Stereotyping is easy. One can predict people’s worldviews and policy positions based on their social and political identities. That generally holds true for people’s views about climate change and climate and energy policy—among the hottest issues in the world today.

Yet some people prioritize the pursuit of truth over how they wish things were. Two in particular have been bold in the face of mass “group think” on climate change and renewable technology.

Besides voicing their opinions, they have brought social and technological development to developing countries, helping them to reduce poverty and increase life expectancy.

Bill Gates

One of the richest men on earth, Bill Gates has been very vocal on a number of key developmental issues and is well acknowledged by many as a philanthropist.

Like many people I meet, Gates is highly critical of renewable energy. He doesn’t mince his words when it comes to wind and solar’s reliability.

Gates emphasizes that no battery technology can support renewables enough to power big cities. He is also cringes at the prospect of doing life without fossil fuels.

Speaking at Stanford University last year, Gates remarked the indispensable role of fossil fuels. “Do you guys on Wall Street have something in your desks that makes steel? Where is fertilizer, cement, plastic going to come from? Do planes fly through the sky because of some number you put in a spreadsheet?”

Does anyone vilify Gates? No. Does anyone call him a denier? No. Gates’s intellectual and worldly-wise credibility enable him to speak the truth with impunity to people who are always quick to demonize anyone who is pro-coal and anti-renewables.

Bjørn Lomborg

Bjørn Lomborg is a very popular social media personality. He’s known for his critical stance on renewables. As a former director of the Danish government’s Environmental Assessment Institute (EAI), Lomborg decided to voice his opinion on the rampant glorification and misinformation about the benefits of renewables.

He does that through the Copenhagen Consensus Center (CCC), a think tank that researches and publishes the smartest solutions to the world’s biggest problems, including those related to climate change.

Despite being a believer in Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (CAGW)—a term used to denote the view that anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions are causing dangerous global warming—Lomborg has been tagged a “climate denier” because of his critical stance against renewable technologies.

Lomborg regularly writes for numerous news media on the exaggerated impacts of climate change and offers data showing that extreme weather events have not increased in the recent past.

Despite his ambiguous stance about the impacts of CAGW, Lomborg’s research think tank is now working closely with the national and local governing bodies in India, Haiti, and other countries that the mainstream media paint as CAGW believers.

The CCC helps these governing bodies to achieve meaningful development in a variety of areas. They do so without the obsession of CAGW.

The Indian government’s highest think tank is explicit about the government’s interest in hiring CCC. “I want your help in prioritizing the State Development Goals,” said Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chair of NITI Ayog. Besides helping out the federal government, Lomborg works directly with the states in India, helping them expedite their efforts to abolish poverty.

What makes Lomborg and Gates unique?

It is their boldness to call out lies, and their undying passion for the development of society, while remaining firm CAGW believers.  They are active in calling out the hypocrisy surrounding renewable technology and exposing the United Nations’ lies about the extreme weather events.

These voices gives us hope that truth can cut through ideology about climate change and renewable technology. They also show us that real progress has little to do with scare-mongering and much to do with meaningful policies that tackle poverty at grassroots levels.