Giving Thought

In episode 67 we look at the recent announcement by the world’s richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, that he is going to donate $10bn to tackle global climate issues. We ask: what do we know so far, what has the reaction been, and what does this story highlight about the key issues when it comes to philanthropy currently? Including:   Does Bezos use of his own Instagram channel to make the announcement reflect a desire on part of big donors to control their own narrative, much as populist politicians have harnessed Twitter etc. to speak directly to voters?) Is Bezos’ decision to focus on climate issues an easy one, because it is the obvious cause right now; or a brave one because he knows it will bring scrutiny of Amazon’s own environmental impact? Will this result in more big donors getting involved in climate issues, because it puts a marker down; or will they be crowded out by the scale of Bezos philanthropic resources? Given Bezos has previous pitched his interest in fairly radical ideas such as space