When it comes to the promoters of the climate alarmism cult, few have contributed more time, energy, and financial resources than Bill Gates. The billionaire Microsoft co-founder has sounded the climate change alarm for over a decade, even publishing a book in 2021 titled How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, wherein he warned that climate change would likely be worse than the global COVID pandemic.

While not as shrill as some infamous climate cultists like Al Gore, John Kerry, or Bill Nye, Gates has nonetheless had a significant impact on the promotion of anthropogenic climate change dogma, lending his vast wealth to furthering the narrative.

For example, in 2021, Gates claimed that “climate change will cause far more deaths, over five times as many per year by the end of the century” than that of COVID. He advocated for net-zero carbon emissions, saying achieving that would be the “most amazing thing humanity has ever done.”

Unfortunately, much of Western Europe has bought into the ridiculous net-zero pipe dream as a means to fight climate change. As many have repeatedly observed, the only thing that net zero will result in is economic contraction and more poverty. That’s because net zero raises energy costs while producing less of it.

What net zero has really been about is an excuse for governments to exert even greater power over their populations while extracting ever more taxes, all in the name of “saving the planet.”

However, despite countless apocalyptic warnings from the climate cultists, New York City is still above sea level, the Arctic still has ice, and the number of people buying into the Chicken Little messaging is dwindling, especially in the U.S.

If anything, Donald Trump’s election has significantly quashed the alarmism. Upon taking office, he once again withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. And in doing so, Trump made an important point: The climate agreement was an “unfair, one-sided … rip-off” that “sabotag[ed] our own industries while China pollutes with impunity.”

Well, now Gates has surprisingly backed off his claim that climate change is an immediate existential crisis.

While Gates still holds to the climate cult and still believes that net zero is the solution, he is now moderating his message. In a 17-page memo to the UN’s upcoming climate summit, Gates writes:

There’s a doomsday view of climate change that goes like this: In a few decades, cataclysmic climate change will decimate civilization. The evidence is all around us — just look at all the heat waves and storms caused by rising global temperatures. Nothing matters more than limiting the rise in temperature.

He then states, “Fortunately for all of us, this view is wrong.”

Wow — the guy who has been warning of doomsday climate change catastrophes if we fail to act is now admitting that, well, actually, there is no climate emergency. He notes, “Climate change is a serious problem, but it will not be the end of civilization.” He further notes that “temperature is not the best way to measure our progress on climate.” Furthermore, “Health and prosperity are the best defense against climate change.”

Is he offering a mea culpa? No. But what he is doing is finally acknowledging that the CO₂ “threat” is not as dire as is often claimed, and that the way money has been spent seeking to cut emissions has focused on the wrong things. Focusing spending on eliminating abject poverty will have a much greater impact on the global climate than obsessing over cutting CO₂ emissions.

So, what’s behind Gates’s sudden shift on climate alarmism? Maybe it has something to do with an advanced nuclear reactor he’s been developing and the fact that the ecofascists are the biggest obstacle to nuclear power. Maybe Gates has finally realized that the current net-zero path will lead to greater human suffering, not less.

Whatever the reason, Gates’s advocacy for a more measured, economically practical, and sensible approach to addressing global climate change is a good thing.