When Bill Gates speaks about climate change, the world listens. That’s why his new essay,  “Three Tough Truths About Climate,” is so troubling.

Gates argues there’s “too much” emphasis on “near-term emissions goals,” ostensibly for humanitarian reasons. He says we should focus instead on the more serious issues of “poverty and disease,” in part because technology will solve the most severe climate impacts. Yet the points in his essay are neither “tough” nor “true,” but belie the same ideology that has sabotaged climate action for half a century: a refusal to confront power.

When billionaires preach tech fixes and innovation, they’re not offering hard truths; they’re just aiming to avoid regulation and protect their freedom to pollute and profit. Gates’s advocacy for breakthroughs — fusion, carbon capture, “clean” cement — as a way to reconcile rising living standards with a stable planet is just a rebrand of the fossil fuel industry’s favorite myth. If salvation lies in carbon capture or advanced reactors, then drilling today becomes an act of faith in tomorrow’s miracles.