What A Day - Bezos Gives Back

Episode Date: February 18, 2020

An extremely rich man wants to do a good thing: Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos announced a pledge of $10 billion to combat climate change. We discuss how he’s going to spend that money and reactions to the news.Over 73,000 people have been infected with coronavirus and the death toll is above 1,800. The latest on what the outbreak means for travelers and the global economy.And in headlines: floods in Mississippi, Virginia votes down an assault weapons ban, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has to regulate.

It's Tuesday, February 18th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, coming in hot after an insane and unprecedented Valentine's Day to President's Day weekend. Dude, I'm hungover from the love of both Cupid and George Washington. We better savor it, because this might not happen again for a thousand years. Mmm. Yum, yum. On today's show, the latest on the coronavirus, Jeff Bezos pledges $10 billion to fight climate change, plus some headlines. So here's where we stand with the Wuhan coronavirus at the moment. Over 73,000 people have been infected. And as of Monday evening, the death toll has reached more than 1800. All but five of these casualties have occurred in mainland China. That's where the virus originated, according to the World Health Organization. As we've been

talking about on this show, the virus has had far reaching effects. You probably have at least one friend or a parent who is panicking about it feverishly calling you travel has been severely cut back. And then there are the cruise ships as part of this equation, which have been a particular challenge for health officials trying to contain the virus because of their close quarters. So let's talk about these cruise ships that we've been hearing about. They've been stranded off the coast as fearful countries refuse to let thousands of people's vacations end. What are the details on this latest stranded cruise ship that is near Japan? Let me just preface this by saying I have never wanted to go on a cruise ship ever. Yeah, Titanic came out in the 90s. We were kids. It was a lot.

And this nightmare has really confirmed my reluctance. So 328 Americans were finally released from a contaminated cruise ship off the coast of Japan after two full weeks of quarantine. The U.S. embassy there made plans for the Americans to fly home. But this was before they realized 14 of the passengers tested positive for the coronavirus. So after consulting with health experts, the U.S. government decided to let the infected evacuees who were not yet exhibiting symptoms, board the flights. So they found out there were infected citizens, and then they quarantined them on part of the plane on these evacuation flights. Yeesh. Okay, so what else do we know about this? Well, other countries like Australia, Canada, and South Korea

were also evacuating their citizens from the ship. The total number of coronavirus cases on that cruise ship, according to the Japanese health ministry yesterday, was 454. Now that the Americans are back on U.S. soil, they're going to be quarantined for another 14 days. And that's whether they had the virus or not. That brings the total number of cases of coronavirus in the U.S. to 29. It's basically doubled because 14 more people showed up. Yeah. Well, another part of this saga has to do with the economic ramifications of the epidemic as well. And Apple just cut its sales forecast due to demand falling in China, as well as slowed production related to all of the travel restrictions.

Care to elaborate on this for a second? Yeah. So none of the iPhones are made in the Hubei region of China, and that's where all of this originated. But travel restrictions since before the Lunar New Year have made production really difficult, even with the factories reopening pretty quickly after that. In a statement, Apple said that worldwide iPhone supply will, quote, temporarily be constrained. According to The Wall Street Journal, this makes Apple the first major U.S. company to say

it won't meet its revenue projections for the first quarter due to the coronavirus outbreak. But as we've also previously mentioned, tourism industries worldwide are taking a hit as travel to and from China totally slowed down. And Chinese tourism is huge. For context, Chinese tourists spent $277 billion abroad in 2018, which is up from $10 billion in the year 2000. So yeah, they're spending money. And that's according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization. Yeah, wow. Okay, so we'll keep you updated on the virus,

its impacts here and abroad going forward. Yeah, and just remember to only seek out verified sources for your virus updates. You know, scientists are debunking conspiracy theories left and right. We're looking at you, Tom Cotton, you fucking asshole.

And mostly, you know, these are just xenophobic and they don't make sense. So just keep washing your hands, covering your sneezes, and we're going to let you know what's actually up. In stuff you rarely hear news, an extremely rich man has pledged to do a good thing. Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon and the world's richest person, announced a pledge of $10 billion to combat climate change. He made the announcements on Ground Zero for thirst traps and pictures of me absolutely tearing it up at Disneyland, Instagram.

So Gideon, what do we know about what Bezos is promising here? Yeah, so he's calling it the Bezos Earth Fund. And according to what he posted, it was absent pictures of Disneyland. It was just an earth. It is intended to fund scientists, activists, and NGOs working to combat the effects of climate change. That's as far as we've gotten at this point. Other details about it are sort of scarce.

