Jeff Bezos speaks on the COP26 climate summit, Glasgow, United Kingdom, November 2, 2021.
Paul Ellis | Pool | Getty Images
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledged $2 billion to help restore the environment and transform food systems.
The Bezos Earth Fund will provide the funding. This is part of the billionaire’s commitment to spend $10 Billion on climate change in the next decade.
Bezos said Tuesday that nature is beautiful, but also fragile, as he spoke to delegates at the COP26 Climate Conference. Blue Origin and I were in space together in July, and this was something that I was reminded of. I was told that seeing the earth from space changes your perception of the world. But I didn’t know how true that would be.
Bezos described 2021 to be a crucial year, and urged humanity “stand together to defend our world.”
“Every year, forests and landscapes absorb 11 million tons of CO2 from our atmosphere. “We destroy nature, we reverse it,” he said at the Glasgow, U.K. event. “In many parts of the globe, nature is already turning from a carbon sink into a source.” This is a grave danger for us all.”
The Bezos Earth Fund made a pledge in September to give $1 billion in grants to conservation efforts.
Bezos stated, “Together, these $3 billion pledges will drive an entirely new nature agenda for Bezos Earth Fund, which is simultaneously focused on conservation, restoration, and food transformation.”
“We must conserve what’s left, we must restore the things we’ve lost, and we must grow what it takes to live without degrading our planet for future generations.”
Since his July departure as Amazon CEO, Bezos will be focusing on Blue Origin and other space exploration companies, as well as initiatives like the Earth Fund.
However, there are concerns about the potential environmental damage that the private space travel industry, as promoted by Blue Origin, could cause.