the same socks for decades.

Mr.
Reply to  markl
December 10, 2019 4:23 pm

The religions used to sell “indulgences” to the royalty and elites to expiate their sins.

“Carbon offsets” are no different.

All transactions can be filed under “hypocrisy”

Chaswarnertoo
December 10, 2019 2:42 pm

Meanwhile Barak and Micheal have spent $12 M ( from where? ) on a mansion only a few feet above sea level….

Reply to  Chaswarnertoo
December 10, 2019 3:14 pm

Money came from Netflix, it was his his Net Neutrality Kick-back.
It’s a very sordid history of the POTUS using his position to push the FCC to impose the 1930’s era Title II regulatory regime on the internet service providers, under the guise of “net neutraility.” Net neutrality was billed as keeping ISPs from forcing surcharges on heavy content streamers like NetFlix, costs that would be passed thru to their customers. In reality it was an artifice intended to be favorable to blocking new startups and favoring the established players in the video streaming market like NetFlix, protecting them from startup competition.
The FCC Chairman at the time, Tom Wheeler, balked at imposing Net Neut rules, but Mr Obama personally intervened and “convinced” the FCC Chairman of the error of his ways. Title II and net neut rules were quickly approved by the Democrat controlled FCC. Mr. Agit Pai, a Republican appointee on the FCC objected as the rules were too burdensome and were meant for another era when telecoms had monopolies on the copper wires reaching homes and businesses. Today’s ISP’s come in many forms, copper wire DSL lines, copper wire coax cable, fiber optics to the home and business, wireless cellular data, and satellite data, all competing to be people’s ISP. Title II rules were stupid infringement in a freemarket that was working for the consumer, not against. Net Neut on the internet via Title II regulations was clearly intended to protect the Big Players, not the consumer.

So President Obummer sold out the consumer with his personal involvement to force Net Neut rules at the FCC, and no one really understood why he did that until in 2018 he got a fat $60million contract from NetFlix to “produce” a few feel good documentaries.

Then it all became clear how pay-to-play works for Democrats.

The epilogue to the Net Neut affairs is of course Trump won, which they didn’t expect. Ajit Pai became the new FCC Chairman and has since rescinded Net Neut and Title II regulatory regime. And the Internet is as competitive as ever. But NetFlix executives were apparently still on the hook to provide the agreed kick-back to Obummer as he held up his end of the bargain.

MarkW
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
December 10, 2019 6:34 pm

While Democrats keep telling everyone that they are for the little people (and lots of people who never think for themselves believe it), the rules they pass always end up helping the well heeled and hurting the working class and the poor.
The reason for this is simple. The wealthy are willing to pay up to protect themselves. Those without access to large bank accounts can’t.

Clyde Spencer
Reply to  MarkW
December 10, 2019 7:06 pm

MarkW
There is an old joke that when Republicans become wealthy they go into politics. Whereas, Democrats go into politics and become wealthy.

Consider the Clinton Foundation!

Walter Sobchak
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
December 10, 2019 8:10 pm

Good take Joel. i never the connected those dots. But, there they are.

Reply to  Walter Sobchak
December 11, 2019 2:51 am

Not just my take on it. A lot of others including Trump in a tweet called out Obummer over this ugly obvious kick-back from NetFlix.
The $60 million payment to be “producer” for a few feel-good videos is way more than the revenue they might generate for NetFlix, so something else obviously was going on there.
If it looks like a turd, smells like a turd, you probably don’t have to taste it to know what it is.

The Old Man
Reply to  Chaswarnertoo
December 10, 2019 4:26 pm

@Chaswarnerto: Isn’t he the same guy who shoveled out around half a billion taxpayer dollars to the UN IPCC rollover money laundromat when he walked out the door? Or did I just dream that??

