You’ll love watching Bill Gates squirm

BBC’s Amol Rajan asked Gates during an interview, “What do you say to the charge that if you are a climate change campaigner, but you also travel around the world in a private jet, you’re a hypocrite?”

Gates replied, “Well, I buy the gold standard of funding Climeworks to do direct air capture that far exceeds my family’s carbon footprint.”

He added, “I spend billions of dollars on climate innovation. So, you know, should I stay at home and not come to Kenya and learn about farming and malaria — Anyway. I mean, I’m comfortable with the idea that not only am I not part of the problem — by paying for the offsets, but also through the billions that my Breakthrough Energy group is spending, that I’m part of the solution.”

Basically it’s the “Matilda Defense”: “I’m rich, you’re poor. I’m right, you’re wrong.”

As if carbon offsets achieve anything other than a slave for the rich and another stick to beat (tax) us with.