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How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Nonfiction (2021)In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical - and accessible - plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe.
Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide toward certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal.
He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions-suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise.
As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.
Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide toward certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal.
He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions-suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise.
As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published February 16, 2021
About the author
Bill Gates
10 books525k followersReading books is one of my favorite ways to learn new things and better understand the world. I try to read every day, even when I’m busy and traveling. I’m excited to share with you what I'm reading, the people I meet, and what I'm learning. I hope that you'll join the conversation here and on my blog, gatesnotes.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 4,753 reviews
February 23, 2021
I wish I liked this book a bit more than I did because I'd love to counteract some of the negative comments from people who I suspect never read the book (ten years on Goodreads and this still makes my blood boil). Oddly, the negative reactions seem to fall primarily into two categories: 1) Bill Gates is a rich evil oligarch who only wrote this book to get even more money (muahaha), and 2) Bill Gates is an evil Marxist who only wrote this book to encourage the government to employ socialism (muahaha).
Personally, I see little evidence of either. My primary suspicion is that Bill Gates is an insufferable nerd who, having already offered a technological answer to several ills plaguing the world, has now turned his attentions to solving climate change. I strongly doubt he needed the paycheck from this book. He is almost nauseatingly optimistic and self-congratulatory at times (I guess being a billionaire will do that to you), but I at least hope the celebrity of him will encourage more people to take the issues seriously.
For me, this book wasn't as interesting or as enlightening as I'd hoped for. Most of it is like a beginner's guide to climate change, so I suppose it will be helpful to those who have little to no understanding of the issues. It is very accessible and easy to read, I'll give him that. Gates breaks down the science into simple concepts, explains why and how climate change is happening, and goes into all the clean energy alternatives.
That's the first part of the book-- barely more than a rehash of my high school science lessons. I'm curious: my US friend about the same age as me said she never learned about climate change in school, what are other people's experiences with this?
The later chapters turn to what we can do and, well, the problem is that I felt like 95% of these chapters were not about things I could do, but things that governments, environmental agencies, and tech companies could do. According to Bill Gates, the major thing the little people like me and you can do is harass our representatives about it. And yes, you should go do that. Making a fuss really can make a difference.
Gates is not really a proponent of less, which is interesting, and will surely invite criticism. He proposes we focus our efforts on turning the energy we use into clean energy, rather than attempting to use less of it. I think this is at least partly because he himself has an enormous carbon footprint, but also because, as he says, the developing countries his foundation has been pouring money into need more energy to get people out of poverty and end disease, not less.
I saw some people criticise this book as being a case of a ridiculously rich guy telling people poorer than him how they should live their lives and what they should eat. I didn't get that sense at all. In fact, Gates seems to see major changes to our personal lifestyles as a last resort, instead focusing on ways governments can harness clean energy alternatives to still deliver us the same amount of electricity.
The book didn't teach me much - except for the bit about geoengineering, which I found quite fascinating - but I sense it's real purpose might be to grab the attention of people who have been complacent up until this point. Here is a recognizable, much-admired man putting his name on the "climate change is a serious issue" bill. Maybe it will make people take note? Or maybe it will only serve to convince skeptics that climate change is a hoax the rich folks have invented to control the rest of us. Who even knows anymore?
Personally, I see little evidence of either. My primary suspicion is that Bill Gates is an insufferable nerd who, having already offered a technological answer to several ills plaguing the world, has now turned his attentions to solving climate change. I strongly doubt he needed the paycheck from this book. He is almost nauseatingly optimistic and self-congratulatory at times (I guess being a billionaire will do that to you), but I at least hope the celebrity of him will encourage more people to take the issues seriously.
For me, this book wasn't as interesting or as enlightening as I'd hoped for. Most of it is like a beginner's guide to climate change, so I suppose it will be helpful to those who have little to no understanding of the issues. It is very accessible and easy to read, I'll give him that. Gates breaks down the science into simple concepts, explains why and how climate change is happening, and goes into all the clean energy alternatives.
That's the first part of the book-- barely more than a rehash of my high school science lessons. I'm curious: my US friend about the same age as me said she never learned about climate change in school, what are other people's experiences with this?
The later chapters turn to what we can do and, well, the problem is that I felt like 95% of these chapters were not about things I could do, but things that governments, environmental agencies, and tech companies could do. According to Bill Gates, the major thing the little people like me and you can do is harass our representatives about it. And yes, you should go do that. Making a fuss really can make a difference.
Gates is not really a proponent of less, which is interesting, and will surely invite criticism. He proposes we focus our efforts on turning the energy we use into clean energy, rather than attempting to use less of it. I think this is at least partly because he himself has an enormous carbon footprint, but also because, as he says, the developing countries his foundation has been pouring money into need more energy to get people out of poverty and end disease, not less.
I saw some people criticise this book as being a case of a ridiculously rich guy telling people poorer than him how they should live their lives and what they should eat. I didn't get that sense at all. In fact, Gates seems to see major changes to our personal lifestyles as a last resort, instead focusing on ways governments can harness clean energy alternatives to still deliver us the same amount of electricity.
The book didn't teach me much - except for the bit about geoengineering, which I found quite fascinating - but I sense it's real purpose might be to grab the attention of people who have been complacent up until this point. Here is a recognizable, much-admired man putting his name on the "climate change is a serious issue" bill. Maybe it will make people take note? Or maybe it will only serve to convince skeptics that climate change is a hoax the rich folks have invented to control the rest of us. Who even knows anymore?
March 9, 2021
I wasn't going to mention the "controversy" over this book, but the more I think about it, the more I think I should. (If you aren't bothered -as you shouldn't be- by these hypocrisy claims and want to skip to my thoughts on the book, I'll note with a line of dashes where it begins.)
Reading all the one star "reviews" for this book almost kept me from reading it. "But he's a hypocrite!", the 'reviewers' claim. And my brain echoed, "But he's a hypocrite! Why should I listen to what he has to say?".
However, even if someone is a hypocrite it doesn't mean we can't learn from them. Most of these one and two star reviews are from people who didn't read the book (and I'll explain how I know that). They just assume Bill's a hypocrite because that's what someone told them, and they repeat it.
How easy to get off the hook. Claim a man who's teaching about climate change is a hypocrite and then you don't have to listen. You can keep doing whatever it is we're all doing to fuck up the climate and no one can blame you because you think one of the people who wrote a book about it is a hypocrite.
Get over yourselves already. You hate the man because he's a billionaire and you want a reason why you don't have to feel responsible for climate change when we all are.
The reason I know many of these people didn't read the book (aside from some saying they didn't) is that in the introduction to this book, Bill addresses the accusations of hypocrisy. Had they bothered to just read the first few pages, they would have seen their allegations are without substance.
Here are some common complaints in these "reviews" that try to convince people not to read a book they themselves haven't read - and the reasons they're full of crap.
1. Claim: He uses private jets and travels internationally.
Fact: Bill Gates has begun using sustainable jet fuel that is made from renewable and alternative raw material in replacement of petroleum based fuels. It is a clean substitute for fossil fuels. Extremely expensive, but the guy's a billionaire and can afford it.
2. Claim: He eats meat.
Fact: Unfortunately, yes, he still does. Occasionally. Mostly he eats plant-based meats. I don't understand why he has to have an occasional burger when he has admitted that you often can't tell the difference between today's plant-based burgers like Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat and the "real thing" (I wouldn't know, I have no desire to try something that looks and tastes like real meat)..... so it must be some psychological need to eat animal meat occasionally? I don't know. Gross. But that's just me. Is it bad for the environment? Yes, which is why he's mostly cut out meat, which is more than a lot of people have done. Give him a break.
3. Claim: He invests in the fossil fuel industry.
Fact: Bill had a small fraction of investments in fossil-fuel companies (the majority in renewables). He realized the reasons he shouldn't own stock in fossil fuel companies and in 2019 divested all of his direct holdings in oil and gas companies (he hadn't invested in coal in several years).
These are the top three reasons I've seen trying to convince people not to read this book, both in articles and reviews. Another is people who allege, without any evidence at all, that climate change isn't real or, if it is, it has nothing to do with humans.
This review isn't the place to address those misinformed people who have gullibly slurped up the lies the fossil fuel industry pours out like thick, oily sludge.
Let's move on to the book.
-------------------------------------
Unlike what some have claimed, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster is not a preachy book. Bill Gates at no time tells people, you have to stop doing this, this, and this! He knows it's unlikely people will ever totally give up meat, or stop driving and flying, or decide we don't like electricity.
Instead of telling us we shouldn't do these things, he tells us why they lead to climate change and how technology might be able to help us make these activities carbon neutral.
As he says, it's not bad in itself to use energy. If we were using clean, renewable energy, we could use ten, fifteen, one hundred times as much and it wouldn't be a problem.
The key is getting to a place where we have zero greenhouse gas emissions so that we don't continue to heat up the atmosphere. We are on the road to disaster if we don't change the way we do things. Climate scientists know this but the fossil fuel industry plays the tobacco industry's game of spreading misinformation and doubt among the public.
If we can be convinced that there's uncertainty among scientists, we can easily dismiss them. Oh, look at that! There's a doctor smoking a cigarette! It must not be bad for us after all!
No matter what we want to believe, facts are facts. Bill Gates outlines what we can expect to happen by mid-century and by end-of-this-century if we don't get to zero emissions within the near future.
He breaks everything down into easy-to-understand language. Mr. Gates explains how things like electricity and fertilizer work. Why fossil fuels are so cheap. What exactly happens in the atmosphere as we release greenhouse gases into it. What is the Green Premium. What are the limits of solar and wind energy, and also where and how we can get the most from them. Why nuclear energy isn't as bad as many fear it is. And so much more.
After telling some of what we can expect to see from climate change, he goes through the top culprits of greenhouse gases, explaining how they work and how we might be able to make them carbon neutral in the near future.
He acknowledges it's pretty much impossible to expect humans to not only stop using so much energy but also to not increase our demand for it. Energy use itself is not a problem though, if we can get it to zero emissions.
I enjoyed learning more about how we might employ direct capture and point capture technology to remove greenhouse gases from the environment or even directly from waste before it is released into the atmosphere.
I personally do not share Mr. Gates' optimism that governments of the world will suddenly start working together and corporations will get cleaner and we'll come up with new innovations and technology in time to avert disaster. I hope we do.... but I'm just not all that optimistic.
There's a lot of clear and interesting information in this book and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn about the basics of climate change. Whether or not you're a fan of Bill Gates, knowledge is knowledge and you don't have to like the messenger. Or Windows [shudder].
My only complaints, keeping this from receiving 5 stars, are: there is a lot of repetition (the last two chapters were boring - reiterating material that was already discussed), and Mr Gates is constantly informing us of all the admirable things he does. It's good he invests in all these clean energy companies and technologies, and provides vaccines for children in developing countries, etc. I wish more rich people would try to give back to the world and help as many people as the Gates do. But it got tedious hearing about it.
This book is well worth reading in spite of that. Don't let the naysayers keep you from learning.
Reading all the one star "reviews" for this book almost kept me from reading it. "But he's a hypocrite!", the 'reviewers' claim. And my brain echoed, "But he's a hypocrite! Why should I listen to what he has to say?".
However, even if someone is a hypocrite it doesn't mean we can't learn from them. Most of these one and two star reviews are from people who didn't read the book (and I'll explain how I know that). They just assume Bill's a hypocrite because that's what someone told them, and they repeat it.
How easy to get off the hook. Claim a man who's teaching about climate change is a hypocrite and then you don't have to listen. You can keep doing whatever it is we're all doing to fuck up the climate and no one can blame you because you think one of the people who wrote a book about it is a hypocrite.
Get over yourselves already. You hate the man because he's a billionaire and you want a reason why you don't have to feel responsible for climate change when we all are.
The reason I know many of these people didn't read the book (aside from some saying they didn't) is that in the introduction to this book, Bill addresses the accusations of hypocrisy. Had they bothered to just read the first few pages, they would have seen their allegations are without substance.
Here are some common complaints in these "reviews" that try to convince people not to read a book they themselves haven't read - and the reasons they're full of crap.
1. Claim: He uses private jets and travels internationally.
Fact: Bill Gates has begun using sustainable jet fuel that is made from renewable and alternative raw material in replacement of petroleum based fuels. It is a clean substitute for fossil fuels. Extremely expensive, but the guy's a billionaire and can afford it.
