Some Cynical Thoughts on a Good Gesture

     Yesterday I started my day by reading a couple of articles on the NPR website, and today I noticed one about the infamous Jeff Bezos expanding his philanthropic side to include the fight against devastating climate change. On the surface, this announcement should seem like a good thing, and I am in support of his donation to this cause, but I noticed some backlash on twitter and in my own brain. Is the donation of $10 billion really more than just a symbol if that is all that is being done by a man in control of a company that has such a massive carbon footprint?

     I am not saying that it is a bad thing that Bezos is donating the money to help fight climate change, but it definitely seems like a man in his position could implement greener policies in his business as well. True, a quick look at his Twitter shows an electric fleet being released in India, but that is not the only country in which Amazon has a delivery fleet. Perhaps this is just a first step in the journey towards a more environmentally friendly company since they do publicly have a plan in place for carbon neutrality. I don’t want to be cynical, and I do hope that such a large company is serious about this plan and other companies eventually follow their example, but I am skeptical. Without pressures from consumers, it seems unlikely that other companies will follow suit in shelling out the money to reduce their impact on the global environment. 

     My own cynicism aside, I do hope that as society moves forward, the environment becomes a top priority as new policies are put into place. We are reaching a critical point in the current era, and maybe a new mass extinction in unavoidable, but there’s no reason why we cannot ensure that our planet remains a pleasant place to reside and preserve some of the beautiful places we have left.