Spetzer86
Reply to  The Old Man
December 10, 2019 4:34 pm

Don’t forget the pallets of literal cash to the Iranians…

https://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-iran-payment-cash-20160907-snap-story.html

Reply to  Spetzer86
December 10, 2019 4:55 pm

Spetz,

Obama’s midnight deliveries of pallets of cash and gold via Switzerland had nothing to do with the climate scam.
That was part of Hussein’s payoff to the Ayatollah to F#*& Israel.
Everyone knew where the Iranoans would put the money. The IRG/Kuds Force could fund more Gaza and Golan Heights rockets and the Hezbollah and Hamas terrorists who launch them at innocent Israeli civilians.

Reply to  The Old Man
December 10, 2019 4:49 pm

The Old Man,

It was 2 x $500 million payments misappropriated by Obama from the State Department’s foreign aid programs to the climate scam fund. So $1Billion of US taxpayer money was stolen to give to the Climate Aid Fund. The US obligation under Paris COP21 agreement was actually $3Billion. But Obama and Kerry must have known that was never going to happen with Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress.

Lance Wallace
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
December 10, 2019 6:13 pm

Didn’t the second $500M or part of it, get clawed back before it could be delivered?

Reply to  Lance Wallace
December 10, 2019 7:14 pm

I don’t think so.
But you could Google it/Bing it/Duck-duck-go it and research the issue yourself to find the answer.
n’est-ce pas?

MarkW
Reply to  Chaswarnertoo
December 10, 2019 6:47 pm

Barak and Micheal, I know that there are some who claims that Ms. Obama is a bit manly.

old construction worker
December 10, 2019 2:51 pm

What do you expect from “One World wantabe Ruling class? You know the “Do as I say not as I do bunch”.

Nik
December 10, 2019 2:52 pm

“Gates suggested to Axios’s Amy Harder that his heavy investments in green energy are effectively enough to outweigh his private jet usage.”

In other words, he bought an indulgence.

damp
Reply to  Nik
December 10, 2019 3:51 pm

He’s doing more than anybody, and he’s effectively doing nothing.

MarkW
Reply to  Nik
December 10, 2019 6:36 pm

If he actually believed in Global Warming, he would be doing all he could to fight it. Instead he’s just subsidy farming and virtue signalling.

December 10, 2019 2:53 pm

Climate change for thee, but not for me.

Gore, Gates, Steyer, Bloomberg, DiCaprio, and the rest of these indulgent hypocrites make me sick.

Latitude
December 10, 2019 2:59 pm

but China gets to increase their emissions because…..per capita

..and they did

n.n
December 10, 2019 3:02 pm

Not just hypocrisy, but sanctimonious hypocrisy. Bigotry, writ large.

GordonInVancouver
December 10, 2019 3:11 pm

I am not so hard on Bill Gates based on what I have heard from him so far. The things I have heard him say in the media are that a lot needs to be done and to be effective we need new technologies. He may do a bit of the preaching that others should give up travel, ICE cars and so on, but I have not seen much of that and that does not seem to be his main message.

So his actions don’t seem so incompatible with his words.

Others, like Leonardo Di Caprio, Emma Thompson, Jane Fonda and Al Gore are quick to pull out the “Denier” insult and to say that others have to give up a 21st century lifestyle, all the while emitting the CO2 of a small army. That is super offensive to me.

Luke
Reply to  GordonInVancouver
December 10, 2019 4:20 pm

Isn’t he partially responsible for the technology that he can teleconference instead of fly?

MarkW
Reply to  GordonInVancouver
December 10, 2019 6:37 pm

He wants everyone else to make sacrifices in order to save the planet.
Sacrifices that he himself isn’t willing to make.

Zig Zag Wanderer
December 10, 2019 3:16 pm

“well-healed” should be “well-heeled” unless he has recently healed from something? Perhaps he’s lost weight and is healed from obesity?

MarkW
Reply to  Zig Zag Wanderer
December 10, 2019 6:39 pm

Didn’t he try to heal that masseuse?
Isn’t that why he tried to lay his hands on her?

John Francis
December 10, 2019 3:18 pm

Gore is actually well-heeled; though it would be better for him to be well-healed of his extremist fantasies.