2. Claim: He eats meat.
Fact: Unfortunately, yes, he still does. Occasionally. Mostly he eats plant-based meats. I don't understand why he has to have an occasional burger when he has admitted that you often can't tell the difference between today's plant-based burgers like Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat and the "real thing" (I wouldn't know, I have no desire to try something that looks and tastes like real meat)..... so it must be some psychological need to eat animal meat occasionally? I don't know. Gross. But that's just me. Is it bad for the environment? Yes, which is why he's mostly cut out meat, which is more than a lot of people have done. Give him a break.
3. Claim: He invests in the fossil fuel industry.
Fact: Bill had a small fraction of investments in fossil-fuel companies (the majority in renewables). He realized the reasons he shouldn't own stock in fossil fuel companies and in 2019 divested all of his direct holdings in oil and gas companies (he hadn't invested in coal in several years).
These are the top three reasons I've seen trying to convince people not to read this book, both in articles and reviews. Another is people who allege, without any evidence at all, that climate change isn't real or, if it is, it has nothing to do with humans.
This review isn't the place to address those misinformed people who have gullibly slurped up the lies the fossil fuel industry pours out like thick, oily sludge.
Let's move on to the book.
-------------------------------------
Unlike what some have claimed, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster is not a preachy book. Bill Gates at no time tells people, you have to stop doing this, this, and this! He knows it's unlikely people will ever totally give up meat, or stop driving and flying, or decide we don't like electricity.
Instead of telling us we shouldn't do these things, he tells us why they lead to climate change and how technology might be able to help us make these activities carbon neutral.
As he says, it's not bad in itself to use energy. If we were using clean, renewable energy, we could use ten, fifteen, one hundred times as much and it wouldn't be a problem.
The key is getting to a place where we have zero greenhouse gas emissions so that we don't continue to heat up the atmosphere. We are on the road to disaster if we don't change the way we do things. Climate scientists know this but the fossil fuel industry plays the tobacco industry's game of spreading misinformation and doubt among the public.
If we can be convinced that there's uncertainty among scientists, we can easily dismiss them. Oh, look at that! There's a doctor smoking a cigarette! It must not be bad for us after all!
No matter what we want to believe, facts are facts. Bill Gates outlines what we can expect to happen by mid-century and by end-of-this-century if we don't get to zero emissions within the near future.
He breaks everything down into easy-to-understand language. Mr. Gates explains how things like electricity and fertilizer work. Why fossil fuels are so cheap. What exactly happens in the atmosphere as we release greenhouse gases into it. What is the Green Premium. What are the limits of solar and wind energy, and also where and how we can get the most from them. Why nuclear energy isn't as bad as many fear it is. And so much more.
After telling some of what we can expect to see from climate change, he goes through the top culprits of greenhouse gases, explaining how they work and how we might be able to make them carbon neutral in the near future.
He acknowledges it's pretty much impossible to expect humans to not only stop using so much energy but also to not increase our demand for it. Energy use itself is not a problem though, if we can get it to zero emissions.
I enjoyed learning more about how we might employ direct capture and point capture technology to remove greenhouse gases from the environment or even directly from waste before it is released into the atmosphere.
I personally do not share Mr. Gates' optimism that governments of the world will suddenly start working together and corporations will get cleaner and we'll come up with new innovations and technology in time to avert disaster. I hope we do.... but I'm just not all that optimistic.
There's a lot of clear and interesting information in this book and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn about the basics of climate change. Whether or not you're a fan of Bill Gates, knowledge is knowledge and you don't have to like the messenger. Or Windows [shudder].
My only complaints, keeping this from receiving 5 stars, are: there is a lot of repetition (the last two chapters were boring - reiterating material that was already discussed), and Mr Gates is constantly informing us of all the admirable things he does. It's good he invests in all these clean energy companies and technologies, and provides vaccines for children in developing countries, etc. I wish more rich people would try to give back to the world and help as many people as the Gates do. But it got tedious hearing about it.
This book is well worth reading in spite of that. Don't let the naysayers keep you from learning.
Shelved as 'no-thanks'
January 16, 2020bill gates is like the richest man in the world, he could probably singlehandedly pay to fix climate change and still be richer than most people, he does not need to write a book telling us that we’re the problem. especially when the real outcome of this book will be him profiting from the sales and getting richer and still not putting his money where is mouth is to fix shit. i’d rather read stuff like this from people who aren’t literal billionaires who could do a lot to save the planet if they just stopped hoarding so much wealth for status reasons. so fuck this book. read the one by extinction rebellion or something instead.
January 2, 2023
Summary
Do you think that climate change is a hoax created by billionaires to control developing countries? How can a person with a high carbon footprint like Bill Gates, who took his own private jet ironically for the Paris summit, talk about climate change? Bill Gates tries to answer many controversial questions like these and tries to give us solutions for avoiding a climate disaster through this book.
What I learned from this book
1) Nature’s defense against climate change
Nature has its own defense mechanisms against climate change. Human interference is altering this balance of the ecosystem and is causing devastating changes in our climate. The author is giving a good example of mangroves forests. He says that investing in expanding nature's defense mechanism like planting more mangroves is better than expensive, impractical methods, which are complicated to implement.
2) How quickly should we reach the zero-emissions?
The author tells us the importance of net-zero emissions and why we should try harder to attain zero emissions to protect our environment.
3) Climate change and pandemic
When Coronavirus struck us as a massive pandemic, and when the world came to a standstill, there was a 5% reduction in carbon emission. But this is only a temporary reduction in emission. The author tells us that if we keep ignoring the warning signs of climate change, we all will land up in a more terrible situation than any pandemic.
My favourite three lines from this book
What I didn’t like in this book
Bill Gates clearly enlists measures that everyone should do to prevent climate change. The problem with his writing here is that he emphasizes the actions that government can implement instead of individuals.
He tells us the importance of global cooperation like the Paris summit. His nature is to take the big picture first and then to try hard to solve it.
I think that there is nothing wrong with Gates's approach of considering the big picture first. In fact, it is one of the best ways to tackle the problem. The problem arises when he gives significantly less importance to the smaller issues, which are also crucial as they have the propensity to become a bigger problem if we ignore them.
I expected some special announcements or plans the author himself will implement to prevent climate change in this book. But sadly, I didn't see any such thing. But let's hope that he believes more in action than words and will talk about it after successfully implementing it.
Rating
3/5 This book indeed gave me some new information about climate change but not to the level I expected. I saw many extremely negative reviews about this book, especially as the author garnered a lot of negative attention after the multiple conspiracy theories involving him. I don't think it is a terrible book like most of them are pointing out. I can't call it an excellent book either. It will be a good read if you haven't read any book about climate change.
Do you think that climate change is a hoax created by billionaires to control developing countries? How can a person with a high carbon footprint like Bill Gates, who took his own private jet ironically for the Paris summit, talk about climate change? Bill Gates tries to answer many controversial questions like these and tries to give us solutions for avoiding a climate disaster through this book.
What I learned from this book
1) Nature’s defense against climate change
Nature has its own defense mechanisms against climate change. Human interference is altering this balance of the ecosystem and is causing devastating changes in our climate. The author is giving a good example of mangroves forests. He says that investing in expanding nature's defense mechanism like planting more mangroves is better than expensive, impractical methods, which are complicated to implement.
"Mangroves are short trees that grow on coastlines, having adapted to life in saltwater. They reduce storm surges, prevent coastal flooding and protect fish habitats. All told, mangroves help to reduce the world from 80 billion-dollar losses from floods, and they save billions more in other ways. Planting mangroves is much cheaper than building breakwaters, and the trees also improve the water quality. Very great investment."
2) How quickly should we reach the zero-emissions?
The author tells us the importance of net-zero emissions and why we should try harder to attain zero emissions to protect our environment.
“How quickly do we need to get to zero? Science tells us that in order to avoid a climate catastrophe, rich countries should reach net-zero emissions by 2050. You've probably heard people say we can decarbonize deeply even sooner—by 2030."
3) Climate change and pandemic
When Coronavirus struck us as a massive pandemic, and when the world came to a standstill, there was a 5% reduction in carbon emission. But this is only a temporary reduction in emission. The author tells us that if we keep ignoring the warning signs of climate change, we all will land up in a more terrible situation than any pandemic.
"We are at the same point today with climate change as we were several years ago with pandemics. Health experts were telling us that a massive outbreak was virtually inevitable. Despite their warnings, the world didn't do enough to prepare and suddenly had to scramble to make up the lost time. We should not make the same mistake with climate change.
In other words, by mid-century, climate change could be just as deadly as COVID-19, and by 2100 it could be five times as deadly."
My favourite three lines from this book
“There are two numbers you need to know about climate change. The first is 51 billion. The other is zero. Fifty-one billion is how many tons of greenhouse gases the world typically adds to the atmosphere every year.”
"Remember that we need to find solutions for all five activities that emissions come from: making things, plugging in, growing things, getting around, and keeping cool and warm."
“The countries that build great zero-carbon companies and industries will be the ones that lead the global economy in the coming decades.”
What I didn’t like in this book
Bill Gates clearly enlists measures that everyone should do to prevent climate change. The problem with his writing here is that he emphasizes the actions that government can implement instead of individuals.
He tells us the importance of global cooperation like the Paris summit. His nature is to take the big picture first and then to try hard to solve it.
“I try to get the big picture first because that gives me the context to understand the new information. I am also more likely to remember it. ”
I think that there is nothing wrong with Gates's approach of considering the big picture first. In fact, it is one of the best ways to tackle the problem. The problem arises when he gives significantly less importance to the smaller issues, which are also crucial as they have the propensity to become a bigger problem if we ignore them.
I expected some special announcements or plans the author himself will implement to prevent climate change in this book. But sadly, I didn't see any such thing. But let's hope that he believes more in action than words and will talk about it after successfully implementing it.
Rating
3/5 This book indeed gave me some new information about climate change but not to the level I expected. I saw many extremely negative reviews about this book, especially as the author garnered a lot of negative attention after the multiple conspiracy theories involving him. I don't think it is a terrible book like most of them are pointing out. I can't call it an excellent book either. It will be a good read if you haven't read any book about climate change.
February 20, 2021
This just in: tech billionaire responsible for some of the worst pollution and disaster on this planet shares his wisdom about saving us from pollution and disaster on this planet while flying around in one of his multiple private jets to one of his mansions..
Do you all realize how much money this man has? Don't give him more by promoting and lifting up this garbage book. Spend your time reading and learning about grassroots radical environmental work instead of billionaires telling individuals they can stop climate change by using less tap water or whatever.
I think a great way to avoid FURTHER climate disaster (because we're already in the 6th extinction) is to make it impossible for billionaires to exist.
Do you all realize how much money this man has? Don't give him more by promoting and lifting up this garbage book. Spend your time reading and learning about grassroots radical environmental work instead of billionaires telling individuals they can stop climate change by using less tap water or whatever.
I think a great way to avoid FURTHER climate disaster (because we're already in the 6th extinction) is to make it impossible for billionaires to exist.
February 20, 2021
This...this...creature owns a mansion worth 120,000,000$, FOUR private jets (he boarded one of them to fly to Paris in order to attend the climate change summit in 2015), FIVE helicopters, SIX Porches, TWO BMWs, FOUR Mercedes and probably a big fuck-off yacht the size of a coral atoll.
BUT Bill says we're the ones who're supposed to quit the following:
1. going on international holidays,
2. driving a car equipped with a petrol engine,
3. using AC,
4. living in a house with more than 4 rooms,
5. etc.
Laugh? Come on, Bill. Shut your mouth.
BUT Bill says we're the ones who're supposed to quit the following:
1. going on international holidays,
2. driving a car equipped with a petrol engine,
3. using AC,
4. living in a house with more than 4 rooms,
5. etc.
Laugh? Come on, Bill. Shut your mouth.
February 27, 2021
Bill Gates has great motives here and a high degree of personal integrity and honesty, I'll give him that.
He wrote this book because he felt that it needed to be written and that it could do some good in the world. Though in reality, this is not a book for you or for me. It is not a book about how we can tackle climate change. It is a book about how Gates thinks governments should act to tackle it and how rich people should tackle it. Our actions are not important enough. And, naturally, I take a few issues with his viewpoint, a viewpoint that perceives the world from a rich man’s perspective and ignores the significance of the everyday person.
