Bill Gates joins Blackstone in bid to buy British private jet firm

9 points by axihack 4 years ago | 18 comments
  • _Microft 4 years ago
    > Gates is one of the world’s biggest “super-emitters” due to his regular private jet travel.

    Is this behaviour net-negative for climate is the actual question, in my opinion. This one is much harder to answer than compiling a list of his trips and summing up estimated emissions.

    • Schiendelman 4 years ago
      Personal emissions are only responsible for a small portion of total emissions regardless of how rich the individual is. There are a small set of companies doing most of the damage. Attacking individuals for their emissions continues an oil company - driven personal responsibility frame that stops us from solving the problems.
      • O5vYtytb 4 years ago
        I don't understand this argument. Do these corporations exist in a vacuum? We use their products and services. They don't just emit co2 for the fun of it. No, we're not all individually responsible alone. We're all responsible together.
        • Schiendelman 4 years ago
          The worlds big emitters are not products or services we use directly. They are significantly up the food chain from us. Changing our individual behaviors have basically no impact on demand for anything they do. People aren’t going to live in half the size of house or get more roommates, or stop having children, or stop using office space, so the construction industry continues to be one of the largest emitters in the world.

          Changing this requires focus on the largest problem companies and extremely targeted lobbying. Individual choice pressures just make us fight with each other while we burn to death.

    • fiftyacorn 4 years ago
      Interesting he has a book on climate change coming out and is doing this? Obviously we don't know his level of involvement with cascade
      • Schiendelman 4 years ago
        Going after individuals is part of framing by the oil companies to make us blame each other, instead of targeting the small number of huge companies responsible for the majority of global emissions.
        • Lio 4 years ago
          I don’t know anything about oil companies but it certainly sounds like more “do as I say not as I do” hypocrisy from a billionaire.

          If Gates cares about climate change he should at least attempt to be the change he wishes to see in the world.

          There is literally no reason that he can’t use a cleaner form of transport apart from his own comfort.

          • Schiendelman 4 years ago
            If you don’t know anything about oil companies, you may be missing big parts of the climate change conversation. Individual actions, even from rich people, do not invalidate the points they make. Attacking them on those grounds is part of a campaign by the oil companies to make you and I fight people who are not the root cause of the problem. Don’t be taken in by it. A small number of large companies are responsible for the vast majority of omissions, and even many rich individuals changing their behavior have no impact on that.
          • forgotmypw17 4 years ago
            we,re all complicit
            • Schiendelman 4 years ago
              Repeating that makes it harder to fight climate change. We are not all complicit, most of us as individuals are limited by the systems around us. Those who have actual power in the system are the ones who need pressure. If you pressure everyone to change every little thing about their life, they burn out and stop caring.
        • dvevceybrc 4 years ago
          So Bill Gates is doing business with a firm that’s supporting fascism in the US. Nice.
          • brewingcode 4 years ago
            The firm that manages his money is. Gates himself might not even be aware of this. Managing billions is not like opening an app and checking your back account.