An actionable pledge to Mother Earth - Pay your Rent

Bill Dandie
Nov 1
4 min read

In a world awash with headlines about solar panels, carbon markets and looming sea-level rise, it’s easy to forget the pulse beneath it all. The truth is simpler: the planet speaks. When rivers swell, wildfires rage, and forests choke on smoke — that is not just “weather.” That is Mother Earth in emotional motion, asking us to live more gently, to remember our home.

And so we come to the words of Bill Gates.

An actionable pledge to Mother Earth - pay your rent

Gates’ Shift: Not Doom, But Possibility

Bill Gates recently published a wide-ranging memo in which he argues that while climate change is serious — especially for the poorest among us — it will not lead to the demise of humanity.

He critiques what he calls the “doomsday view” of climate change, pointing out that focusing purely on emissions and temperature goals may divert resources away from elevating human welfare — health, agriculture, disease, resilience.

Gates writes:

“The biggest problems are poverty and disease, just as they always have been.” And he argues that progress and innovation still hold promise: “People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.” In effect, Gates is down-scaling the scale of the apocalypse—the image of climate collapse—and shifting the emphasis to human adaptation, innovation, and welfare.

If we look at this through our deeper lens (of flow, energy, the sacredness of the land) we might say: Gates is acknowledging the wound, yes — but he’s choosing to keep the vision of healing alive. He’s asking us not to be immobilised by fear, but to act with intelligence.

Yet… there is a tension here. Because the message “humanity won’t perish” can be interpreted as “So we can relax a bit” — and therein lies a risk. If Mother Earth is speaking, are we still prepared to listen? Or will we hear “nothing to worry about” and go on as before?

Where Does Trump Come In? “I Told You So”

Enter Donald Trump. In reaction to Gates’ comments, Trump proclaimed on his platform that Gates had finally admitted he was wrong about climate change being an apocalypse — and that the “war” on climate change was won.

This brings us to the tricky interplay of politics, ego, and public narrative. Trump has long dismissed climate change as a “hoax” or “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”

So when he says “I told you so,” what he’s really doing is pointing at Gates’ softened language and declaring his earlier dismissal has been vindicated. It's a rhetorical win in a saga of narratives.But here’s the thing: whether you lean into Gates’ optimism or stand with Trump’s denial, the deeper question remains untouched — what is our relationship with Earth? Are we in service to her, or is she a backdrop to our ambition?

Mother Earth Doesn’t Need Lobbyists, Just Our Respect

Here’s the heart of the matter. The climate isn’t just a line on a graph or the output of a model. It is the pulse of our planetary home. Every flood, every wildfire, every drought is her language. She is telling us: “I am alive. I am feeling. I am breathing.”

And we have forgotten that we owe rent. Not to banks. Not to landlords. To her.

We pay rent when we consume heedlessly. When we live as though the planet is infinite and there are no consequences. When we leave plastics, when we waste, when we ignore the forests.

Our hashtag — #payyourrent — is a declaration: We are changing that ledger.

Consume less.
Repair more.
Significantly reduce plastic use.
Open your heart to the Earth.

Notice: earth and heart share their letters. Recycled letters. Sacred connection. Earth. Heart. They are one.

So, Where Do We Stand?

In the light of Gates’ remarks and Trump’s reaction, here is what we know:

The architecture of our future is still being built. The narrative is not yet settled.
Gates urges us to shift from fear-based “end of civilisation” messaging to scalable innovation and resilience.
Trump uses that shift to claim victory — a sidestep of substance by way of rhetoric.
But beyond both of them, there is you and me, listening to the Earth, feeling her rhythms, acknowledging our debt.

Let all make an actionable pledge to Mother Earth

Here is what I invite you (and us all) to do:

Acknowledge the seriousness of what the planet is telling us — rising heat, wildfires, floods, smoke in the air — not as mere disasters, but as communication.
Align with a deeper rhythm: instead of only “what can technology save us,” ask “how can our relationship change?”
Let #payyourrent be more than a hashtag. Let it be daily habit.
Recognise that headlines and soundbites—Gates saying “not doom,” Trump saying “I told you so”—are part of the soft story. The hard story is what we do at home, in our habits, in our care.
Remember: Earth & Heart. Same letters. Same love. The planet only wants one thing from us: that we see her, feel her, respect her.

Closing Whisper

Bill Gates doesn’t believe the world is ending. Donald Trump says “we told you so.” But Mother Earth? She hasn’t moved a letter for the headlines. She simply feels. She simply breathes. She asks for rent unpaid for centuries.

Let’s pay it—not because a billionaire tells us the world will end, not because a politician claims victory—but because we choose to love our home, live mindfully, repair what’s broken, honour what remains.

And let the echo of the hashtag ripple: #payyourrent.

Because the only rent we’ve forgotten is to the ground beneath our feet, and the heart in every leaf, in every wave, in every breath of her air.