Extreme Temperature Diary- Thursday October 30th, 2025/Main Topic: Bill Gate’s Unscientific Shift on Climate Change – Guy On Climate
Dear Diary. On Tuesday as Hurricane Melissa was raging throughout the Caribbean, climate champion Bill Gates shocked many by issuing a long email indicating that he thought that climate change was not serious enough to end our civilization due to only tepid mitigation of carbon emissions. Disappointment among climate scientists was widespread including yours truly.
I wanted to offer some thoughts on the Gates climate memo that has been circulating this week. While I can't directly speak for others, I can say that my own response is one of dismay & deep frustration (and that this view is shared by many climate/Earth scientists). [1/n] — Daniel Swain (@weatherwest.bsky.social) 2025-10-30T17:02:47.000Z
If you take the time to read the whole Gates memo (which I did), the bulk of the content was mostly solid and encouraging. Really!
It was the FRAME that was off--very off, from the first line.
And when your framing is off, then how you make decisions and set priorities is off. THAT'S the problem. — Katharine Hayhoe (@katharinehayhoe.com) 2025-10-30T13:52:14.916Z
In the past Bill Gates has spent millions of dollars fighting climate change, so the fear now is that his spending on mitigation and adaptation will cease. Will Bill Gates join the small cadre of billionaires and Trump who are driving the U.S. economy that are in denial about the seriousness of the climate crisis? We will see.
Here are details from the Greek Reporter:
If @billgates.bsky.social were to read #ScienceUnderSiege by @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social & myself, he would know that climate change is amplifying deadly pandemics. Only someone ignorant of the science adopts the fallacy that we can treat global health and the climate crisis as separate threats — Michael E. Mann (@michaelemann.bsky.social) 2025-10-30T03:33:10.183Z
Bill Gates Calls for Redirecting of Climate Funds to Global Health – GreekReporter.com
Bill Gates Calls for Redirecting of Climate Funds to Global HealthBy John Koutroumpis
October 29, 2025
 Bill Gates urges shift from climate funding to combating global disease. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / European Commission / CC BY 4-0
In a move that has stirred debate across the scientific and philanthropic worlds, Bill Gates, long known for championing the fight against climate change, has called for a redirection of global resources.
In a new essay, titled “Three Tough Truth About Climate,” published on Tuesday on his personal blog, Gates Notes, the Microsoft co-founder argued that while climate change remains a serious issue, it should no longer dominate the world’s spending and attention.
Instead, Gates urged philanthropists and policymakers to invest more aggressively in combating disease, hunger, and poverty, which he described as more immediate threats to human life. “ Climate change, disease, and poverty are all major problems,” Gates wrote. “We should deal with them in proportion to the suffering they cause.”
Bill Gates: “Climate change will not end humanity”Gates acknowledged that global warming presents serious long-term risks, particularly for the world’s poorest populations, but dismissed the notion that it will bring about human extinction. “Although climate change will have serious consequences, it will not lead to humanity’s demise,” he wrote. “This is a chance to refocus on the metric that should count even more than emissions and temperature change: improving lives.”
The billionaire philanthropist emphasized that the ultimate goal should be preventing suffering, rather than chasing costly zero-emission targets at all costs. He pointed to recent cuts to US foreign aid programs, particularly USAID, as examples of how diverting resources away from humanitarian needs could worsen crises in famine, health, and poverty.
From green energy to global healthGates’ position marks a sharp contrast to his previous public statements. For years, his Breakthrough Energy initiative poured billions into clean-energy innovation and climate mitigation technologies. In 2023, he described climate change as an “overwhelming” challenge requiring an “unprecedented” global effort.
Now, in both his essay and a follow-up interview with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, Gates said continuing to pour massive resources into the climate battle, while progress in global health stalls, would be a “huge disappointment.” Still, he insisted his remarks do not represent a full reversal, stressing that climate investments must continue but “in proportion” to other urgent challenges.
Divided reactions from the scientific communityExperts and climate advocates were quick to respond. Some agreed with Gates’ call for a more balanced approach, while others accused him of drawing a false comparison between crises that are deeply intertwined.
“Humans are resilient, and while billion-dollar disasters will become more frequent, humanity will not be wiped out,” said Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. “But we still need to focus on curing the disease—emissions—while treating the symptoms like hunger and health.”
Others were less sympathetic. “There is no greater threat to developing nations than the climate crisis,” countered Michael Mann, director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability & the Media. “He’s got this all backwards.”
Bill Gates reignites debate ahead of COP30Gates’ essay comes just weeks before COP30, the global climate summit where governments and activists are expected to reaffirm commitments to reducing carbon emissions. His remarks are likely to spark intense discussion among world leaders and environmental groups over how best to balance climate action with other humanitarian priorities.
While Gates insists his call is about realism, not retreat, the timing and tone of his message signal a growing tension in global philanthropy: whether the world’s limited resources are being spent where they can do the most good—now and in the future.
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More:
THIS: It’s the hole in every bucket!
"People often think of climate change as a separate bucket at the end of a long row of other buckets of problems. ... Climate change is not a separate bucket. The reason we care about climate change is that it's the hole in every bucket." @katharinehayhoe.com — Elaine Burnes 🏳️🌈 (@elaineburnes.bsky.social) 2025-10-30T11:29:46.246Z
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