Jeff Bezos Pledges His Loose Pocket Change to Fight the Climate Crisis
The world's richest person says he'll donate $10 billion to help save the planet that his company is destroying.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has officially done one good thing with his unimaginable wealth.
This week, the world's richest person announced that he was committing $10 billion to help fight the climate crisis. The initiative, so humbly named the Bezos Earth Fund, will benefit scientists, activists, NGOs, and others in preserving the planet. "Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet," Bezos wrote on Instagram. "I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change on this planet we all share." He added that he'll begin issuing grants this summer.
Amazon might have an absolutely enormous carbon footprint, which has pushed Bezos to make teeny tiny steps towards being more environmentally conscious. He pledged last year to make Amazon carbon neutral by 2040, although scientists say that'll probably be too late. But, like, better late than never, right?
It's also worth noting that this is the largest donation Bezos has ever made. His last big donation was the Day 1 Fund, which he and his now ex-wife MacKenzie made in 2018 to start preschools and help homeless families. Still, he'll have about $120 billion left over after the Bezos Earth Fund and his one-day shipping policy is probably doing more damage to our planet than his money can fix. But hey, anything to keep the miniscule conscience stored in his very shiny head clear.