Jeff Bezos would possibly simply be the most important local weather philanthropist on the market, which is what makes his swift embrace of Donald Trump as the following US president notably cringeworthy.
“Wishing @realDonaldTrump all success in main and uniting the America all of us love,” Bezos posted on X, hours after Trump declared victory.
The Amazon founder and chair launched his Bezos Earth Fund in 2020, committing $10 billion to funding motion on local weather change. The fund’s web site describes it as “the most important philanthropic dedication ever to battle local weather change and shield nature.”
“Earth is the one factor all of us have in frequent — let’s shield it, collectively,” Bezos wrote on Instagram when he introduced the fund. He stepped down from his post as Amazon CEO in 2021 to give attention to the fund, The Washington Submit, and his different “passions.” (Bezos reportedly killed The Washington Post’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris.)
President-elect Trump, in the meantime, says rising sea ranges — which make storms and flooding extra harmful due to local weather change — merely imply “you’ll have more ocean front property.” On the marketing campaign path, he disparaged options like renewable power — pushing misinformation just like the myth that offshore wind farms are killing whales alongside US shorelines. He constantly downplays the dangers posed by local weather change, even because the US reels from disasters like Hurricane Helene that have been supercharged by greenhouse gasoline emissions.
Throughout his first time period in workplace, Trump rolled again greater than 100 environmental regulations, positioned fossil fuel lobbyists in charge of the Environmental Safety Company, and briefly pulled the US out of the international Paris agreement to cease local weather change.
Whereas the US dropped the ball on local weather motion on the federal stage, local leaders and even the personal sector tried to fill within the gaps. Over the last couple of years of Trump’s first time period, a wave of huge tech corporations made commitments to cut back greenhouse gasoline emissions — ostensibly consistent with what’s wanted to succeed in Paris local weather settlement objectives.
One of many early corporations to take action was Amazon, which set a goal in 2019 of reaching internet zero greenhouse gasoline emissions by 2040. Quick-forward to 2023, and the corporate nonetheless produced 34 p.c extra carbon air pollution than it did when it made its first local weather pledge — though its emissions have began to return again down barely, according to Amazon’s latest sustainability report.
Since its inception, the Bezos Earth Fund has given $2 billion in grants to a wide selection of tasks — from protecting forests to tracking planet-heating methane pollution by satellite. To make certain, the fund has confronted some criticism through the years about Amazon’s own pollution and over how effective and equitable among the packages it helps have been. Over time, although, the fund has began to funnel more money into grassroots groups working to make sure that there are extra numerous voices being heard relating to discovering options. (The Bezos Earth Fund didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark from The Verge.)
Beneath one other Trump presidency, domestically led local weather motion and philanthropy develop into much more essential once more. Upon stepping again into workplace, Trump is predicted to introduce a landslide of new policies that may sluggish the transition to cleaner power wanted to maintain local weather disasters from rising a lot worse.
Notably, he said he’d rescind unspent funds from the 2022 Inflation Discount Act that put aside $369 billion for power effectivity initiatives and the domestic manufacturing of electrical automobiles and clear power applied sciences. The Inflation Discount Act alone is projected to slash greenhouse gasoline emissions by roughly 40 percent from 2005 ranges by the tip of the last decade — bringing the US close to reaching goals President Joe Biden set upon recommitting the US to the Paris local weather settlement.
One other Trump presidency, alternatively, would possible enhance US greenhouse gasoline emissions by 4 billion metric tons in comparison with Biden’s plans, in accordance with a Carbon Transient analysis revealed earlier than Harris turned the Democratic candidate. Trump has additionally mentioned that he’d take the US out of the Paris accord once more.
Bezos definitely isn’t the only tech mogul to kiss the ring since Trump’s win on the polls this week. Elon Musk has been certainly one of Trump’s most influential hype males. Apple’s Tim Cook, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella have all prolonged their congratulations, to call just a few. The president-elect has responded properly to flattery previously, in spite of everything — providing Musk his personal “efficiency” task force to run. And Trump regularly threatens his critics with retribution.
All of the bromance may actually simply be a strategic play on the a part of Bezos and different billionaires to guard their backside strains. However that checklist represents some huge cash and energy that would both assist hold local weather objectives alive or fall in line behind a president who told Musk in August that “the most important risk is nuclear warming … To me, the most important downside isn’t local weather change.”