Gates does not believe in half measures. He believes the only way to deal with the issue is to reach Carbon Zero across all nations. As such, he does not advocate for methods to reduce energy consumption (and thus less carbon) but instead proposes that the world (namely the superpowers) should invest in clean energy, technology and plant-based agriculture as alternatives for what we already use. He does not propose a change in human behaviour, greed or the distribution of resources, but instead insists that we can continue as we are but in a cleaner more efficient way.
In this, there is an almost complete disregard for individual agency. We cannot rely on governments to do everything. He believes the only way you and I can affect change is to lobby the powers that be. We must annoy and harass our governments and representatives to act. Changing our own lives and attempting to better our behaviour and emissions is the last, and least effective, resort. Our individual actions are not important enough by this logic to make any significant difference in the world. We must trust in the government and attempt to direct them onto a more environmentally friendly path.
Every large-scale movement in history has occurred because of the power of individual activists who inspired their followers, whether directly or indirectly, to change themselves and attempt to reform others and the world. This is how true change occurs. Mahatma Ghandi, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr, Greta Thunberg are examples of people who worked towards their respective causes without the support of higher powers. Yes, they lobbied governments, but they understood that everyone must change too. We cannot simply rely on the government to put the best interests of the people and the environment above their own self-interest (and wealth.)
Gates attempts to present a case that environmentally friendly investments are money lucrative; he is actively trying to persuade people that this is the future. And he may be right, but it is not enough.
I appreciate the fact, and his recognition, that he is not perfect. Gates knows that he has a massive carbon footprint. He is aware that he, in the past, had invested in fossil fuels. But he wants to learn and grow and become a better person in order to help the world. He is not claiming to be an environmental saint, just a man who has used his wealth to try to understand (and perhaps even) tackle climate change. But I feel that Bill Gates misses a crucial point entirely in this regard.
We are all in this mess together. We all need to act on an individual basis to change it. And this is something Gates does not give nearly enough weight.
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree.
__________________________________
He wrote this book because he felt that it needed to be written and that it could do some good in the world. Though in reality, this is not a book for you or for me. It is not a book about how we can tackle climate change. It is a book about how Gates thinks governments should act to tackle it and how rich people should tackle it. Our actions are not important enough. And, naturally, I take a few issues with his viewpoint, a viewpoint that perceives the world from a rich man’s perspective and ignores the significance of the everyday person.
Gates does not believe in half measures. He believes the only way to deal with the issue is to reach Carbon Zero across all nations. As such, he does not advocate for methods to reduce energy consumption (and thus less carbon) but instead proposes that the world (namely the superpowers) should invest in clean energy, technology and plant-based agriculture as alternatives for what we already use. He does not propose a change in human behaviour, greed or the distribution of resources, but instead insists that we can continue as we are but in a cleaner more efficient way.
In this, there is an almost complete disregard for individual agency. We cannot rely on governments to do everything. He believes the only way you and I can affect change is to lobby the powers that be. We must annoy and harass our governments and representatives to act. Changing our own lives and attempting to better our behaviour and emissions is the last, and least effective, resort. Our individual actions are not important enough by this logic to make any significant difference in the world. We must trust in the government and attempt to direct them onto a more environmentally friendly path.
Every large-scale movement in history has occurred because of the power of individual activists who inspired their followers, whether directly or indirectly, to change themselves and attempt to reform others and the world. This is how true change occurs. Mahatma Ghandi, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr, Greta Thunberg are examples of people who worked towards their respective causes without the support of higher powers. Yes, they lobbied governments, but they understood that everyone must change too. We cannot simply rely on the government to put the best interests of the people and the environment above their own self-interest (and wealth.)
Gates attempts to present a case that environmentally friendly investments are money lucrative; he is actively trying to persuade people that this is the future. And he may be right, but it is not enough.
I appreciate the fact, and his recognition, that he is not perfect. Gates knows that he has a massive carbon footprint. He is aware that he, in the past, had invested in fossil fuels. But he wants to learn and grow and become a better person in order to help the world. He is not claiming to be an environmental saint, just a man who has used his wealth to try to understand (and perhaps even) tackle climate change. But I feel that Bill Gates misses a crucial point entirely in this regard.
We are all in this mess together. We all need to act on an individual basis to change it. And this is something Gates does not give nearly enough weight.
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree.
__________________________________
February 16, 2021
In America, we love our billionaires. We love when they "innovate," we love when they offer "bold solutions" to our greatest challenges. After all, they've beat the game. Their riches are proof of their cunning & genius.
It follows then, that we love when they write books. There's nothing in this you haven't heard before: five dollar buzz words, lots of talk of bringing things to market, grand plans for the entire world only a true monopolist could conjure. The problem with Mr. Gates' book, as is the problem with most of these ghost-written airport shelf-fillers backed by massive PR campaigns, is that unfettered American capitalism is a foregone conclusion. There's no solution provided that doesn't allow the already wealthy to squeeze out even more profit. Fighting climate change is just another business venture, poised to line already stuffed pockets. One of the world's richest men telling us we can avert climate change by preserving the perverted economic system that got us here? Forgive my disbelief.
As with most of our billionaires, Mr. Gates should stick to absorbing other companies and accepting praise. The rest of us will continue fighting against these robber barons, who seem intent on austerity for the rabble while sitting comfortably in ivory towers.
It follows then, that we love when they write books. There's nothing in this you haven't heard before: five dollar buzz words, lots of talk of bringing things to market, grand plans for the entire world only a true monopolist could conjure. The problem with Mr. Gates' book, as is the problem with most of these ghost-written airport shelf-fillers backed by massive PR campaigns, is that unfettered American capitalism is a foregone conclusion. There's no solution provided that doesn't allow the already wealthy to squeeze out even more profit. Fighting climate change is just another business venture, poised to line already stuffed pockets. One of the world's richest men telling us we can avert climate change by preserving the perverted economic system that got us here? Forgive my disbelief.
As with most of our billionaires, Mr. Gates should stick to absorbing other companies and accepting praise. The rest of us will continue fighting against these robber barons, who seem intent on austerity for the rabble while sitting comfortably in ivory towers.
February 18, 2021
Highly readable, and extremely practical, Gates sorts out the mess of data in concise terms without making the information feel like too much. Initially disconcerting, the first part of the book lays out the problem by merging hard facts with snapshots of possible futures. But then the book turns around and lays out exactly what we can and need to do, and the challenges we face in the process. And to be clear, this isn't individual fixes. The focus is on widespread policy and economics. The end result is a jump start that alerts you, but also kicks you into gear. We all need to read this book, and get fired up before the Earth itself sets fire.
February 29, 2024
Bill Gates is the biggest charlatan of all. The guy who's been investing in private-jet companies - and owns four private jets himself - tells you to eat synthetic meat and edible insects, instead of real meat, to battle climate change.
June 3, 2021
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster is an interesting and well-informed look at the current state of our ever-increasing energy consumption and the way it affects climate change. In light of that information, Gates proposes ideas of how we can change the way we produce and consume energy so that we can get down to zero carbon dioxide emissions while not making ourselves worse off in the process. This is a very industry-focused book as opposed to discussing what people can do on an individual level to combat climate change (as some may expect it to be), however, it is a very enlightening and approachable read.
Check out my review on Booktube. Please note that it's a review of the book and not a dissection of Bill Gates as a human being.
Check out my review on Booktube. Please note that it's a review of the book and not a dissection of Bill Gates as a human being.
March 26, 2021
”To stop global warming and avoid the worst effects of climate change, humans need to stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
This sounds difficult, because it will be. The world has never done anything quite this big. Every country will need to change its ways, because virtually every activity in modern life--growing things, making things, getting around from place to place--involves releasing greenhouse gases.
If nothing else changes, the world will keep producing greenhouse gases, climate change will keep getting worse, and the impact on humans will in all likelihood be catastrophic.”
The moment I became politically cognizant was about the same time I started to think about the ongoing health of the little blue planet I called home. President Jimmy Carter was the first president I actively supported; I was nine years old and soon discovered that nearly every person I knew, family, friends, and nodding acquaintances, were Republicans, so my support for Carter had to be kept a carefully guarded secret. I didn’t need to give people more reason to think I was...weird. They already had plenty of reasons to think there was something odd about me because of how much time I spent reading books. When Carter won the election, shocking the vast numbers of Republicans in my life, I realized that there were a lot of like-minded people out there, beyond the small pond I’d been spawned in.
There was hope.
But that is just backstory. When I first realized I was an environmentalist was when President Ronald Reagan had the solar panels, installed by Carter, removed from the White House. I was frankly shocked. It was, in retrospect, a relatively small thing, but it sent a message of disdain to those of us who cared about the future of clean air, clean water, and embracing our responsibility for being good stewards to our planet. Interestingly enough one of those thirty-two solar panels now resides in the Smithsonian and another is in a science museum in Dezhou, China.
The politicalized nature of our society became a much starker reality in recent years when an irresponsible president proceeded to do everything he could to destroy decades of progressive environmental policy. Bill Gates does his level best to keep this book nonpolitical, but he does mention how difficult it is to achieve progress when innovative research is greenlighted by one administration only to be defunded four or eight years later.
One step forward, two steps back.
The purpose of this book is to introduce the extent of our environmental problems and present a viable, flexible plan as to how to save our planet from climate disaster.
Gates is a fan of the book Weather for Dummies, which is actually a fantastic intro to those of us who are not weather experts, and that book may have been a model for the way he wanted to present the facts in this book. So, those people who are well versed with the issues of climate change will probably not find a lot of new information here, (although for me the section on geoengineering was fascinating), because you are not the target audience. You are already on board, or you decided a long time ago that climate change is fake news, and no mountain of evidence to the contrary will change your mind. To me, this book is directed towards our younger generations, millennials and zoomers. They are the generations who will bear the brunt of our evolving environmental disasters, and they are the ones who will ultimately have to flock in large numbers to the polls every two years, not just every four years, to make sure that environmentally progressive representatives are elected at all levels of our government.
That’s not to say that Mr./ Ms. Savvy Environmentalists will not enjoy the book or benefit from reading/listening to the way that Gates formulates his arguments. I’m always working on refining my presentation skills to those who are ambivalent and nonbelievers. I even still try, with bloodied forehead, to convince those who are willfully embracing ignorance because of their right of center political affiliation. Whenever I want to see my brother, who manages our family farm, start frothing at the mouth, I mention any public policy with Green in the title. He isn’t interested in any science that will force him to change his business practices. He wants the past to remain the present and continue into the future, regardless of whether it is irresponsible for the planet. So instead of embracing responsible innovation now, he would rather deny that climate change even exists. He considered wearing a mask during the pandemic an infringement of his riiaaghts, but I have a sneaking suspicion he might have been afraid of missing the pungent smell of cattle flatulence.
He loves the smell of methane in the morning.
It’s hard to believe that something like the future of our planet could be a political issue, but then who would have believed that a pandemic could become a political issue. Our country was nearly evenly divided down party lines on whether COVID was a real threat. The inability of our country to unite against a common enemy, a vicious virus, cost thousands of lives. This shows the size of the boulder that has to be moved uphill, and all of us must channel our inner Sisyphus to have any hopes of uniting our country, our world, in the fight for our planet. We have to keep talking. We have to keep convincing people that this threat is already changing our climate, and we ignore the science at our peril. By the time a majority of people start to feel the effects of severe cold (Hey Texas, you got a small taste just a few weeks ago), extreme heat, drought, flooding, and the devastation of superstorms, it will be too late. I say we keep all our post apocalyptic B movies on the SyFy Channel and start to make real changes for getting our emissions down to zero.
I’ve noticed there are a number of negative reviews on GR that seem to focus on Bill Gates the rich a$$hole instead of Bill Gates the climate expert and writer. I guess I’ve always been fairly neutral about Gates. I never was caught up in the whole Gates vs. Jobs rivalries. I am one of those philistines who used PCs and Macs in equal measure. I’ve never been a big fan of rich people in general because I don’t really believe in the concept of billionaires or even millionaires, and I would rather dissolve big corporations and allow small businesses to thrive again, but that is a discussion outside the scope of this review. So, I can dislike the concept of billionaires without despising the man behind the wealth. In the case of this book, any animosity that someone feels about Bill Gates the successful businessman is certainly misplaced against Bill Gates the environmentalist. The sincerity of his concern for climate change and his willingness to do everything he can to move the needle of public understanding regarding this critical issue is readily apparent throughout the book.
This book is about climate change issues, not about Bill Gates.
