On Wednesday, the Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist responded to questions from Reddit users. Several of these comments concerned global warming, and some other pressing concerns.
“I’m Bill Gates, and I’m back for my 11th AMA, Ask Me Anything,” Gates wrote on Reddit. “I recently found out that I’m going to become a grandfather this year and spent some time thinking about what matters as we head into 2023.”
“Feel free to ask what I’m excited about in the year ahead, our work at the foundation, or anything else,” he continued.
When asked about how the world is responding to climate change, Gates responded that ‘we will overshoot 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming.’
“There are parts of the world where over 10% of the kids die before 5 and over 30% have malnutrition so their brains and bodies don’t fully develop. Climate will slow down the progress we make on improving the human condition but I still believe we can avoid a terrible outcome. The pace of innovation is really picking up even though we won’t make the current timelines or avoid going over 1.5,” Gates answered.
The following are Bill Gates’ answers to some of the most controversial issues that have been asked of him.
Question: Why are you so focused on healthcare & vaccines?
Bill Gates: When I saw that kids were dying who could be saved for less than $1000 per life I knew that had to be the top priority for my giving back. There was almost no one funding work on diseases like malaria which was killing over a million kids a year then. We have made progress but it is still 400k and we are committed to get it to zero eventually.
Question: The cost of living has skyrocketed, wages ate stagnant. A lot of people are effectively in survival mode.
How do we get corporations and the ultra wealthy to pay better wages, pay their taxes. More rather, what steps do we take to create an economy that’s beneficial for the masses, not a select few?
Bill Gates: I am surprised taxes have not been increased more. For example capital gains rates could be the same as ordinary income rates. I know things are tough for a lot of people.
Question: Are you making any progress recently with your molten salt Thorium reactors? Or at least help destigmatise use of nuclear power that could so much help the world now and in the coming years.
Bill Gates: The Terrapower reactor designs (there are 2) both use liquid sodium as the coolant and uranium as the fuel. We are making excellent progress although the Ukranian war meant our uranium fuel is delayed. The first reactor is being built in Wyoming and should be running by 2030. This can make a huge contribution to climate challenges since it will be low cost and super safe. I was just in West Virginia learning about their energy economy and hearing about projects there like the FORM battery factory (a BEV company) that was just committed.
Question: Hi Bill, what’s your view on veganism/plant-based diets as a mean to reduce climate impact? Also, how can this be educated to people on a wider scale on how to make this choice? Today we have a lot of subsides for meat/dairy to make them affordable for people and that certainly doesn’t help either.
Bill Gates: For people who want to go Vegan that is great but I don’t think most people will do that. There are companies making “beef” in new ways and people working to still use cows but reduce the methane emissions. I have backed a number of innovators in this space including Beyond and Impossible and Memphis. I think eventually these products will be very good even though their share is small today.
Question: Isn’t it contradictory to be a humanitarian and then accumulate most scarce resource-land under one?
Bill Gates: Everything I own will be sold as money moves into the Foundation. In the meantime my investment group tries to invest in productive assets including farmland although that is less than 4% of the total.
Question: “Why are you buying up so much farmland, do you think this is a problem with billionaire wealth and how much you can disproportionally acquire?”
Bill Gates: “I own less than 1/4000 of the farmland in the US. I have invested in these farms to make them more productive and create more jobs. There isn’t some grand scheme involved – in fact all these decisions are made by a professional investment team.”
Question: What are you excited about in the year ahead?
Bill Gates: First being a grandfather. Second being a good friend and father. Third progress in health and climate innovation. Fourth helping to shape the AI advances in a positive way.
Bill Gates did not respond when asked about why he’s buying up all of the farm ground in Nebraska.
He also ignored all the questions relating to Epstein.
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