Bill Gates Takes on Radical Environmentalism
by Rob Schwarzwalder
October 15, 2009
In a speech today at the World Food Prize forum, Microsoft founder Bill Gates took the extreme environmental movement to task for putting rigid ideology ahead of basic human need.
Here’s an excerpt of his comments: “Some people insist on an ideal vision of the environment. They have tried to restrict the spread of biotechnology into sub-Saharan Africa without regard to how much hunger and poverty might be reduced by it, or what the farmers themselves might want.”
Gates noted that the international initiative “to help small farmers” in the developing world “is endangered by an ideological wedge” that pits higher productivity through the use of new agri-technologies and those who speak only of “sustainability,” often a code word for policies that would allow people to die for the sake of perceived environmental “purity.”
The Microsoft chief applauded some things that are anathema to the environmental purists, such as genetically-modified seeds that can increase crop yields and possibly even the nutritional content of such developing world staples as maize and sorghum. Drought-resistant seeds can be used by small farmers throughout Africa to help them feed their families and strengthen their nations’ economies.
One of the world’s wealthiest people, Gates and his foundation have poured an estimated $1.4 billion into combating hunger, malnutrition and disease in places like sub-Saharan Africa. Sadly, Gates is also a supporter of abortion-related “family planning” services in these regions. But he deserves credit both for his commitment to providing sustainable agriculture to the world’s neediest populations and for taking on the radical environmental movement, which would rather see people die than advance dynamic new agriculture technologies that could save millions of lives.
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Comments
It would be valuable to have a sense, whether Gates carefully considered, planned & executed this challenge to radical environmentalism, or whether it just happened to be a passage in his address that caught the attention of the press & punditry … a hot quote that makes good copy.
If Gates & Co. are deliberately calling in the cruise missiles on the euphemism of sustainability, then this is a very good thing.
Radicalism, however, is insidiously entwined in otherwise moderate corners of the environmentalist scene: each time there is an enviro-arson, we see lots of sympathetic language included in articles about the event … so, having someone like Gates who is so accomplished at long-term social conflict will be crucial. ;-)
And he does it all without requiring belief in a deity! (As have the other greatest philanthropists of all time, Warren Buffett and Andrew Carnegie, who were also agnostic/atheist).
Apparently donating 1.4 billion (!!!) isn’t good enough, because he still supports birth control and abortion. Women’s health in Africa, as I’ve witnessed firsthand as a volunteer, is abominable! Shame on you FRC. Are you handing out condoms in Africa, where AIDS is spread more quickly and kills more people than abortion?
By: Sal | October 15, 2009 at 6:14 pm
The liberals are at it again folks!! These environmental wackos are like locusts getting in the way of progress with their junk science and phony agendas. It’s sad when sick ideology stands in the way of the the richest man in the world helping the hungry!