”As for the ideas you can’t support, you may feel compelled to speak out, and that’s understandable. But I hope you’ll spend more time and energy supporting whatever you’re in favor of than opposing what you’re against.” This quote can be applied to any aspect of your life. I’m not sure when we became a nation of grumbling pessimists, but it’s no way to live. I encounter people all the time who are consumed about what they didn’t like about a book or a movie and give no consideration to what they liked about them. They are equally consumed about what has gone wrong with their lives and completely disregard what is right about their lives. They write one star reviews of books that they haven’t even read to display their caustic wit for the entertainment of the witless. *Sigh* I may have just revealed one of my pet peeves.
As I was writing this review, one of the things that became clear to me was how much climate change is entwined with every challenge we face.
Gates has no illusions about how hard it will be for the world to move from pumping 51 billion tons of global emissions into the atmosphere to pumping zero. We have to shoot for zero because that is the only way to ensure sustainability for human endeavor on this blue planet for eons to come. We have to be leaders on this important issue or we will be the losers. As Europe becomes more focused on green issues and even China with their electric bus fleets shows a willingness to hopefully take reducing future emissions seriously, we could find ourselves left behind. They will be the innovators while we will continue to crumble under the weight of our own irresponsible behavior.
I was sent a free copy of this book by the office of Bill Gates in exchange for an honest review.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten and an Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/jeffreykeeten/
This sounds difficult, because it will be. The world has never done anything quite this big. Every country will need to change its ways, because virtually every activity in modern life--growing things, making things, getting around from place to place--involves releasing greenhouse gases.
If nothing else changes, the world will keep producing greenhouse gases, climate change will keep getting worse, and the impact on humans will in all likelihood be catastrophic.”
The moment I became politically cognizant was about the same time I started to think about the ongoing health of the little blue planet I called home. President Jimmy Carter was the first president I actively supported; I was nine years old and soon discovered that nearly every person I knew, family, friends, and nodding acquaintances, were Republicans, so my support for Carter had to be kept a carefully guarded secret. I didn’t need to give people more reason to think I was...weird. They already had plenty of reasons to think there was something odd about me because of how much time I spent reading books. When Carter won the election, shocking the vast numbers of Republicans in my life, I realized that there were a lot of like-minded people out there, beyond the small pond I’d been spawned in.
There was hope.
But that is just backstory. When I first realized I was an environmentalist was when President Ronald Reagan had the solar panels, installed by Carter, removed from the White House. I was frankly shocked. It was, in retrospect, a relatively small thing, but it sent a message of disdain to those of us who cared about the future of clean air, clean water, and embracing our responsibility for being good stewards to our planet. Interestingly enough one of those thirty-two solar panels now resides in the Smithsonian and another is in a science museum in Dezhou, China.
The politicalized nature of our society became a much starker reality in recent years when an irresponsible president proceeded to do everything he could to destroy decades of progressive environmental policy. Bill Gates does his level best to keep this book nonpolitical, but he does mention how difficult it is to achieve progress when innovative research is greenlighted by one administration only to be defunded four or eight years later.
One step forward, two steps back.
The purpose of this book is to introduce the extent of our environmental problems and present a viable, flexible plan as to how to save our planet from climate disaster.
Gates is a fan of the book Weather for Dummies, which is actually a fantastic intro to those of us who are not weather experts, and that book may have been a model for the way he wanted to present the facts in this book. So, those people who are well versed with the issues of climate change will probably not find a lot of new information here, (although for me the section on geoengineering was fascinating), because you are not the target audience. You are already on board, or you decided a long time ago that climate change is fake news, and no mountain of evidence to the contrary will change your mind. To me, this book is directed towards our younger generations, millennials and zoomers. They are the generations who will bear the brunt of our evolving environmental disasters, and they are the ones who will ultimately have to flock in large numbers to the polls every two years, not just every four years, to make sure that environmentally progressive representatives are elected at all levels of our government.
That’s not to say that Mr./ Ms. Savvy Environmentalists will not enjoy the book or benefit from reading/listening to the way that Gates formulates his arguments. I’m always working on refining my presentation skills to those who are ambivalent and nonbelievers. I even still try, with bloodied forehead, to convince those who are willfully embracing ignorance because of their right of center political affiliation. Whenever I want to see my brother, who manages our family farm, start frothing at the mouth, I mention any public policy with Green in the title. He isn’t interested in any science that will force him to change his business practices. He wants the past to remain the present and continue into the future, regardless of whether it is irresponsible for the planet. So instead of embracing responsible innovation now, he would rather deny that climate change even exists. He considered wearing a mask during the pandemic an infringement of his riiaaghts, but I have a sneaking suspicion he might have been afraid of missing the pungent smell of cattle flatulence.
He loves the smell of methane in the morning.
It’s hard to believe that something like the future of our planet could be a political issue, but then who would have believed that a pandemic could become a political issue. Our country was nearly evenly divided down party lines on whether COVID was a real threat. The inability of our country to unite against a common enemy, a vicious virus, cost thousands of lives. This shows the size of the boulder that has to be moved uphill, and all of us must channel our inner Sisyphus to have any hopes of uniting our country, our world, in the fight for our planet. We have to keep talking. We have to keep convincing people that this threat is already changing our climate, and we ignore the science at our peril. By the time a majority of people start to feel the effects of severe cold (Hey Texas, you got a small taste just a few weeks ago), extreme heat, drought, flooding, and the devastation of superstorms, it will be too late. I say we keep all our post apocalyptic B movies on the SyFy Channel and start to make real changes for getting our emissions down to zero.
I’ve noticed there are a number of negative reviews on GR that seem to focus on Bill Gates the rich a$$hole instead of Bill Gates the climate expert and writer. I guess I’ve always been fairly neutral about Gates. I never was caught up in the whole Gates vs. Jobs rivalries. I am one of those philistines who used PCs and Macs in equal measure. I’ve never been a big fan of rich people in general because I don’t really believe in the concept of billionaires or even millionaires, and I would rather dissolve big corporations and allow small businesses to thrive again, but that is a discussion outside the scope of this review. So, I can dislike the concept of billionaires without despising the man behind the wealth. In the case of this book, any animosity that someone feels about Bill Gates the successful businessman is certainly misplaced against Bill Gates the environmentalist. The sincerity of his concern for climate change and his willingness to do everything he can to move the needle of public understanding regarding this critical issue is readily apparent throughout the book.
This book is about climate change issues, not about Bill Gates.
”As for the ideas you can’t support, you may feel compelled to speak out, and that’s understandable. But I hope you’ll spend more time and energy supporting whatever you’re in favor of than opposing what you’re against.” This quote can be applied to any aspect of your life. I’m not sure when we became a nation of grumbling pessimists, but it’s no way to live. I encounter people all the time who are consumed about what they didn’t like about a book or a movie and give no consideration to what they liked about them. They are equally consumed about what has gone wrong with their lives and completely disregard what is right about their lives. They write one star reviews of books that they haven’t even read to display their caustic wit for the entertainment of the witless. *Sigh* I may have just revealed one of my pet peeves.
As I was writing this review, one of the things that became clear to me was how much climate change is entwined with every challenge we face.
Gates has no illusions about how hard it will be for the world to move from pumping 51 billion tons of global emissions into the atmosphere to pumping zero. We have to shoot for zero because that is the only way to ensure sustainability for human endeavor on this blue planet for eons to come. We have to be leaders on this important issue or we will be the losers. As Europe becomes more focused on green issues and even China with their electric bus fleets shows a willingness to hopefully take reducing future emissions seriously, we could find ourselves left behind. They will be the innovators while we will continue to crumble under the weight of our own irresponsible behavior.
I was sent a free copy of this book by the office of Bill Gates in exchange for an honest review.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten and an Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/jeffreykeeten/
March 3, 2024
A great, informative, optimistic, and ambitious plan and story. Bill Gates does an incredible job of explaining the extent of the climate disaster we are heading to, but where we are, what we can do, and what we must do. Everything is well explained and easy to follow.
The other thing I really like is when Bill Gates shows he really knows his that readers are thinking by speaking directly. He will go from giving an explanation, then write, "I know it easy for a rich man like me to tell everyone what yo do." These personal touches and his sense of humour (especially in the agriculture chapter) make the facts easy to digest and remember.
Nothing is sugar-coated in this book. The fight before us is laid out, and nothing will be easy or cheap or even quick, but everything needs to be done.
This is a great book for people like me who only know (or thought I knew) the basics of climate change. There are so many things side effects of global warming that I did not even think about. On top of that, the very simple reason for using fossil fuels and the consequences of using them. The other thing I liked about the book is that Bill doesn't just say this is what should be done but why it is not done. Be it because of technology or financial limitations.
The other thing I really like is when Bill Gates shows he really knows his that readers are thinking by speaking directly. He will go from giving an explanation, then write, "I know it easy for a rich man like me to tell everyone what yo do." These personal touches and his sense of humour (especially in the agriculture chapter) make the facts easy to digest and remember.
Nothing is sugar-coated in this book. The fight before us is laid out, and nothing will be easy or cheap or even quick, but everything needs to be done.
This is a great book for people like me who only know (or thought I knew) the basics of climate change. There are so many things side effects of global warming that I did not even think about. On top of that, the very simple reason for using fossil fuels and the consequences of using them. The other thing I liked about the book is that Bill doesn't just say this is what should be done but why it is not done. Be it because of technology or financial limitations.
February 17, 2021
Audiobook... read by Bill Gates and Will Wheaton
As we moved towards a zero carbon future....
we’re still allowed to eat toast.
There are some things we ( little us) can do to help:
.... conserve water
.... reduce, reuse, recycle
.... choose sustainable
....plant a tree....
....but....
"we have every reason to worry"!!!
With International cooperation and education....
Bill Gates is still hopeful we can save the planet. 🌍
As we moved towards a zero carbon future....
we’re still allowed to eat toast.
There are some things we ( little us) can do to help:
.... conserve water
.... reduce, reuse, recycle
.... choose sustainable
....plant a tree....
....but....
"we have every reason to worry"!!!
With International cooperation and education....
Bill Gates is still hopeful we can save the planet. 🌍
January 29, 2021
Billionaires are the leading cause of climate change.
January 26, 2021
Fascist. Like ever. Disgusting human being.
January 26, 2021
More fiction to drive Gates fortune to new heights.
January 15, 2024
Liberal Crisis Management 101…
Preamble:
--In reading/reviewing this book, I tried to stay focused on:
i) How is Gates framing the causes of the crisis (esp. his omissions: “capitalism” is unnamed in this book), and how does this affect his solutions? What tools and traps does he provide?
ii) What are the incentives of those in Gates’ position? What are their potentials, limitations, and contradictions to enacting Gates’ solutions, as well as more critical solutions?
The Useful:
1) (Liberal) Materialism:
--Why Gates?
--I’ve already unpacked “liberal materialism” in reviewing Gates’ favourite author, Vaclav Smil’s How the World Really Works: A Scientist's Guide to Our Past, Present and Future.
--Gates provides his own accessible summary. We can critique the political uses behind liberal managerialism’s systems thinking, but these big picture tools (Thinking in Systems: A Primer) can be repurposed for social needs:
i) Goal:
--The current global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per year is 51 billion tons. The goal is to reduce this to near net-zero, starting (by 2050) with the richest countries.
ii) Breakdown:
--The 51 billion tons per year is composed of:
a) production (37%):
--The production of the foundational trio of cement/steel/plastics is also Smil’s focus, leading to his slow net-zero transition pessimism.
--Gates coins the term “Green Premiums” to represent the costs of decarbonization; it’s a lens gauging the social (although Gates often frames only the “technical”) difficulty of decarbonatization, which might be missed by raw emissions numbers alone. The priority for reducing “Green Premiums” in production (especially difficult for cement) is to electrify (using a decarbonized grid) as many of the production processes as possible.
b) electricity (27%):
--Given the need for electrification in production, Gates actually starts with decarbonizing electricity generation given its spillover uses in production/transportation etc.
--Post-WWII recovery was built on the “cheap energy” of fossil fuels, making up 2/3 of global energy (40% coal, 26% oil/gas, 7% solar/wind). The “Green Premiums” are from intermittency/storage/distribution. Gates is also invested in nuclear energy research (via his company TerraPower).
c) agriculture/forestry/other land use (19%):
--Meat production is the biggest offender here, especially in the form of methane and nitrous oxide. Related is deforestation.