PaulH
December 10, 2019 3:33 pm

Well, it seems to me that they are saying that their work is important and the money they spend goes to good causes. I’m no mega-millionaire (or even a micro-millionaire) but I think I can use the same arguments. 😉 Does that mean I can shush away the Green Blob?

December 10, 2019 3:34 pm

“The Microsoft founder owns a private jet and is one of the wealthiest people in the world.”

He doesn’t own “a” private jet. When you have that kind of money, one size jet just won’t do.

One is apparently a Dassualt Falcon 7X, 3 engine high performance long range jet for getting around the globe as quick as possible. See #10 on this list:
https://buzzghana.com/largest-private-jets/

The Dassualt Falcon 7X is notable because its performance (Mach 0.9 cruise, 5,900 nm range) and 3 engines allows for safe operations at high altitude airports on hot days –important to getting quickly to and from all those “nice” places in Africa that need his money.

Another slightly larger, but cheaper to operate jet Mr Gates own is a Bombardier BD-700 Global Express.
https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-enjoying-his-guilty-pleasure-2015-4
This jet makes a nice transcontinental jet, more pedestrian accommodations than the Falcon-7X at 19 passengers with nice accommodations.

Clyde Spencer
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
December 10, 2019 7:19 pm

What Gates’ rationalization fails to account for is that probably even he could not afford those jets if they had to be custom built and he had to have his own refinery for supplying jet fuel. The airline industry is a complex system that depends on economy of scale of everything that goes into designing, building, maintaining, repairing, and flying jets. Even the airports could not be economically justified if they only catered to a few hundred very wealthy individuals. Search and rescue operations could not exist if the whole world had to be covered for a few hundred planes. So, if the only people who would be allowed to fly were those making sufficient offsets to compensate for their carbon footprint, they could not afford to fly. But, the rest of us could “eat cake.”

Sheri
December 10, 2019 3:50 pm

“Gates suggested to Axios’s Amy Harder that his heavy investments in green energy are effectively enough to outweigh his private jet usage.”

Does this work for everything? Like “I paid for a city bus so it’s okay for me to use 80% of the available gasoline because I paid for your dirty, crowded bus”. “It’s okay for me to use air conditioning because I had my lackeys plant 1000 trees in Costa Rica. You can’t afford that, so no air conditioning for you.” Does anyone keep track worldwide if these rich folks actually do save any CO2 or if it’s just clever, yet fake, accounting. I’d say the latter, since they lie continously have gone 100% wind energy. When one is rich, one can lie with accounting and whatever else one wants. It’s one of the perks.

Travis T. Jones
December 10, 2019 4:04 pm

“Gates suggested to Axios’s Amy Harder that his heavy investments in green energy are effectively enough to outweigh his private jet usage.”

Bushfires in Australia.
Obviously Gates isn’t investing enough. to cover his fossil-fuel burning.

Greg Cavanagh
December 10, 2019 4:15 pm

This is exactly the same mentality as solar home owners running their air conditioning all day and lights all night.

It’s a self-centred “I’ve done something so I can spend a little more on myself, but you haven’t done anything so you can’t do the same as I”.

At the end of the day it’s an admission that the world isn’t in crisis. It’s just virtue signaling.

Sweet Old Bob
Reply to  Greg Cavanagh
December 10, 2019 4:29 pm

“At the end of the day it’s an admission that the world isn’t in crisis. It’s just virtue signaling.”
Yes . And that is a hammer that we need to use on every alarmist .

Mike Smith
December 10, 2019 4:40 pm

Actually, Gates does talk some sense. He understands the futility of wind and solar and he’s investing heavily in new nuclear technologies:

“But solar and wind are intermittent sources of energy, and we are unlikely to have super-cheap batteries anytime soon that would allow us to store sufficient energy for when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. Besides, electricity accounts for only 25% of all emissions. We need to solve the other 75% too.”

https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Year-in-Review-2018

David Blenkinsop
Reply to  Mike Smith
December 10, 2019 8:51 pm

Er, so what is Gates ‘end game’ exactly if he expects to “solve the other 75% too”?

