A Swiss billionaire has pledged to donate $1 billion over the next ten years to help with the efforts of saving the Earth from climate change.
Hansjörg Wyss, a philanthropist and conservalist, was born in Switzerland and now lives in Wyoming. He founded Synthes, a medical device company.
Wyss announced his generous donation October of 2018. Upon release of Wyss’s plan, the New York Times featured him and his support in the fight against climate change. The money will gradually be donated through the Wyss Foundation, a foundation owned by the billionaire.
Wyss shared his opinion on climate change and how he will act on it. “For my part, I have decided to donate $1 billion over the next decade to help accelerate land and ocean conservation efforts around the world, with the goal of protecting 30 percent of the planet’s surface by 2030,” he wrote.
This is not the first time Wyss has made a sizable donation towards the preservation of the Earth. The Wyss Foundation has donated money to efforts to protect places in Africa, Europe, North America, and South America. He has already donated over $450 million towards the conservation of over 40 million acres of land and water.
The issue of global warming and climate change is serious, as it is affects all life on the planet. The Earth’s ozone layer is slowly disappearing, sea levels are rising and natural disasters are worsening. Scientists specialized in climate change have confirmed that there are only 12 years left before the effects of climate change become irreversible.
Wyss described what Earth means to him and how the people on the planet should focus on this prominent issue. “Every one of us—citizens, philanthropists, business and government leaders—should be troubled by the enormous gap between how little of our natural world is currently protected and how much should be protected,” he wrote.
PV junior, Emma Mask, believes the donation from the Swiss billionaire has a positive impact. “I think that it’s a good thing because there are a lot of problems that can be helped with money. This large amount of money goes towards a good cause,” she said.
Wyss’s donation served as an example for other billionaires to follow and use their monetary means to help combat climate change.