--Gates once again preaches technocratic innovations to reduce “Green Premiums”, inspired by the “Green Revolution” farming innovations that disproved the global so-called “overpopulation” crisis (1968 The Population Bomb; ironically another great example of liberal crisis management, this case responding to the convergence of 20th century decolonization with post-WWII fossil fuel “Great Acceleration”). See: Too Many People?: Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis
d) transportation (16%):
--The “Green Premiums” challenge here is actually long-distance aviation/shipping/trucking for global commodities (esp. due to outsourcing production) more than passenger (for which long-distance is mostly relatively-wealthy for leisure).
e) heating/cooling (7%):
--Decarbonized electrification once again.
iii) Scale:
--Convert tons of emissions to a percentage of the 51 billion per year.
--Units for power: kilowatt = US house; gigawatt = mid-size city; hundreds of gigawatts = big rich country, 5,000 gigawatts = world.
--Power density: determines the efficiency of space needed, from 500-10,000 watts per square meter for fossil fuels, to 5-20 for solar with 100 being theoretical, to <1 for wood/biomass.
2) The Existence of Real-World Capitalism (without naming it):
--This section is just Gates passing the lowest bar set to weed out ivory-tower utopic-capitalism propagandists. Gates, as a hardened real-world capitalist, must realize he would look likea free market economist an idiot if he didn’t acknowledge:
i) Market price failures:
…see the comments below for the rest of the review (“The Bad/Missing”)…
Preamble:
--In reading/reviewing this book, I tried to stay focused on:
i) How is Gates framing the causes of the crisis (esp. his omissions: “capitalism” is unnamed in this book), and how does this affect his solutions? What tools and traps does he provide?
ii) What are the incentives of those in Gates’ position? What are their potentials, limitations, and contradictions to enacting Gates’ solutions, as well as more critical solutions?
The Useful:
1) (Liberal) Materialism:
--Why Gates?
I can’t deny being a rich guy with an opinion. I do believe, though, that it is an informed opinion, and I am always trying to learn more.…I’ll discuss the omissions/distortions later; first, let’s consider the technical tools provided, as Gates passes the low bar of climate change denial (Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming).
I’m also a technophile. Show me a problem, and I’ll look for technology to fix it. When it comes to climate change, I know innovation isn’t the only thing we need. But we cannot keep the earth livable without it. Techno-fixes are not sufficient, but they are necessary.
Finally, it’s true that my carbon footprint is absurdly high. For a long time I have felt guilty about this. I’ve been aware of how high my emissions are, but working on this book has made me even more conscious of my responsibility to reduce them. Shrinking my carbon footprint is the least that can be expected of someone in my position who’s worried about climate change and publicly calling for action. [Emphases added]
--I’ve already unpacked “liberal materialism” in reviewing Gates’ favourite author, Vaclav Smil’s How the World Really Works: A Scientist's Guide to Our Past, Present and Future.
--Gates provides his own accessible summary. We can critique the political uses behind liberal managerialism’s systems thinking, but these big picture tools (Thinking in Systems: A Primer) can be repurposed for social needs:
i) Goal:
--The current global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per year is 51 billion tons. The goal is to reduce this to near net-zero, starting (by 2050) with the richest countries.
ii) Breakdown:
--The 51 billion tons per year is composed of:
a) production (37%):
--The production of the foundational trio of cement/steel/plastics is also Smil’s focus, leading to his slow net-zero transition pessimism.
--Gates coins the term “Green Premiums” to represent the costs of decarbonization; it’s a lens gauging the social (although Gates often frames only the “technical”) difficulty of decarbonatization, which might be missed by raw emissions numbers alone. The priority for reducing “Green Premiums” in production (especially difficult for cement) is to electrify (using a decarbonized grid) as many of the production processes as possible.
b) electricity (27%):
--Given the need for electrification in production, Gates actually starts with decarbonizing electricity generation given its spillover uses in production/transportation etc.
--Post-WWII recovery was built on the “cheap energy” of fossil fuels, making up 2/3 of global energy (40% coal, 26% oil/gas, 7% solar/wind). The “Green Premiums” are from intermittency/storage/distribution. Gates is also invested in nuclear energy research (via his company TerraPower).
c) agriculture/forestry/other land use (19%):
--Meat production is the biggest offender here, especially in the form of methane and nitrous oxide. Related is deforestation.
--Gates once again preaches technocratic innovations to reduce “Green Premiums”, inspired by the “Green Revolution” farming innovations that disproved the global so-called “overpopulation” crisis (1968 The Population Bomb; ironically another great example of liberal crisis management, this case responding to the convergence of 20th century decolonization with post-WWII fossil fuel “Great Acceleration”). See: Too Many People?: Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis
d) transportation (16%):
--The “Green Premiums” challenge here is actually long-distance aviation/shipping/trucking for global commodities (esp. due to outsourcing production) more than passenger (for which long-distance is mostly relatively-wealthy for leisure).
e) heating/cooling (7%):
--Decarbonized electrification once again.
iii) Scale:
--Convert tons of emissions to a percentage of the 51 billion per year.
--Units for power: kilowatt = US house; gigawatt = mid-size city; hundreds of gigawatts = big rich country, 5,000 gigawatts = world.
--Power density: determines the efficiency of space needed, from 500-10,000 watts per square meter for fossil fuels, to 5-20 for solar with 100 being theoretical, to <1 for wood/biomass.
2) The Existence of Real-World Capitalism (without naming it):
--This section is just Gates passing the lowest bar set to weed out ivory-tower utopic-capitalism propagandists. Gates, as a hardened real-world capitalist, must realize he would look like
i) Market price failures:
It’s no accident that fossil fuels are so cheap. They’re abundant and easy to move. We’ve created big global industries devoted to drilling for them, processing and moving them, and developing innovations that keep their prices low. And their prices don’t reflect the damage they cause—the ways they contribute to climate change, pollution, and environmental degradation when they’re extracted and burned.ii) State Capitalism:
In general, the government’s role is to invest in R&D [research and development] when the private sector won’t because it can’t see how it will make a profit [i.e. long-term, high-risk, lack “demand-side incentives”; the latter means existing market laws providing immediate, profitable customer demand]. Once it becomes clear how a company can make money, the private sector takes over. This is in fact exactly how we got products you probably use every day, including the internet, lifesaving medicines, and the Global Positioning System that your smartphone uses to help you navigate around town. The personal computer business—including Microsoft—would never have been the success that it was if the U.S. government hadn’t put money into research on smaller, faster microprocessors.…From these passages alone, you might think Gates is well inline with “progressives” like Mazzucato (Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism).
In some sectors, like digital technology, the government-to-company handoff happens relatively quickly. With clean energy, it takes much longer and requires even more financial commitment from the government, because the scientific and engineering work is so time-consuming and expensive. […]
It might seem ironic that I’m calling for more government intervention. When I was building Microsoft, I kept my distance from policy makers in Washington, D.C., and around the world, thinking they would only keep us from doing our best work.
In part, the U.S. government’s antitrust suit against Microsoft in the late 1990s made me realize that we should’ve been engaging with policy makers all along. [uh, okay…]
The United States, which is by far the largest investor in clean energy research, spends only about $7 billion per year. How much should we spend? I think the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a good comparison. The NIH, with a budget of about $37 billion a year, has developed lifesaving drugs and treatments that Americans—and people around the world—rely on every day.
…see the comments below for the rest of the review (“The Bad/Missing”)…
March 21, 2021
Ravings of the Globalist Trotsky Urban Yoda:
He claims that 20% of the carbon dioxide emitted today will still be in the atmosphere 10,000 years later. This is not true.
Gates believes that global warming will cause sea level to rise and this will cause a catastrophe. Wrong- sea level has been rising since civilization began.
He thinks that overall food production will drop in the future due to climate change, growing seasons will shrink, and food prices will rise. In fact, the evidence tells us the opposite.
Gates then goes on to list numerous catastrophes predicted by IPCC computer simulations. However it is well known that the climate models used by the IPCC do not match observations.
Gates observes , the new energy source will have to be cheaper than fossil fuels , also believes that the change he wants will require new technology, taxes, and government mandates.
He introduces the concept of “green premiums,” which is Gates’ name for green energy subsidies and carbon taxes. He is in favor of both.
Goal of net zero emmision? Almost 8 billions of people exhale CO2 every day ! Germany has been trying to achieve a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and currently pays three times the U.S. rate for their electricity.
He discusses products that are made from fossil fuels, like cement, fertilizer, plastic, and steel. Making these products produces the largest amount of CO2 . Yet, we will not stop using any of them, in fact, Gates estimates that as the world becomes more prosperous, we will likely need much more of them.
Gates discusses fertilizer and how important it is but does not mention CO2 fertilization, which seems a contradiction.
62% of our electricity comes from fossil fuels, but Gates is hypothesizing that we can eventually make electricity without fossil fuels..lol.
Biofuels will be important for ships and aircraft in Gates’ transportation plan. But, as he admits, biofuels are not environmentally friendly.
Gates would also like the world to consider nuclear-powered ships, even though it could be dangerous.
He does not mention that additional CO2 in the atmosphere makes most crops much more drought resistant, since with additional available CO2 they need much less water per pound of growth.
He briefly discusses the impact of destroying the fossil fuel industry, which supports more than ten million jobs in the United States.
Gates admits that trying to get to zero emissions by 2030 is impossible. But then he offers the equally impossible goal of 2050. Exxon projects that oil, gas and coal will supply 76% of the world’s energy in 2040 .
His writing is a plea for governments to grab more power and take over ever larger parts of the private sector so they can force the public to help them destroy the fossil fuel industry. He calls for action by “all levels of government, from local transportation planners to national legislatures and environmental regulators.”
Gates is megalomaniac and dangerous 'Trotsky' type Globalist (capitalism for him -more for me, communism for masses - have nothing). Gates imprecision when discussing climate science is not encouraging. Yet , as I observe, Biden in the States and Trudeau government in Canada follow his 'instructions'. What a bummer !
He claims that 20% of the carbon dioxide emitted today will still be in the atmosphere 10,000 years later. This is not true.
Gates believes that global warming will cause sea level to rise and this will cause a catastrophe. Wrong- sea level has been rising since civilization began.
He thinks that overall food production will drop in the future due to climate change, growing seasons will shrink, and food prices will rise. In fact, the evidence tells us the opposite.
Gates then goes on to list numerous catastrophes predicted by IPCC computer simulations. However it is well known that the climate models used by the IPCC do not match observations.
Gates observes , the new energy source will have to be cheaper than fossil fuels , also believes that the change he wants will require new technology, taxes, and government mandates.
He introduces the concept of “green premiums,” which is Gates’ name for green energy subsidies and carbon taxes. He is in favor of both.
Goal of net zero emmision? Almost 8 billions of people exhale CO2 every day ! Germany has been trying to achieve a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and currently pays three times the U.S. rate for their electricity.
He discusses products that are made from fossil fuels, like cement, fertilizer, plastic, and steel. Making these products produces the largest amount of CO2 . Yet, we will not stop using any of them, in fact, Gates estimates that as the world becomes more prosperous, we will likely need much more of them.
Gates discusses fertilizer and how important it is but does not mention CO2 fertilization, which seems a contradiction.
62% of our electricity comes from fossil fuels, but Gates is hypothesizing that we can eventually make electricity without fossil fuels..lol.
Biofuels will be important for ships and aircraft in Gates’ transportation plan. But, as he admits, biofuels are not environmentally friendly.
Gates would also like the world to consider nuclear-powered ships, even though it could be dangerous.
He does not mention that additional CO2 in the atmosphere makes most crops much more drought resistant, since with additional available CO2 they need much less water per pound of growth.
He briefly discusses the impact of destroying the fossil fuel industry, which supports more than ten million jobs in the United States.
Gates admits that trying to get to zero emissions by 2030 is impossible. But then he offers the equally impossible goal of 2050. Exxon projects that oil, gas and coal will supply 76% of the world’s energy in 2040 .
His writing is a plea for governments to grab more power and take over ever larger parts of the private sector so they can force the public to help them destroy the fossil fuel industry. He calls for action by “all levels of government, from local transportation planners to national legislatures and environmental regulators.”
Gates is megalomaniac and dangerous 'Trotsky' type Globalist (capitalism for him -more for me, communism for masses - have nothing). Gates imprecision when discussing climate science is not encouraging. Yet , as I observe, Biden in the States and Trudeau government in Canada follow his 'instructions'. What a bummer !