And how it'll take shape going forward is a little bit unknown. But it is interesting, though, that Bezos is doing this now because he has long been this target of criticism for not doing enough with his unbelievable wealth. That's often a question for him and others at his level. According to the news site Recode, this announced gift is the second biggest of the 21st century, surpassed only by Warren Buffett's pledge

to give a great percentage of his net worth to the Gates Foundation. Now, Bezos' net worth is $130 billion, and his previous largest contribution was a $2 billion commitment to anti-homelessness efforts and early childhood education. Bezos has not signed the Giving Pledge, though, which is effectively a promise from the world's billionaires to give away at least half of their money in their lifetimes and in their wills, though his ex-wife did after their recent divorce. Yeah, wow. Yeah, well, you know, hopefully he'll consider that next time. What's been the response to this move so far? In general, people are welcoming it, you know, even if there is the sort of rap on the knuckles for this is kind of late for him. But there is an interesting backstory here on

Bezos and how this happened. There had been a lot of pressure internally from some Amazon employees on the company's broader climate policies. Over 1,700 employees walked out last year in support of the global climate strike that happened across the world. And there's a group called Amazon Employees for Climate Justice that had made several demands, including asking the company not to provide custom cloud services to fossil fuel companies. Here's a little bit of what they were saying. I'm walking out on September 20th because the world's most beautiful landscapes are disappearing and a decade from now they may not even exist. I'm walking out. I'm walking out. I'm walking out on September 20th because I feel climate change is the most imminent

threat to humanity that we face as a whole today. I'm walking out. I'm walking out. I'm walking out. Because those that are the least responsible for the climate crisis are the ones feeling the most climate impact. Because everything is on fire and it's not fine. Because the planet is f***ed.

There you go. Okay. And the day after that strike, Bezos pledged that the company would meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement 10 years ahead of schedule and become carbon neutral by 2040. So additional context here, Amazon disclosed its carbon footprint for the first time and it emitted over 44 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2018. More than a little bit. More than a little bit. Yeah. And that's the equivalent of burning almost 600,000 tanker trucks worth of gasoline. So that is where the pressure is coming from is because of their massive impact. Bezos said that the company would still sell its cloud services to the oil and gas industry, though. That explains why on Monday, this group said that they were happy with Bezos' philanthropy,

but also added, quote, the people of Earth need to know, when is Amazon going to stop helping oil and gas companies ravage Earth with still more oil and gas wells? Yeah, as a citizen of Earth, I think it's a good question. Other large tech companies are also being made to wrestle with their impact on the environment as well. How do Amazon's plans compare to other companies? Yeah, I mean, theirs is significantly less than what Microsoft has recently pledged. In an announcement earlier this year, Microsoft said that it plans to go carbon negative by 2030 and to remove all the carbon the company has ever emitted since its founding by 2050, which would be done with carbon capture. Though, again, even in Microsoft's case, you know, there were critics. Greenpeace said that there was a

gaping hole in the plan, given that the company also did not back away from working with oil and gas companies. So, you know, with a lot of these, people are saying, good on you, but we're waiting to hear more. So we'll keep tracking what Baseless is up to on this, as well as other companies and whether more internal and external pressures force them to act. And now for some ads. Headlines. The Daytona 500 was yesterday after being delayed due to rain for the second time in NASCAR history. Denny Hamlin scored his third career Daytona 500 win, but the race ended in a tragic crash. Ryan Newman flipped his car, and as of last night, reports said he was in serious condition at a Florida hospital, although thankfully his injuries are not life-threatening. Mississippi declared a state of emergency over the weekend after heavy ongoing rains flooded rivers and reservoirs.

The state's capital, Jackson, issued a seven-day mandatory evacuation as some streets became submerged. Officials estimated that over 2,000 buildings and homes would be in the danger zone. The Pearl River, which runs through Mississippi and Louisiana, also reached 36 feet, the highest water level it's seen in 37 years. Luckily, there haven't been any reported injuries at this time, and reservoir managers are working to bring down the water levels. Similar weather is also hitting Tennessee, which is reportedly experiencing rains that are 400% of what's normal. Everything is 400% of what's normal these days, though. Correct. A bill to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines in Virginia did not get the votes to pass through the state Senate. Things were looking really good for the bill after it passed through the Democrat

led House last month. But it took a turn when four Democrats in the Senate broke ranks and voted with Republicans. The assault weapons ban was the most controversial part of Governor Ralph Northam's plan for stricter gun control in the state following mass shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and in Virginia Beach last year. The state Senate did, however, pass bills to enact universal background checks and red flag laws, which gun reform advocates are counting as a victory. Indeed, human Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called on world governments to regulate his website on Monday in an op-ed published in the Financial Times and also during prepared remarks at a security conference in Munich. Zuck wants Facebook to be held to standards somewhere between those of a newspaper who

can be sued for what they publish and a telecommunications company who aren't held viable for their customers' conversations. Now, Zuckerberg may seem like another classic cool guy billionaire here, but this is all ahead of a significant overhaul of internet rules that the EU is set to deliver later this year. For their part, representatives from the EU were not swayed and have already rejected Zuckerberg's proposal, saying, quote, it's not enough, it's too slow and too low in terms of responsibility. Too slow and too low. Also describes the engagement I get when I post a handsome new profile pic. And those are the headlines.

By the way, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, today is your primary registration deadline. You can register to vote or double check that you are registered at votesaveamerica.com. Do it. We need your help. Please vote. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, spray paint our names onto a train and tell your friends to listen. By the way, if you're into reading and not just the sticker that says parental advisory, explicit content on CDs like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter.

Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And that's how you work through a V-Day, P-Day hangover. Mmm, BMP. What A Day is a product of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tunn is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein, and our senior producer is Katie Long.

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