Adaption or Sustainability?
As the challenge of climate change draws nearer, a powerful public figure is calling for a different approach, and this will inevitably have an impact...
The words and perspectives of global public figures carry weight and resonance, and Bill Gates is certainly no exception. During the pandemic Gates’s past public statements ended up being interpreted to inform wild conspiracy theories about 5G and microchips - which in some cases resulted in damage to telecoms infrastructure.
For good or for ill, when Gates speaks, people react.
As a result of this influence, it is little surprise that the Microsoft founder’s latest perspectives on the need to focus on adaption rather than emissions goals in the face of inevitable climate change have resulted in a tsunami of impact across the world. In a recent post on his GatesNotes blog, he makes the case that resources should be used to combat the inevitable increases in poverty and disease that will impact developing nations as a result of climate change. Given his focus on and clear passion for this cause it is understandable that he would want to promote it - even though it has drawn ire from many in the Sustainability community.
The environmental challenges we face are immense, expensive and utterly without precedent - and given the slow progress made by governments and international institutions it is understandable that some would seek other solutions. Furthermore, many of the requirements needed to effectively combat climate issues are counterintuitive to modern capitalism and so potentially more aligned solutions are inevitably going to be sought.
My prediction is that, buoyed by Gates’s recent words, we’ll see the emergence of adaption focused technologies and industries in the coming years and similar to how we’ve seen the rise of sustainability focused ones in the past decade. The key question is whether or not these can reflect Gates’s vision for solutions for the most vulnerable of our world.