The National:

JEFF Bezos claimed that the earth’s atmosphere looks thin from above, but it can’t be as thin as his environmental credentials.

It’s beggars belief that the billionaire Amazon owner was invited COP26 in the first place.

But on Tuesday morning Bezos took to the stage in Glasgow, and barely waited more than a minute before mentioning that he had been to space this year in Blue Origin.

With all that cash behind him, doesn’t Bezos have any staffers with enough courage to tell him to read the room?

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Looking wistfully out into the room, Bezos said: ”I was told that seeing the Earth from space changes the lens from which you view the world.

“But I was not prepared for just how much that would be true.

“Looking back at Earth from up there, the atmosphere seems so thin, the world so finite and so fragile.

“Now, in this critical year and what we all know is the decisive decade, we must all stand together to protect our world.”

The National:

Bezos took to the stage at COP26 in Glasgow

Ah yes, we must all come together, but does that include billionaires? Bezos's words are disconnected from his actions.

Sending a rocket into space in a climate emergency due to his own vanity is not protecting the planet, it's boosting his fragile ego. 

Not only did he talk about going to space, burning excessive amounts of fuel in a phallic shaped rocket as part of his evident midlife crisis, he was giving a speech at an event about protecting forests.

Forests? Amazon? Does Bezos think that starting a Climate Pledge will rewrite history and the extensive irreversible damage his company has done will simply be forgotten?

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No, instead he pledged $2 billion for land reform in Africa, a plaster over a gaping wound. 

Was he held to account for the increase of deliveries, drivers and vehicles on the road as a result of his company, the way this has shifted how we live our lives and had a disastrous impact on the planet? No.

Was he called out for the years of his firm using deforestation as part of the supply chain and using products stemming from it in the company’s packaging? No.

Were his links to big oil firms probed, or the size of the company’s carbon impact addressed? No.

He spoke about electric vehicles, and the funding he's given to some projects. 

He was given over eight minutes to speak uninterupted, and the host thanked him for coming.

What a COP-out.