Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates warned that the consequences of climate change could be worse than the coronavirus pandemic.
In a blog post this week on his website Gates Notes, the Microsoft founder said that it is easy to forget about climate change while the planet is focused on quelling the pandemic but emphasized that it’s crucial to keep working to reduce carbon emissions in order to mitigate the effects of a similar global crisis.
“When disaster strikes, it is human nature to worry only about meeting our most immediate needs, especially when the disaster is as bad as COVID-19,” Gates said. “But the fact that dramatically higher temperatures seem far off in the future does not make them any less of a problem — and the only way to avoid the worst possible climate outcomes is to accelerate our efforts now.”
He also said the issues the world is facing as a result of the pandemic — death, economic hardship, restrictions on leaving home — could manifest again in a few decades. Gates said projections show that deaths from climate change could be on par with the pandemic’s current global number of deaths per 100,000 people.
“If you want to understand the kind of damage that climate change will inflict, look at COVID-19 and spread the pain out over a much longer period of time. The loss of life and economic misery caused by this pandemic are on par with what will happen regularly if we do not eliminate the world’s carbon emissions,” he said. “By 2060, climate change could be just as deadly as COVID-19, and by 2100 it could be five times as deadly.”
The philanthropist, who has donated heavily toward working to stop the pandemic, offered three things that must be done in order to reduce the impact of climate change: “Let science and innovation lead the way,” make sure the solutions work in both poor and economically sound countries, and start now.
“As awful as this pandemic is, climate change could be worse,” Gates said.
