Why More Billionaires and Corporations Need to Join the Fight Against Climate Change

Last week, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledged $10 billion to fight climate change, and it’s about time. 

Through an initiative called the Bezos Earth Fund, Bezos will begin giving grants to scientists, activists and non-governmental organizations this summer. The goal of the fund is to research new tactics in efforts to prevent the dire effects of climate change. 

The decision to create this fund comes after calls from employees and social media users for Bezos, who is the richest person in the world, to contribute more in protecting the environment.

While $10 billion is only 8% of Bezos’s $130 billion net worth, it remains the third-largest pledge ever for the environment, behind Warren Buffett in 2006 and Helen Walton in 2007.

His donation, however, brings something into question: why aren’t more corporations contributing to the fight? 

As the main culprits of greenhouse gas emissions, billionaires and their corporations exploit coal, oil and gas to benefit their companies. The means of competition require them to produce materials efficiently, even if it’s not environmentally friendly.

But will these companies benefit if there’s no means to get to their products? If 150 million people’s cities are underwater in 2050 due to rising sea levels? 

Jeff Bezos is by no means a God-sent in the fight against the climate crisis. However, his contribution is an example that other billionaires, and even millionaires, should follow. 

While financial donations will no doubt benefit research and projects working toward curbing climate change, the damaging practices of these companies cannot continue. 

Late last year, Amazon pledged to go carbon neutral by 2040, and use more electric delivery vans by 2024. Monitoring energy consumption and the carbon footprint being left by these companies, as well as implementing similar strategies like Bezos’ will help delay climate change’s effects immensely. 

As individuals, we can’t force large and small businesses to take action against climate change. However, there are other ways to contribute to the cause. 

I’m not talking about turning off the lights before you leave the room, taking shorter showers or using metal straws instead of plastic. Those tasks are helpful and important, but there is a much more powerful way to save our earth. 

Vote. 

Vote for candidates with strict proposals to limit carbon emissions, and are focused on reducing the use of energy by large corporations. Vote. Pressure CEOs and executives to take action like Amazon employees and climate activists did for Bezos. 

Use. Your. Voice. 

Time and again, scientists have warned us of the disastrous and terrifying effects that climate change will have on Earth. From Californian wildfires and Australian bushfires, extreme hurricane and winter seasons, to the hottest January ever recorded, the consequences are becoming more apparent and frequent. 

The United States is taking steps backwards in contributing to the fight. With the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017, the country will be grappling with a 3% increase of carbon emissions than set by the climate agreement in 2030 according to Climate Action Tracker. 

Being the only country to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, strong federal action is needed to prevent greenhouse gas emissions from reaching detrimental levels. 

Climate change, which will have catastrophic effects on Earth by 2030 with the current policies in place, needs to be a driving force in the upcoming primary elections.  

Personally, I don’t want to raise children nor grandchildren in a world that is dying; especially due to our own inaction. It is imperative for politicians, billionaires and corporations to contribute to the fight against climate change. 

Individually, we can try our best to protect the environment. Saving the turtles, recycling, composting; but that is no longer enough to save the planet. 

It doesn’t come down to one person anymore, it comes down to one percent.