Jeff Bezos, Amazon owner and founder, has said he will donate around 10 billion dollars to help tackle climate change.
He released the statement on his Instagram page.
Despite $10 billion being a huge amount of money to the 99.9%, to Jeff, its only around 1/18th of his net worth. Despite this, it’s still an incredibly generous donation, which will be greatly appreciated by all the charities who receive it.
He said on Instagram:
I’ve spent the past several months learning from a group of incredibly smart people who’ve made it their life’s work to fight climate change and its impact on communities around the world. I’m inspired by what they’re doing, and excited to help them scale.
“Today, I’m pleased to announce the first Bezos Earth Fund recipients – 16 organizations working on innovative, ambitious, and needle-moving solutions. This $791 million in donations is just the beginning of my $10 billion commitment to fund scientists, activists, NGOs, and others. We can all protect Earth’s future by taking bold action now.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CHpwxnvHufz/?igshid=1sjhhvphj5mej
The general feedback from the post has been very positive. With one person commenting: “Once you become the richest man in the word, I guess you move on to saving it 🤷♂️👏🏼“.
The 56 year old gave some insight into where the money was exactly going, and listed off the organisations who will benefit from the donation.
He wrote: “The Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund, ClimateWorks Foundation, Dream Corps Green For All, Eden Reforestation Projects, Energy Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, The Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, NDN Collective, Rocky Mountain Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, The Solutions Project, Union of Concerned Scientists, World Resources Institute, and World Wildlife Fund.”
He first announced the move to start saving the planet on social media at the start of the year, and he planned to start off by putting money into the cause, then issuing grants over the summer.
This is a sizeable donation, and is sure to make a difference in the fight against climate change.
Jeff concluded: “Earth is the one thing we all have in common – let’s protect it, together.”
