Unlike Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Bill Gates is not very interested in taking humans into space.
“Well, it’s important to say that what Elon did with Tesla is one of the biggest contributions to climate change that anyone has ever done. And you know, underestimating Elon is not a good idea,” Gates told Kara Swisher on his podcast “Sway “. But he added that “he is not a person from Mars” and that he “does not think rockets are the solution”.
The Microsoft co-founder, who is currently worth more than $ 130 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, released a new book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster”, and in the interview he said we need to focus on some of the biggest problems of climate change here on earth.
He said companies like Tesla are doing a great job on “easy things, like passenger cars”, but that we need to tackle other industries to make a bigger difference in climate change.
“Basically, we are not doing enough on difficult things: steel, cement, meat,” he said. “And, unfortunately, the things people think about – electricity, passenger cars – are one third of the problem. So we have to work on two thirds. And if you pay attention only to short-term metrics, not green prizes across the board, so you lose what is the longest waiting time, which is the hard part. “
Gates said he would rather spend money on measles vaccines than travel to space on a rocket. “I’m not going to pay a lot of money because my foundation can buy measles vaccines and save a life for $ 1,000. So everything I do, I always think, OK, I could spend that $ 1,000 buying the measles vaccine. “