Shut down all aircraft, including his own, then run trains everywhere using nuke derived electric power? Plus nuclear powered boats for crossing the oceans?

December 10, 2019 4:43 pm

I can’t help but be reminded of the scene toward the end of “Animal Farm” where the donkey looks into the window of the farm house. (In the book, that was the final scene.)
https://youtu.be/b4egC00K7Dg

Craig
December 10, 2019 4:52 pm

Where do they go to buy their hypocrisy offsets?

December 10, 2019 6:15 pm

I hate to seem insensitive but Al Gore is not a hypocrite — he is a hippo-crite [you know, the large creature].

Craig from Oz
December 10, 2019 6:22 pm

I have a strong investment in unprotected sex with as many female partners as possible.

Does that mean I more than offset the amount of people I have murdered?

(and for those playing at home? THIS IS SNARK and filled with blatant lies and exaggeration in order to communicate the point I am trying to draw attention to. Understand? Filled with lies. Truth is I never have sex…. cough 😛 )

observa
Reply to  Craig from Oz
December 11, 2019 5:22 am

Oh goody that means they owe me all the unprotected sex cos I hold your Sabine credits and stuff the fallacy of composition deplorables. All hail Seezher!

MarkW
December 10, 2019 6:27 pm

“which is estimated to be 34 times the average American household.”

That would be for each house. Doesn’t he own something like 4?

Cliff Hilton
December 10, 2019 8:40 pm

Is Bill Gates and Al Gore saying they are reducing enough CO2 elsewhere to offset the total they’re putting in, among all their activities? Sounds good to me. Like the good they’re doing is going to outweigh the bad. I see!

Say, we can all do that. And CO2 will continue higher as it has been. I feel much better now. Does this make me a climate activists?

DJ
December 10, 2019 8:58 pm

I’m heavily invested in green energy, that’s why I drive an SUV.
Everyone should be heavily invested in green energy, and have a jet to fly around in. Especially to attend their green energy meetings.

MarkMcD
December 10, 2019 9:04 pm

So Billy Gates says it’s OK that he produces kilotonnes of CO2 with his plane and lifestyle because he makes money from the industry that AGW has spawned? Because we all know he would NOT be ‘investing’ to LOSE money… right?

Imagine if, instead of cancelling any supposed (and imaginary) good he is doing by making even more money, he curtailed his lifestyle and so contributed to cancellation of ‘carbon-debt’ by those who cannot afford to invest in the money-making scam… I mean schemes he can get into?

Perhaps he could point us to the improvements in the AGW situation his personal investments have made?

Jeremiah Puckett
December 10, 2019 9:13 pm

I’m also doing something, so I guess I can justify the use of my 12 mpg 3/4 ton truck. Also, if I turn off one light switch, I suppose it’s okay if I leave another one on.

MarkW
Reply to  Jeremiah Puckett
December 11, 2019 9:50 am

You still have lights?

Susan
December 10, 2019 9:50 pm

One of the companies questioned was boasting of promoting ‘green jet fuel’- does anyone know what that means?

MarkW
Reply to  Susan
December 11, 2019 9:51 am

Fuel from algae.

WXcycles
December 10, 2019 10:32 pm

If I was a billionaire I’d not hesitate to own a private jet and fly about everywhere, with a large entourage scurrying about in front of my arrival. But you’d not find me talking blather about Climate-Doom™ to the fake media. I may however donate a million or so to WUWT and provide the staff with sponsored jet travel to meetings for nix.

Just like rabid greenies do regardless of Climate-Doom™.

Art
December 10, 2019 10:52 pm

“…his heavy investments in green energy are effectively enough to outweigh his private jet usage.”
—————————
Bullpuckey! Investing in something means you buy shares in it, any amount up to 100% of the company. But that doesn’t create any more “green” energy, it just transfers the ownership of those shares to you. If you don’t own them, someone else will. So his investments in “green” energy result in zero emissions reductions.