February 25, 2021
"This is urgent work. We are at the same point today with climate change as we were several years ago with pandemics. Health experts were telling us that a massive outbreak was virtually inevitable. Despite their warnings, the world didn't do enough to prepare - and then suddenly had to scramble to make up for lost time. We should not make the same mistake with climate change."
As much as I dislike Windows, I've always admired Bill Gates for what he managed to create, and most of all, for his philanthropy. And because of that, I was curious to see his point of view regarding climate change.
And he did his job right. There are a lot of info on all the factors that affects climate and leads to carbon (and not only) acumullation.
All data are structured in separate chapters, and everything is explained on everyone's understanding. It's not exactly a science book, more likely its purpose is to raise awareness about this Damocles' sword which is about to fall on our heads.
I think it's a great introduction into what climate change means, factors involved and possible solutions. Most data are focused on the US, but there are some from around the world as well.
For those who are more than familiar with the subject will not be a ground-breaking reading, but it gathers numbers and statistics which are usually found from a lot of different sources, and here you have them all together.
All in all, it was an interesting read. His vision is aimed on new technologies to help with this planetary problem, but I have found him a bit (too) optimistic, in regard to governments and their response to various solutions. In any case, we could all benefit from visionary and dedicated people like him, whose investments and involvement are a great asset for all of us. I wish there were more like him in these times.
>>> ARC received thanks to Penguin Press UK – Allen Lane, Particular, Pelican, Penguin Classics via NetGalley <<<
As much as I dislike Windows, I've always admired Bill Gates for what he managed to create, and most of all, for his philanthropy. And because of that, I was curious to see his point of view regarding climate change.
And he did his job right. There are a lot of info on all the factors that affects climate and leads to carbon (and not only) acumullation.
All data are structured in separate chapters, and everything is explained on everyone's understanding. It's not exactly a science book, more likely its purpose is to raise awareness about this Damocles' sword which is about to fall on our heads.
I think it's a great introduction into what climate change means, factors involved and possible solutions. Most data are focused on the US, but there are some from around the world as well.
For those who are more than familiar with the subject will not be a ground-breaking reading, but it gathers numbers and statistics which are usually found from a lot of different sources, and here you have them all together.
All in all, it was an interesting read. His vision is aimed on new technologies to help with this planetary problem, but I have found him a bit (too) optimistic, in regard to governments and their response to various solutions. In any case, we could all benefit from visionary and dedicated people like him, whose investments and involvement are a great asset for all of us. I wish there were more like him in these times.
>>> ARC received thanks to Penguin Press UK – Allen Lane, Particular, Pelican, Penguin Classics via NetGalley <<<
February 9, 2021
Bill Gates is accused of hypocrisy after joining bidding war to buy the world's largest private jet operator - one month before he releases his book preaching about climate change. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...
May 10, 2021
"There are two numbers you need to know about climate change. The first is 51 billion. The other is zero. Fifty-one billion is how many tons of greenhouse gases the world typically adds to the atmosphere every year. Although the figure may go up or down a bit from year to year, it’s generally increasing. This is where we are today. *1 Zero is what we need to aim for. To stop the warming and avoid the worst effects of climate change—and these effects will be very bad—humans need to stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere."
Bill Gates always has a plan whether it is for getting a computer on every desk and in every home or getting us out of the Covid-19 pandemic. There is a lot packed into this book on how we can “decarbonize” by 2050. A lot of it will have you nodding along but some will challenge your intuition or preconceptions.
Here are some of the components:
Quintuple clean energy and climate-related R&D over the next decade.
Make bigger bets on high-risk, high-reward R&D projects.
Match R&D with our greatest needs.
Work with industry from the beginning.
Create incentive that lower costs and reduce risk.
Build the infrastructure that will get new technologies to market.
Change the rules so new technologies can compete.
Put a price on carbon.
Implement clean electricity and clean fuel and clean product standards.
His warning about planning in stark: “Making reductions by 2030 the wrong way might actually PREVENT us from ever getting to zero. Why? Because the things we’d do to get small reductions by 2030 are radically different from the we’d do to get to zero by 2050.”
I would have liked to see more discussion of efficiency in public transportation but Gates has convinced me that we have to act now (and along the lines that he suggests) if we are going to hand a world to our kids and their children that is not substantially wrecked. Our very quality of life is threatened and that should be important to everyone.
Bill Gates always has a plan whether it is for getting a computer on every desk and in every home or getting us out of the Covid-19 pandemic. There is a lot packed into this book on how we can “decarbonize” by 2050. A lot of it will have you nodding along but some will challenge your intuition or preconceptions.
Here are some of the components:
Quintuple clean energy and climate-related R&D over the next decade.
Make bigger bets on high-risk, high-reward R&D projects.
Match R&D with our greatest needs.
Work with industry from the beginning.
Create incentive that lower costs and reduce risk.
Build the infrastructure that will get new technologies to market.
Change the rules so new technologies can compete.
Put a price on carbon.
Implement clean electricity and clean fuel and clean product standards.
His warning about planning in stark: “Making reductions by 2030 the wrong way might actually PREVENT us from ever getting to zero. Why? Because the things we’d do to get small reductions by 2030 are radically different from the we’d do to get to zero by 2050.”
I would have liked to see more discussion of efficiency in public transportation but Gates has convinced me that we have to act now (and along the lines that he suggests) if we are going to hand a world to our kids and their children that is not substantially wrecked. Our very quality of life is threatened and that should be important to everyone.
February 17, 2021
It is very easy to dismiss this book upfront as another elitist rant on how we should feel guilty about our consumption or as another idealistic and removed from reality work on the ways in which we can avoid a climate catastrophe. And to large part, Gates acknowledges this at the very start of the book.
But that would be a huge mistake. Gates cuts through a lot of noise on both sides of the issue - coming from the world of global development (particularly global health and poverty alleviation with the programs by his foundation), he clearly acknowledges the social necessity of progress and growth, especially in less developed regions. He is not naive about sudden radical changes in human behaviour, but rather analyses ways that we can preserve the social and economic order (for the most part) with technological breakthroughs, essentially focused on getting clean energy. It is then no surprise that the vast of his plan at the end of the book focuses on the ways in which innovation can be funded and then scaled up. On the other hand, he is uncompromising in the need for both private and public funding for breakthroughs and improvement in technologies that are carbon neutral. While most of the book is essentially about getting carbon-neutral electricity (mostly from advanced nuclear fission and hydrogen) and then electrifying everything, he gives a large amount of space to issues such as steel and concrete that are hugely underrepresented in the debate about climate change. If anything, his attention to, if not details then important bits frequently hidden, should make everyone read this great book.
I went through it in two evenings and it is an enjoyable read - from a readable take on standard technology policy to his little personal anecdotes and jokes. Definitely cannot recommend it enough.
But that would be a huge mistake. Gates cuts through a lot of noise on both sides of the issue - coming from the world of global development (particularly global health and poverty alleviation with the programs by his foundation), he clearly acknowledges the social necessity of progress and growth, especially in less developed regions. He is not naive about sudden radical changes in human behaviour, but rather analyses ways that we can preserve the social and economic order (for the most part) with technological breakthroughs, essentially focused on getting clean energy. It is then no surprise that the vast of his plan at the end of the book focuses on the ways in which innovation can be funded and then scaled up. On the other hand, he is uncompromising in the need for both private and public funding for breakthroughs and improvement in technologies that are carbon neutral. While most of the book is essentially about getting carbon-neutral electricity (mostly from advanced nuclear fission and hydrogen) and then electrifying everything, he gives a large amount of space to issues such as steel and concrete that are hugely underrepresented in the debate about climate change. If anything, his attention to, if not details then important bits frequently hidden, should make everyone read this great book.
I went through it in two evenings and it is an enjoyable read - from a readable take on standard technology policy to his little personal anecdotes and jokes. Definitely cannot recommend it enough.
June 27, 2022
3.7, rounded to 4.
First of all, I feel a little bad for Bill Gates. Unlike other billionaires who seem intent on living on Mars, Bill is actually interested in fixing the only planet we have. So kudos to him; give him a break, haters. That said, I really, really wish Bill had written this book as a collaborative effort with people like Bill McKibben or Elizabeth Kolbert or Hope Jahren, if for no other reason than to improve it's style, but also to increase the number of ideas circulating in his orbit. And why doesn't he reference the fine work done by the Drawdown Project or by the many professors at Stanford and other universities working on possible solutions and quantifying the problem. Instead, he name checks a book written in 2010 by a British professor who died in 2016. It's not a horrible book, but there are more modern, and maybe, probably, better ideas out there in 2021.
Also, I was a little stunned that he said he really didn't begin to believe global warming was a real thing until 2006. What? I realize he was a little busy in the '90's, but still. I learned about the theory of atmospheric warming due to CO2 in my undergraduate chemistry class, and I've been following the literature since then, and following it intently since about 1988 (Hansen, NASA, all that jazz really got cranked up in '88). And despite describing the dangers of sea level rise, he makes the rookie error of not noting that one of the greatest problems caused by CO2 in the oceans is acidification of seawater, which eventually could get bad enough to prevent corals building new coral, or sea creatures making shells or carapaces (think crabs, barnacles, clams, etc). And he seems to minimize or not really understand what a general ecological collapse brought on by global warming would mean for us humans.
Okay, so what did I like, now that I'm done carping? I like that he simplified things down to the CO2 budget of Earth (his 51 billion tons per year number), and breaks it out into its constituent parts by segment: manufacturing things: think steel, concrete, plastic; producing electricity; agriculture; transportation; and heating / cooling. And then he talks about how to address each sector. He takes a logical engineer's approach to the issue, mostly* (*more on that later). He introduced me to an interesting concept while explaining energy production; the idea of density of power production. He points out that it takes a lot more space to produce energy from solar or wind than it does from a natural gas powered or nuclear powered electric plant. It's a good point, but he doesn't consider the counter argument, which is that all that space on the roofs of all those big box stores, or for that matter, residential rooftops, is not exactly in high demand for other uses. And he doesn't spend nearly enough time on jobs, which could be a huge win-win for green energy.
Gates makes a good point about the need for steady energy production. Unless we are all going to have Tesla Walls to power our homes at night, and even bigger Tesla Walls for businesses and manufacturers, you have to have a way to supply electricity constantly. In the US, currently we do this mostly by burning fossil fuels (60%), with 20% from nuclear and 20% from renewables, including hydropower. So how to reduce the steady power from fossil fuels and replace it with non-CO2-producing sources? Gates throws out a lot of possibilities (modern, safer nuclear plants, geothermal, pumped hydro), but he doesn't take the extra step to do the math that says, "Okay, we can get to 60% of power production with renewables, add 10% for geothermal and pumped hydro, 10% from batteries, keep the 20% from nuclear, and Presto!, you're there!" That would have made me like the book a lot more. He simply presents a sort of laundry list, unlike the Drawdown Project that actually attempted to do the math in detail.
I'm an engineer and a math minor, and the above noted lack of specificity by Gates was frustrating to me. This is an optimization problem, and you could, even using today's costs for solar, geothermal, wind, modern nuclear, etc, crank the numbers and come up with an answer including cost and relative % contribution from various sources. You could also get fancy, and project future costs for solar, etc, which are sure to go lower, and get a more refined answer, but Bill didn't do this. I don't get it; he has access to all the resources in the world given his status as 4th richest man around, and leading world philanthropist, and yet he didn't work the math, or hire someone to work the math to come up with a prescriptive solution that could serve as a straw man for policy makers. And there are plenty of people who would have jumped at the chance to do that arithmetic.
Then he talks about "making things", mainly concrete, steel, and plastic, and I was surprised to learn how much CO2 this produces. He spends a lot of time on "green premiums", i.e., the cost to make carbon-neutral materials, which are interesting, because you learn how relatively cheap it is to do this with steel and plastic, less so with concrete. And much of the improvement in this area will stem from using carbon-neutral electricity, of course.
He talks next about agriculture and the need to reduce red meat intake, which in turn reduces cattle populations, which in turn reduces methane production. And methane is 28 times more potent as a warming gas compared to CO2, so this is important, and not a joke, as DeSantis-types try to make it (because after all, those wacky libs are talking about cow farts! How nuts are they, etc.). He makes a strong case for reducing red meat intake, which would be good for us anyway, and cutting meat intake in half could reduce global greenhouse emissions by about 2.5%, maybe more. He also shows how fertilizer causes problems, but he does not highlight the amazing progress made, and jobs created by large organic farms like White Oak Pastures in Georgia. A huge amount of food could be produced organically which would both reduce emissions from fertilizers and create jobs. But this is not mentioned; instead we get a story about his dad reducing hamburger intake and a pitch for artificial meat, which are possibly not exactly industrial-scale solutions. He makes a pitch to stop deforestation and plant trees wherever possible, and I agree 100%. What needs more emphasis, in my opinion, is creating incentives for people to consume less, and to consume more wisely, because the traditional US consumption model for food cannot be sustained on a global level. Also, let's stop cutting the trees we have, especially in the Amazon and Congo.
