Why Bill Gates thinks planting trees is ‘complete nonsense’

American businessman and philanthropist, Bill Gateshas emerged as one of the strongest and most relevant voices on the topic Climate crisis For many years, during which he also became one of the most prolific funders of initiatives related to Climate change.

And spaces like the recent New York Times Climate Summit are being leveraged by their founder Microsoft To make your vision and opinions known; In fact, this was the last event in which he expressed his position on the potential benefits of He plants trees. This is a measure that for many could be one of the keys to mitigating the impact of climate change, but for Gates it is. “Complete nonsense”.

“I am the person who is doing the best with regard to the climate in terms of innovation and how we can achieve multiple goals,” the businessman said, explaining that in his opinion this is a good thing. Response is very slow Because of the seriousness of the matter, he suggested Take more radical measures To achieve better results.

Gates has also been forceful in making clear that he does not use some less proven methods when making climate decisions, and here’s why “I don’t plant trees”.

The meeting was moderated by A David GillisDuring the conversation, this interlocutor emphasized that “some might say that if enough trees were planted, the climate problem could be completely solved.” To which Gates quickly responded that it was nonsense, and even laughed a little, adding: “I mean, Are we scientists or are we idiots? What do we want to be?

After this statement, which left more than one person speechless, the interviewer jokingly said that he would call Marc BenioffExecutive Director of Sales forcewhich has invested about $300 million in tree planting initiatives.

It was later reported that Benioff called Gillis to complain about how Gates mentioned planting trees. “I couldn’t really understand why I was continuing this tirade,” he lamented, noting that two of his environmental goals include reaching Zero emissions Net and plant a Billion trees.

While the billionaire appeared against planting trees, he also steered the debate toward other ways to reduce carbon emissions and help solve climate problems. “I think that We should spend a lot of money on climate change,” he said.

Make it clear that he favors carbon taxes as a way to finance the future Green technologies“We should impose very high carbon taxes,” Gates says. But political realities suggest that in the absence of innovation, a brute force approach is unlikely to succeed, especially in middle-income countries.

Gates is not focusing his energy or money on this kind of climate action. Are you more interested in carbon capture or carbon removal? Carbon Dioxide From our atmosphere.

Another proposal from the businessman focuses on reducing deforestation Amazon By developing a cheaper alternative to Palm oil. In his opinion, this would be more effective than agreeing to ban deforestation, because it is only a temporary solution that does not stop the demand for this product.

Although Gates has said he does not plant trees, he is undoubtedly one of the key leaders in the fight to reverse climate change. In fact, he funds millions in research to combat climate change with his organization Energy breakthrough projectswhich has supported more than 100 startups working to reduce emissions.

Despite the refusal of the Microsoft founder, the truth is that there are still great efforts to plant millions of trees. The aforementioned Marc Benioff has been championing a project aimed at planting and preserving a billion trees

The problem is that if this target is met, it would only prevent a 0.15°C rise in temperature in 2100, according to an analysis by the NGO Climate Interactive, which warns that Benioff’s initiative would only “remove 6%”. ” [del CO2] “It must be eliminated by 2050.”