But what the hell, as long as the media and gullible believers and politicians fall for it, why wouldn’t he?

Richard
December 10, 2019 11:01 pm

Al Gore may be ‘well-heeled’, as in ‘obscenely affluent, but I doubt he has been even minimally healed, much less ‘well-healed’, especially of his inconvenient hypocrisy.

Patrick MJD
December 11, 2019 12:53 am

Remember, the Gore family made most of their wealth from COAL, OIL and TOBACCO! Nuff sed!

Dunc.
December 11, 2019 1:24 am

So what the argument boils down to is that rich people can continue as normal and poor people need to stop flying to save the planet.
What a surprise, I bet no one saw that coming.

Rudolf Huber
December 11, 2019 1:41 am

Let me translate this so everyone understands it clearly. They say they make investments into green technologies and that this outweighs their use of private jets. Now an honest translation: I make investments in companies that claim they save the planet. I fully trust that the pressure built up by green radical groups will build enough leverage to coax lawmakers into throwing money at those otherwise forlorn businesses making them profitable which in turn makes me stellar profits out of the pockets of defenseless tax- and ratepayers. And I expect all of you to cut me slack for preaching to everyone to live like a pauper but my use of a private jet and enjoyment of all other perks life offers to a billionaire – paid for by those taxpayers – shall be above scrutiny as I have a stake in this green racket. Wow, I was exposed to tons of conceitedness and arrogance in my life but those two really push it.

Dlee
December 11, 2019 2:13 am

People such as Gates have sanction over your life. With wealth comes great power .That power will be turned against you.
As it already is .

Jim
December 11, 2019 3:10 am

Interpretation: Do as I say, not as I do.

Augy
December 11, 2019 3:27 am

Twenty-two years ago I planted a tree; it’s still in my garden. So can I continue to fly and eat meat?

Craig
December 11, 2019 4:55 am

It would be helpful if liberals would give us a list of which existential threats and crimes that you can and can’t buy your way out of.

observa
December 11, 2019 5:37 am

You need to be careful when you’re really loaded you don’t feed the green crocodile and become a useful idiot snack in the big scheme of things-
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/personal-carbon-allowances-budgets

Dave Miller
December 11, 2019 7:38 am

This set of comments cuts like a knife!

Unfortunate that you can’t fix stupid; quoting some philosopher.

Steve Z
December 11, 2019 7:59 am

If CO2 accumulation in the air will not cause warming of the climate (as most people on this website believe), then we can forgive Gates for his use of private planes. But he shouldn’t lecture me if I decide to share a plane with 200 other people to go on vacation once a year!

By the way, where is the post about Miss How Dare You (Greta Thunberg) being Time Magazine’s Person of the Year?

Coach Springer
December 11, 2019 8:48 am

They talk control of other people’s lives and justify not living by those controls because they do so much to control our lives.

Duane
December 11, 2019 9:12 am

Bill Gates is no hypocrite. He is not attacking anyone else for their energy usage. He is responsible for managing his enormous fortune – he cannot just stuff it under the mattress. He has explicitly chosen to invest a large amount of his fortune into next gen energy production, including new nuclear reactor technologies. Technologies which the readers of WUWT are highly supportive of development as opposed to renewables.

Al Gore is a different story. He attacks others for their energy useage, and he is not a successful entrepreneur sitting on top of a massive fortune that he has to manage and achieve a reasonable return, and promote effective technologies. Most of his profit seeking has been in the form of peddling renewable energy credits – a form of rent seeking that does not involve investing large amounts of his own personal fortune, but rather trying to benefit from the government picking winners and losers.

DDP
December 11, 2019 1:36 pm

“I am investing in climate change….”

And there it is. ‘Nuff said.

Geoff Sherrington
December 11, 2019 2:30 pm

If a rich person sponsors research into measles vaccine, does that let him/her choose to reject personal innoculation?
Clearly not. Choice of private ways of life has no effect on spreading the measles danger.
So it is with weather. Your personal moral choice does not alter the physics. Geoff S