Top 5: Billionaires Saving the Planet

Welcome to the Planet 100 for February 19, 2010. Today we're counting down the Top 5 billionaires saving the planet.

WATCH VIDEO: Top 5 Billionaires Saving Planet

#5 Bill Gates
Bill Gates unleashed fireflies on his TED audience last week to visually demonstrate that finding a clean energy solution is the planet?s number one problem. He's number 5—in our Top 5 billionaires saving the planet.

Gates stated that climate change poses a threat far greater to human health than any one specific disease. The Gates Philanthropic Foundation has granted $28 billion, much of it fight "big three" infectious diseases: HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.

Via: Forbes

#4 George Soros
In at number 4, George Soros. The Hungarian hedge-fund manager pledged $1 billion dollars last year at in Copenhagen to promote the search of low-carbon energy sources.

Soros has been a supporter of non-violent democratization since the 70s. His philanthropic arm, the Open Society Institute, helped bring democracy to Central and Eastern Europe.

Via: Guardian

#3 Jeff Skoll
In a number 3, E-bay billionaire Jeff Skoll has handed out hefty grants to 59 visionary entrepreneurs working to build a more prosperous and peaceful world.

The results have been impressive: one grant recipient trained armies of large rats to sniff out landmines in Africa. Skoll also founded Participant Media which produces socially conscious films such as An Inconvenient Truth, Syriana and Food Inc.

Via: BBC

#2 Ted Turner

In at number 2, Media Mogul Ted Turner made the environment his top priority when he formed the Turner Foundation in 1990 with its mission of protecting and restoring wildlife habitats.

In the subsequent 20 years Tuner has given over a billion to the UN Foundation, created a Nuclear Threat Initiative to promote nuclear non-proliferation, launched the Turner Endangered Species Fund and created the Captain Planet Foundation to educate kids about the environment.

Source: Turner Foundation

#1 Richard Branson
Our number one billionaire saving the planet to a man so passionate that he's declared war on carbon. We're speaking of course of about Richard Branson.

CEO of 360 companies, Branson devotes most of his time to his philanthropic arm, Virgin Unite. This week Branson's Carbon War Room met in Vancouver to break the latest clean energy technologies with Branson pledging to give Virgin Airlines profits for green energy research. And Branson?s X-Prize will award $25 million for any technology that can safely remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Source: Virgin Unite

That's our Top 5 Billionaires saving the planet. As Ralph Nader says maybe Only the Super Rich Can Save Us. Do you agree? Leave your comments at the Planet Green You Tube page.

Photo Credits:
Bill Gates ©Getty Images
Bill and Melinda photo ©AP Photo
Katrina ©Getty Images
Malaria ©AP Photo
African Map ©Photodisc/Getty Images
George Soros ©Getty Images
George Soros1 ©AP Photo
Bosnian protest ©AP Photo
Jeff Skoll ©Getty Images
Rat ©iStockphoto.com/Thinkstock
Food Inc.- ©WireImage/Getty Images
Al Gore ©AP Photo
Ted Turner ©AP Photo
Captain Planet ©Getty Images