Jeff Bezos masks destructive practices with promise to ‘go green’

Last week, the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, announced a $10 billion plan to fight climate change that will “fund scientists, activists, NGOs — any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world.” It went on, saying the effort will require “collective action from big companies, small companies, nation-states, global organizations, and individuals.” Kudos to Bezos for acknowledging climate change, but his plan is really more of a public relations stunt than anything else. In 2018 alone, Bezos’ company, Amazon, emitted some 44.4 million tons of carbon dioxide, making it one of the world’s single biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. What’s often overlooked by the public is the sheer scale of electricity consumed by Amazon along with other tech giants such as Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple and Facebook. These five companies together use roughly 33 terawatt-hours of electricity every year. To put this in context, that’s more than the country of Denmark consumes in one year.