Magatte Wade doesn’t mince words. She tells you what she thinks clearly and right off the bat. And right now, one of the messages the well-known African entrepreneur is most passionate about spreading is that the activists who are looking to shut down the expansion of natural resources are harming low-income people and people in the developing world, particularly her fellow Africans.
The Senegalese businesswoman firmly maintains that expanding access to natural gas is vital to help those in need. “And if you’re not able to come to that simple conclusion, then I want to ask what kind of a human being are you?” Wade said in an interview. “Do you want people to die today to save the planet years down the line?” The interview was conducted as a follow-up to a presentation she gave to the International Gas Research Conference, which was held last month in Banff, Alta.
But her message isn’t geared towards energy-sector experts — it’s aimed at a general audience and the anti-energy activists who sometimes hold sway over the public debate. Wade hasn’t always voiced these concerns. It was through her experiences as an entrepreneur in the beverage and beauty-care industries that she saw first hand how the climate activists’ anti-energy agenda was making life more difficult for people struggling to bring prosperity to various parts of the world.
“We live with constant — and I mean constant — power outages,” said Wade, speaking of the energy grid in her West.
