The annual Sun Valley conference among finance, tech, entertainment, and media kingpins, dubbed summer camp for billionaires, included an address by Bill Gates about climate change.
But critics pointed out the hypocrisy of such concerns, given that so many flew into the resort in private planes. The congestion concerns were so bad that the Federal Aviation Administration had to put a temporary ban on planes taking off from the West Coast to Michigan and Canada, according to the Daily Mail.
NPR reported that the manager of the nearby airport, Friedman Memorial Airport, said more than 90 private planes were expected.
So many billionaires in private jets flew to Sun Valley to hear @BillGates rave about climate that the FAA had to stop temporarily shutdown Western air space to other air traffic.
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) July 10, 2021
No #ClimateHypocrisy here. Move on.https://t.co/oDUafFdXBN pic.twitter.com/YLt1nM3WJd
HYPOCRISY of climate alarmists knows NO LIMITS
— Craig Kelly MP (@CraigKellyMP) July 11, 2021
With all the PRIVATE JETS flying into a Gates climate talkfest, US air space had to be CLOSED
DISGUSTING DOUBLE STANDARDS
If they were serious they would be getting rid of their Private jets & go on Zoom !!https://t.co/dXeR1oTfwX
“Bill Gates on Friday told his fellow billionaires that more needed to be done to combat climate change during an address at the annual Sun Valley conference in Idaho. Gates told them the problem was real.” https://t.co/j7MxRgLrLS
— David Wallace-Wells (@dwallacewells) July 10, 2021
Gates has acknowledged in his book "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster," that he's “an imperfect messenger on climate change.”
“I own big houses and fly in private planes — in fact, I took one to Paris for the climate conference — so who am I to lecture anyone on the environment?” he writes.
To make up for it, Gates said in February that he offsets his "carbon emissions by buying clean aviation fuel and funding carbon capture and funding low cost housing projects to use electricity instead of natural gas and so I have been able to eliminate it and it was amazing to me how expensive that was, that cost to be green... we've got to drive that down."
The annual conference is hosted by the private investment bank Allen & Co, which "pays for the whole event with the understanding that it will eventually get a cut of any deal that emerges from its conference," reports NPR.