Then transportation is addressed, which turns out to be one of the easier areas to fix, though it depends on solving the energy production problem mentioned above. Fundamentally, all transportation except long-haul air transport and sea shipment needs to be electrified, and fossil fuel consumption for sea shipments can be greatly reduced. Lest we forget, 150 years ago all sea shipment was by sail, and there are pilot projects underway to supplement power with sail on cargo ships (not mentioned by this book, which instead discusses nuclear powered container ships....hmmm....what could go wrong, because, you know, big cargo ships never sink). Of course we need to convert to electric vehicles immediately, and that covers a huge chunk of what needs to be done. I wish he had talked about shifting more freight from trucks to trains, but I'm nit-picking.
Heating and cooling is covered next - again, I wish Bill had done more research. He briefly mentions the refrigerants used in A/C units, but he seems to not realize what a big deal those are; those refrigerants are among the most potent greenhouse gases on the planet, and they urgently need to be replaced with less problematic materials. The Drawdown project points to this as possibly the worst threat in terms of increasing warming, because a) these gases are so powerful as greenhouse gases, and b) because use of A/C is accelerating exponentially worldwide. Bill does talk about the need for greater efficiency and increased insulation in buildings, which are a critical first step, and both are low-hanging fruit.
Then adaptation. I wish he had spent more time on CO2 capture/sequestration technology, because we are going to need it badly (because we simply can't get all this done fast enough). And one of the controversial approaches he discusses is sun-dimming, through particulate injection into the stratosphere. Here's where a real writer like one of the three I mentioned at the outset might have helped him, because this subject needs to be handled delicately, mindfully, with consciousness of the risk involved. Gates makes the absolutely valid point that we better figure out how to do the sun-dimming dance without causing SnowPiercer results, and we better figure it out in less than ten years. We are a bit like the guy on the third floor of a burning building and the staircases are blocked. Is the better choice to jump, or is it better to wait for the fire department to put out the fire? It's a tough decision. ***Update as of June 2022: sucking CO2 out of the air and sequestering it underground is looking a bit more problematic these days, not because it's not possible, but because of the enormous cost of doing it. So instead, perhaps spend that money on a faster conversion to non-CO2 producing transportation, AC, etc.
Finally Mr. Gates talks about government involvement in solutions, and frankly I got the impression he was trying to please everyone, and not anger Republicans in particular. He would do better to commit a big chunk of his fortune to defeating every Republican lawmaker who continues to scoff at climate change; McConnell, Inhofe, and Cruz would be good seats to target, for starters. Sorry, but it's too late in the day to play nice with idiots who are putting our grandchildren's futures at risk.
So, to sum up, I'm glad Bill Gates wrote this book. If nothing else, it brings renewed attention to the subject. It is a readable, only occasionally boring, book; all in all, not bad. I do wish he had made bold, precisely calculated proposals to solve the issues ahead of us, and I wish he had avoided self-promotion entirely, because that's a bad look for billionaires. He makes an excellent point about investment to get to carbon neutral by 2050, i.e., 2050 is tomorrow in infrastructure terms. The big things we build today will still be in use in 2050, so we need to choose wisely now, not in ten years.
In re-reading the chapters to do this review, my opinion of the book went up a bit. I do like the organization of the material, so I would recommend this book, but I would also recommend about five others to supplement it, and I'd like Bill to increase his reading on the subject as well. He is now a key player, and he needs to collaborate with the really smart people who are working extremely hard to avoid catastrophe. I hope he will devote his energy and fortune to that.
First of all, I feel a little bad for Bill Gates. Unlike other billionaires who seem intent on living on Mars, Bill is actually interested in fixing the only planet we have. So kudos to him; give him a break, haters. That said, I really, really wish Bill had written this book as a collaborative effort with people like Bill McKibben or Elizabeth Kolbert or Hope Jahren, if for no other reason than to improve it's style, but also to increase the number of ideas circulating in his orbit. And why doesn't he reference the fine work done by the Drawdown Project or by the many professors at Stanford and other universities working on possible solutions and quantifying the problem. Instead, he name checks a book written in 2010 by a British professor who died in 2016. It's not a horrible book, but there are more modern, and maybe, probably, better ideas out there in 2021.
Also, I was a little stunned that he said he really didn't begin to believe global warming was a real thing until 2006. What? I realize he was a little busy in the '90's, but still. I learned about the theory of atmospheric warming due to CO2 in my undergraduate chemistry class, and I've been following the literature since then, and following it intently since about 1988 (Hansen, NASA, all that jazz really got cranked up in '88). And despite describing the dangers of sea level rise, he makes the rookie error of not noting that one of the greatest problems caused by CO2 in the oceans is acidification of seawater, which eventually could get bad enough to prevent corals building new coral, or sea creatures making shells or carapaces (think crabs, barnacles, clams, etc). And he seems to minimize or not really understand what a general ecological collapse brought on by global warming would mean for us humans.
Okay, so what did I like, now that I'm done carping? I like that he simplified things down to the CO2 budget of Earth (his 51 billion tons per year number), and breaks it out into its constituent parts by segment: manufacturing things: think steel, concrete, plastic; producing electricity; agriculture; transportation; and heating / cooling. And then he talks about how to address each sector. He takes a logical engineer's approach to the issue, mostly* (*more on that later). He introduced me to an interesting concept while explaining energy production; the idea of density of power production. He points out that it takes a lot more space to produce energy from solar or wind than it does from a natural gas powered or nuclear powered electric plant. It's a good point, but he doesn't consider the counter argument, which is that all that space on the roofs of all those big box stores, or for that matter, residential rooftops, is not exactly in high demand for other uses. And he doesn't spend nearly enough time on jobs, which could be a huge win-win for green energy.
Gates makes a good point about the need for steady energy production. Unless we are all going to have Tesla Walls to power our homes at night, and even bigger Tesla Walls for businesses and manufacturers, you have to have a way to supply electricity constantly. In the US, currently we do this mostly by burning fossil fuels (60%), with 20% from nuclear and 20% from renewables, including hydropower. So how to reduce the steady power from fossil fuels and replace it with non-CO2-producing sources? Gates throws out a lot of possibilities (modern, safer nuclear plants, geothermal, pumped hydro), but he doesn't take the extra step to do the math that says, "Okay, we can get to 60% of power production with renewables, add 10% for geothermal and pumped hydro, 10% from batteries, keep the 20% from nuclear, and Presto!, you're there!" That would have made me like the book a lot more. He simply presents a sort of laundry list, unlike the Drawdown Project that actually attempted to do the math in detail.
I'm an engineer and a math minor, and the above noted lack of specificity by Gates was frustrating to me. This is an optimization problem, and you could, even using today's costs for solar, geothermal, wind, modern nuclear, etc, crank the numbers and come up with an answer including cost and relative % contribution from various sources. You could also get fancy, and project future costs for solar, etc, which are sure to go lower, and get a more refined answer, but Bill didn't do this. I don't get it; he has access to all the resources in the world given his status as 4th richest man around, and leading world philanthropist, and yet he didn't work the math, or hire someone to work the math to come up with a prescriptive solution that could serve as a straw man for policy makers. And there are plenty of people who would have jumped at the chance to do that arithmetic.
Then he talks about "making things", mainly concrete, steel, and plastic, and I was surprised to learn how much CO2 this produces. He spends a lot of time on "green premiums", i.e., the cost to make carbon-neutral materials, which are interesting, because you learn how relatively cheap it is to do this with steel and plastic, less so with concrete. And much of the improvement in this area will stem from using carbon-neutral electricity, of course.
He talks next about agriculture and the need to reduce red meat intake, which in turn reduces cattle populations, which in turn reduces methane production. And methane is 28 times more potent as a warming gas compared to CO2, so this is important, and not a joke, as DeSantis-types try to make it (because after all, those wacky libs are talking about cow farts! How nuts are they, etc.). He makes a strong case for reducing red meat intake, which would be good for us anyway, and cutting meat intake in half could reduce global greenhouse emissions by about 2.5%, maybe more. He also shows how fertilizer causes problems, but he does not highlight the amazing progress made, and jobs created by large organic farms like White Oak Pastures in Georgia. A huge amount of food could be produced organically which would both reduce emissions from fertilizers and create jobs. But this is not mentioned; instead we get a story about his dad reducing hamburger intake and a pitch for artificial meat, which are possibly not exactly industrial-scale solutions. He makes a pitch to stop deforestation and plant trees wherever possible, and I agree 100%. What needs more emphasis, in my opinion, is creating incentives for people to consume less, and to consume more wisely, because the traditional US consumption model for food cannot be sustained on a global level. Also, let's stop cutting the trees we have, especially in the Amazon and Congo.
Then transportation is addressed, which turns out to be one of the easier areas to fix, though it depends on solving the energy production problem mentioned above. Fundamentally, all transportation except long-haul air transport and sea shipment needs to be electrified, and fossil fuel consumption for sea shipments can be greatly reduced. Lest we forget, 150 years ago all sea shipment was by sail, and there are pilot projects underway to supplement power with sail on cargo ships (not mentioned by this book, which instead discusses nuclear powered container ships....hmmm....what could go wrong, because, you know, big cargo ships never sink). Of course we need to convert to electric vehicles immediately, and that covers a huge chunk of what needs to be done. I wish he had talked about shifting more freight from trucks to trains, but I'm nit-picking.
Heating and cooling is covered next - again, I wish Bill had done more research. He briefly mentions the refrigerants used in A/C units, but he seems to not realize what a big deal those are; those refrigerants are among the most potent greenhouse gases on the planet, and they urgently need to be replaced with less problematic materials. The Drawdown project points to this as possibly the worst threat in terms of increasing warming, because a) these gases are so powerful as greenhouse gases, and b) because use of A/C is accelerating exponentially worldwide. Bill does talk about the need for greater efficiency and increased insulation in buildings, which are a critical first step, and both are low-hanging fruit.
Then adaptation. I wish he had spent more time on CO2 capture/sequestration technology, because we are going to need it badly (because we simply can't get all this done fast enough). And one of the controversial approaches he discusses is sun-dimming, through particulate injection into the stratosphere. Here's where a real writer like one of the three I mentioned at the outset might have helped him, because this subject needs to be handled delicately, mindfully, with consciousness of the risk involved. Gates makes the absolutely valid point that we better figure out how to do the sun-dimming dance without causing SnowPiercer results, and we better figure it out in less than ten years. We are a bit like the guy on the third floor of a burning building and the staircases are blocked. Is the better choice to jump, or is it better to wait for the fire department to put out the fire? It's a tough decision. ***Update as of June 2022: sucking CO2 out of the air and sequestering it underground is looking a bit more problematic these days, not because it's not possible, but because of the enormous cost of doing it. So instead, perhaps spend that money on a faster conversion to non-CO2 producing transportation, AC, etc.
Finally Mr. Gates talks about government involvement in solutions, and frankly I got the impression he was trying to please everyone, and not anger Republicans in particular. He would do better to commit a big chunk of his fortune to defeating every Republican lawmaker who continues to scoff at climate change; McConnell, Inhofe, and Cruz would be good seats to target, for starters. Sorry, but it's too late in the day to play nice with idiots who are putting our grandchildren's futures at risk.
So, to sum up, I'm glad Bill Gates wrote this book. If nothing else, it brings renewed attention to the subject. It is a readable, only occasionally boring, book; all in all, not bad. I do wish he had made bold, precisely calculated proposals to solve the issues ahead of us, and I wish he had avoided self-promotion entirely, because that's a bad look for billionaires. He makes an excellent point about investment to get to carbon neutral by 2050, i.e., 2050 is tomorrow in infrastructure terms. The big things we build today will still be in use in 2050, so we need to choose wisely now, not in ten years.
In re-reading the chapters to do this review, my opinion of the book went up a bit. I do like the organization of the material, so I would recommend this book, but I would also recommend about five others to supplement it, and I'd like Bill to increase his reading on the subject as well. He is now a key player, and he needs to collaborate with the really smart people who are working extremely hard to avoid catastrophe. I hope he will devote his energy and fortune to that.
