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Comment by aiyodev | Hacker News Reader

> We can do even more. By investing in energy innovations...

Ok. Do it. You promised to give away your entire net worth years ago but you're still worth $100 billion. What's the hold up?

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> The organization's stated goal is to inspire the wealthy people of the world to give at least half of their net worth to philanthropy, either during their lifetime or upon their death

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_Pledge

You mean that promise? Seems to be coming along as promised. How you doing?

So what you seem to be suggesting is he should spend his entire net worth all in one go right now and then walk away, and if he doesn't he's a fraud? If that's what you mean, it doesn't seem to me to be a very effective strategy when tackling long term problems, especially as new problems keep coming up. No investments means no revenue to tackle new problems.

Do you really think committing everything up front would be a better use of his resources?

At very least he could have its foundation desinvest in non-renewables.

They dis-invested from their fossil fuel portfolio in 2016.

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/gates-divest-fossil...

My bad. I wasn't aware of that. Genuine question, did they also dis-invest in GMO (which tend to be bad for bio-diversity) ?

They do support some GMO research as part of their commitment to improved agricultural output and food security in the developing world. I suppose it's a case of conflicting priorities. They've been into reducing poverty and hunger longer than they've been into environmentalism.

Even then it's not a straight trade-off. GMO can have harmful consequences, but if it reduces the agricultural footprint that's an environmental benefit.

I have to agree with you. Put your money where your mouth is.

I imagine the vast majority of that net worth is tied up in investments and not immediately available to spend. It's not just sitting in his bank account.

The threat of climate change isn't significant enough for him to liquidate his investments?

He's already liquidating them pretty quickly to fund the vast amounts he's ploughing into eradicating polio and malaria, and projects to provide access to clean water, contraception and decent sanitation in the developing world.

It wouldn't surprise me if the linked article doesn't mark the start of a shift in focus to address climate change as well. You may not be a fan of Bill Gates but when it comes to putting his money where his mouth is he has a pretty decent track record in recent years.

Edit to add: When you hold more assets then anyone else there's a limit to the rate that they can be liquidated without completely disrupting the global economy.

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