Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos Gives $10 Billion to Fight Climate Change

I don’t know whether there is any self-interest involved or not but, the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos has donated $10 billion to fight climate change. It is not a new thing for rich billionaires to donate a huge sum to charity organizations. Most of them do it in an attempt to cut their taxes whereas some are legit philanthropists. Up until 2020, Jeff Bezos has shown no interest in donating money to save the earth (apart from his investments in Blue Origin). This is what makes me suspicious.

Further on this story, on 17 Feb 2020, Bezos shared his new plans to help the planet earth via an Instagram post. He has planned to launch a non-profit organization “Bezos Earth Fund”. This organization will be providing financial support to fund scientists, activists, and NGOs– basically anyone who comes up with innovative solutions to preserve and protect the natural world. I have shared the screenshot of this Instagram post below.

Earlier, Jeff Bezos did invest in a Blue Origin, a kcompany the promises to offer suborbital spaceflights to space tourists. He plans to lift the tremondous pressure on earth by making it possible for humans to stay and work in space. Although, his comapny Blue Orgin lost the battle to gain funds from NASA for the Commercial Crew Development program. NASA decided to support SpaceX’s Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 spacecraft for the program.

How does Blue Origin plan to prevent climate change? Blue Origin is the first company on earth to successfully land a reusable rocket on a landing pad. These days, every space company including SpaceX and Virgin Galactic are working on developing reusable rockets. In 2012, Blue Origin launched its pusher escape system rockets, Crew Capsule into space. The project turned out to be quite successful. 

The pusher escape system technology makes a rocket non-expendable. The rocket–after exploring the space–returns back to the launch pad without incurring any damages to itself or the area surrounding the launch pad. The world is waiting for Blue Origin’s new project “New Glenn”. This rocket will take its first flight in 2020. If this project becomes successful, space travel can become a reality for a common man.

Some of the Interesting Responses Bezos Received in His Instagram Post

marissa_massaro says “this is similar to someone pouring gasoline on ur burning house and then offering to help u figure out how to stop ur house from burning lol.”

karlawelchstylist wrote a comment saying “And while ur at it because u can! Provide healthcare for your employees – health of the humans on earth and the healthiness of the planet are intrinsically related.”

Difficult to say whether samkolder is being positive or sarcastic but he wrote: “You just became one of the biggest heroes in human history.”