‘Earth Looks Fragile from Space:’ Jeff Bezos Pledges $1 Billion to Tackle Climate Crisis

The 57-year-old former Amazon CEO said that his recent trip to space further inspired him to protect 30% of Earth’s land and sea.

In a statement on Monday, the Bezos Earth Fund said the $1 billion will play a key role in carrying out the Biden administration’s 30X30 commitment — “a goal to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030 to prevent mass extinctions and bolster resilience to climate change.”

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, pledged $1 billion to global conservation efforts, principally targeting key areas for biodiversity and carbon stocks.

Currently ranked as the world’s second-wealthiest man on the planet, with a net worth of about $194 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Bezos plans to spend the $10 billion he invested in the Bezos Earth Fund last year by 2030.

The grants that are expected to be released this year by the fund will have an initial focus on the Congo Basin, the tropical Pacific Ocean, and the tropical Andes.

The Bezos Earth Fund, founded in 2020, is a commitment from Jeff Bezos to “invest in scientists, NGOs, activists, and the private sector to help drive new technologies,

investments, policy change and behavior,” Dr. Andrew Steer wrote in a Twitter post when appointed as president and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund in early March.

Bezos’s plan compared the natural world to the glamorizing metrics of “poverty rates being lower, infant mortality and life expectancies getting better, and education rates being higher,” but with a notable exception — the “natural world.”

“The loss of nature and the changing climate aren’t really two separate problems. They are two sides of the same coin. We simply cannot address climate change without reversing the loss of nature.”

Jeff realized the “Earth looked fragile from space,” after experiencing the ‘Overview Effect’ during his 10-minute spaceflight on July 20.

“Nature is our life support system. And it's fragile.”

Bezos Earth Fund announced pledges of $203.7 million in grants by the end of the year to organizations combating climate change, among other causes.

“The aid will be prioritized in areas where local communities and Indigenous people are a main focus,” the Bezos Earth Fund said. It is not yet known which organizations the grants will be distributed to.