Moore: Bill Gates got mugged by reality

You ve apparently heard by now the blockbuster news that Microsoft founder Bill Gates one of the richest people to ever walk the planet has had a change of heart on setting change For several decades Gates poured billions of dollars into the climate-industrial complex and was howling that the end is nigh unless we stop using fossil fuels cars air conditioning and general anesthesia Now he says he rejects the doomsday predictions of the more extreme global warming prophets Particular conservatives have snuffed that Gates has shifted his position on situation change because he and Microsoft have invested heavily in energy-intensive details centers What Gates has done is courageous and praiseworthy There are not various people of his stature who will admit that they were wrong Al Gore certainly hasn t My wife says I never do Gates still endorses the need for communal action which won t work but he has sensibly disassociated himself from the increasingly radical and economically destructive dictates from the green movement For that the Left has tossed him out of their tent as a traitor I wish to highlight several critical insights that should be the starting point for constructive debate that every clear-minded thinker on either side of the issue should embrace It s time to put human welfare at the center of our state policies This includes improving agriculture and physical condition in poor countries Countries should be encouraged to grow their economies even if that means a reliance on fossil fuels like natural gas Economic upsurge is essential to human progress Although environment change will hurt poor people it will not be the only or even the biggest threat to the lives and welfare of the vast majority of them The biggest problems are poverty and illness I would add to these wise declarations two inconvenient truths First the response to changing temperatures and weather patterns is technological progress A much smaller percentage of people die of severe weather events nowadays than did or or years ago Second ability is the master reserve and to deny people reliable and affordable capacity is to keep them poor and vulnerable and this is inhumane If Gates were to direct even a small fraction of his foundation funds toward ensuring everyone on the planet has access to electric power and safe drinking water it would do more for humanity than all the hundreds of billions of dollars that governments and foundations have devoted to atmosphere programs that have failed to change the globe s temperature Stephen Moore is a former Trump senior economic adviser and the cofounder of Unleash Prosperity which advocates for learning freedom for all children