June 17, 2021
This is a well-organized and thoughtful analysis of the current issues regarding carbon emissions and climate change. Currently 51 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalents are released into the atmosphere annually. It is an understatement to say that getting this figure to zero will be a significant challenge.
The subject matter is ordered by major category of emissions, listing the primary causes and how they can be addressed. It contains numerous facts and figures based on the many contacts Gates has made through his charitable foundation. He emphasizes that we need to start now to have a chance for zero emissions by the year 2050.
It is a complex topic with no single solution, and this book provides guidance in understanding the many factors. Innovation, global cooperation, and governmental policies will be important. Gates is optimistic that this issue can be successfully tackled. I think it is a good idea to be informed.
The subject matter is ordered by major category of emissions, listing the primary causes and how they can be addressed. It contains numerous facts and figures based on the many contacts Gates has made through his charitable foundation. He emphasizes that we need to start now to have a chance for zero emissions by the year 2050.
It is a complex topic with no single solution, and this book provides guidance in understanding the many factors. Innovation, global cooperation, and governmental policies will be important. Gates is optimistic that this issue can be successfully tackled. I think it is a good idea to be informed.
March 2, 2020
can't wait to read this, so cool .this might be better than what Vaclav smil has to offer ...really looking forward to it.
February 20, 2021
A book so full of misleading information from a man who flew a private jet to the 2015 Paris climate change summit.
His bombardier private jet, which he uses extensively to travel the world telling poor people how evil they are for destroying the planet, consumes 486 gallons of petrol per hour. He owns 4 private jets and a fleet of helicopters. He lives in a 66000 sq foot mansion worth 127 million dollars that took 100 electricians to complete building and is built out of half a million board fee of 500 year old Douglas fir trees. Super frugal and environmentally friendly right!? But you, you filthy peasant, you should be ashamed of yourself for driving your Ford fiesta to work everyday instead of taking a bus and for taking up so much space in your luxurious 30msq apartment.
He cares so much about the planet he wants you to change your entire lifestyle and behaviour to reduce carbon emissions to zero (impossible). Climate change is a complete hoax to coerce you into relinquishing your freedoms and make you more reliant on governments and make people like Gates even richer, all the while making you poorer and subjecting you to a lifestyle worse than your grandparents.
This book is about pressuring governments to change policy and subsidise companies that will utilise climate change technologies that Gates has already invested 2 billion dollars into. It will make him richer. He does not care about the environment, none of his ilk do, they care about power and money.
If you are still listening to the word of a man who wants you to live in a pod, get rid of your car, never travel again and eat 3d printed meat then you are a moron and humanity is doomed.
His bombardier private jet, which he uses extensively to travel the world telling poor people how evil they are for destroying the planet, consumes 486 gallons of petrol per hour. He owns 4 private jets and a fleet of helicopters. He lives in a 66000 sq foot mansion worth 127 million dollars that took 100 electricians to complete building and is built out of half a million board fee of 500 year old Douglas fir trees. Super frugal and environmentally friendly right!? But you, you filthy peasant, you should be ashamed of yourself for driving your Ford fiesta to work everyday instead of taking a bus and for taking up so much space in your luxurious 30msq apartment.
He cares so much about the planet he wants you to change your entire lifestyle and behaviour to reduce carbon emissions to zero (impossible). Climate change is a complete hoax to coerce you into relinquishing your freedoms and make you more reliant on governments and make people like Gates even richer, all the while making you poorer and subjecting you to a lifestyle worse than your grandparents.
This book is about pressuring governments to change policy and subsidise companies that will utilise climate change technologies that Gates has already invested 2 billion dollars into. It will make him richer. He does not care about the environment, none of his ilk do, they care about power and money.
If you are still listening to the word of a man who wants you to live in a pod, get rid of your car, never travel again and eat 3d printed meat then you are a moron and humanity is doomed.
February 16, 2021
In this relatively short and very readable book Gates provides a comprehensive overview of the who, what, why and where of global warming. (Not surprisingly, the issue is very much related to the Gates Foundation’s well-publicized interest in global health and the eradication of poverty.)
This is a great primer covering what is causing the problem today and what can be done about it, clearly delineating the technology that currently exists and that which should be pursued through a joint effort of the citizenry, the government, and industry. He also provides a simple methodology, called Green Premiums, for understanding the relative costs of the current technology that can reduce greenhouse gases. This, in turn, provides a brilliant way to establish priorities and focus our effort and our investment.
To his credit, Gates has gone out of his way to look beyond the emotional divisions often associated with the topic. It’s a book about building bridges toward a common goal and steers clear of ideology and politics. “I think more like an engineer than a political scientist, and I don’t have a solution to the politics of climate change.”
He also stays clear of the technical-speak that often clouds the issue. This book is written for a mass audience and while there are statistics, he studiously avoids the complicated science that often just serves to cloud the issue and to put constructive discussion out of reach of the general public.
My only personal disappointment in the book is that he goes just a little too far in avoiding any discussion of the need for behavioral change. (“We aren’t going to solve the climate problem by telling people not to eat toast.” He advocates the use of heat pumps and electric cars and encourages consumers to step up to more energy efficient purchases but he stays clear of any suggestion that our cultural norms and priorities contribute to the problem in any way.
I understand why. One of the most nonsensical criticisms we hear from those who refuse to acknowledge either the reality of climate change or that humankind is contributing to it is that “These people just want us all to be poor.”
But there is a big difference between being poor and being just as happy and fulfilled as the richest billionaires are now but getting by with less – and thus contributing less to climate change (and other socio-economic ills that currently plague us). Think of it as cultural simplification. If you are in the top one-third of income earners do you really need half of the stuff you own to live a happy and fulfilling life? I think not.
And in the end I believe cultural simplification will be necessary to solve the climate change crisis. Technology alone won’t be enough if we just keep building bigger homes and buying more exotic toys and experiences. Most of us could live in much smaller homes and lead simpler lives and still be just as happy. And I speak from experience. I have lived all along the continuum that is wealth and income and I can assure you that the size of my house or how many toys I owned but seldom used had no bearing on my sense of personal fulfillment.
That, however, was not the objective of this book. Gates undoubtedly knew, however he personally feels about the topic, that all else would be lost once he set foot on that path. And, as a result, we have a wonderful primer on the state of the issue and a road map for where we go from here that I believe everyone should be able to buy in to. It’s simple, understandable, and chock full of common sense.
This is a great primer covering what is causing the problem today and what can be done about it, clearly delineating the technology that currently exists and that which should be pursued through a joint effort of the citizenry, the government, and industry. He also provides a simple methodology, called Green Premiums, for understanding the relative costs of the current technology that can reduce greenhouse gases. This, in turn, provides a brilliant way to establish priorities and focus our effort and our investment.
To his credit, Gates has gone out of his way to look beyond the emotional divisions often associated with the topic. It’s a book about building bridges toward a common goal and steers clear of ideology and politics. “I think more like an engineer than a political scientist, and I don’t have a solution to the politics of climate change.”
He also stays clear of the technical-speak that often clouds the issue. This book is written for a mass audience and while there are statistics, he studiously avoids the complicated science that often just serves to cloud the issue and to put constructive discussion out of reach of the general public.
My only personal disappointment in the book is that he goes just a little too far in avoiding any discussion of the need for behavioral change. (“We aren’t going to solve the climate problem by telling people not to eat toast.” He advocates the use of heat pumps and electric cars and encourages consumers to step up to more energy efficient purchases but he stays clear of any suggestion that our cultural norms and priorities contribute to the problem in any way.
I understand why. One of the most nonsensical criticisms we hear from those who refuse to acknowledge either the reality of climate change or that humankind is contributing to it is that “These people just want us all to be poor.”
But there is a big difference between being poor and being just as happy and fulfilled as the richest billionaires are now but getting by with less – and thus contributing less to climate change (and other socio-economic ills that currently plague us). Think of it as cultural simplification. If you are in the top one-third of income earners do you really need half of the stuff you own to live a happy and fulfilling life? I think not.
And in the end I believe cultural simplification will be necessary to solve the climate change crisis. Technology alone won’t be enough if we just keep building bigger homes and buying more exotic toys and experiences. Most of us could live in much smaller homes and lead simpler lives and still be just as happy. And I speak from experience. I have lived all along the continuum that is wealth and income and I can assure you that the size of my house or how many toys I owned but seldom used had no bearing on my sense of personal fulfillment.
That, however, was not the objective of this book. Gates undoubtedly knew, however he personally feels about the topic, that all else would be lost once he set foot on that path. And, as a result, we have a wonderful primer on the state of the issue and a road map for where we go from here that I believe everyone should be able to buy in to. It’s simple, understandable, and chock full of common sense.
March 1, 2021
(อ่านฉบับภาษาอังกฤษ)
สนุกดีแต่บางช่วง “แห้ง” ไปนิด รวบรวม��วามคิดของ บิล เกตส์ เกี่ยวกับวิธีรับมือกับการเปลี่ยนแปลงสภาพภูมิอากาศ (climate change) ซึ่งเขายืนยันว่าเราต้องตั้งเป้าลดการปล่อยก๊าซเรือนกระจกให้เหลือ “ศูนย์” จากระดับปัจจุบันที่ 51 พันล้านตันคาร์บอนเทียบเท่า ถ้าไม่อยากให้มนุษยชาติและสิ่งมีชีวิตอื่นๆ เผชิญกับหายนะระดับที่ไม่เคยเกิดมาก่อน
หนังสือแบ่งเป็นสองช่วง ช่วงแรก (บทที่ 1-3) อธิบายอย่างช้ดเจนเข้าใจง่ายว่า climate change เป็นปัญหาใหญ่เพราะอะไร และทำไมเราต้องลดการปล่อยก๊าซเรือนกระจกให้เหลือศูนย์ สามบทนี้ส่วนตัวเป็นตอนที่ชอบที่สุด แม้จะอ่านหนังสือเกี่ยวกับเรื่องนี้มาหลายเล่มแล้วก็ตาม เพราะเกตส์พยายามอธิบายด้วยภาษาที่เข้าใจง่ายมากสำหรับคนทั่วไป เห็นชัดว่าเขาอินก้บเรื่องนี้พอสมควร บทที่เหลือพูดถึงวิธีรับมือจากสายตาของเกตส์ ในฐานะวิศวกร/น้กเทคโนโลยี ดังนั้นจึงเต็มไปด้วยการอธิบายนวัตกรรมและเทคโนโลยีที่น่าจะช่วยแก้ปัญหาได้
แอบขัดใจที่ไม่ได้พูดถึงความซับซ้อนว่า จะเปลี่ยนแรงจูงใจของนักการเมือง/ผู้ดำเนินนโยบาย/ผู้ครองตลาด ให้หันมาร่วมมือกันแก้ปัญหาได้อย่างไร (แต่เกตส์ก็ออกตัวแต่เนิ่นๆ ว่า เขาสนใจวิศวกรรม ไม่ใช่รัฐศาสตร์) และไม่พูดถึงการถกเถียงเชิงจริยธรรมที่ว่า สุดท้ายเราต้องเปลี่ยนค่านิยมออกจากมหกรรมบริโภคนิยมหรือไม่ (เกตส์มีสมมุติฐานเป็นนัยๆ ว่า เราจะคิดค้นเทคโนโลยีสะอาดได้โดยที่คนไม่ต้องเสียสละอะไรเลย บริโภคแค่ไหนก็ทำต่อไปได้) ดังนั้นในแง่นี้มุมมองของเขาจึงออกจะเป็น technological fundamentalist ไปหน่อย แต่โดยรวมหนังสือเล่มนี้ก็มาถูกที่ถูกเวลา ควรค่าแก่การอ่านในยุคที่ไม่มีสังคมไหนรอดพ้นจากผลกระทบของ climate change อีกต่อไปแล้ว
สนุกดีแต่บางช่วง “แห้ง” ไปนิด รวบรวม��วามคิดของ บิล เกตส์ เกี่ยวกับวิธีรับมือกับการเปลี่ยนแปลงสภาพภูมิอากาศ (climate change) ซึ่งเขายืนยันว่าเราต้องตั้งเป้าลดการปล่อยก๊าซเรือนกระจกให้เหลือ “ศูนย์” จากระดับปัจจุบันที่ 51 พันล้านตันคาร์บอนเทียบเท่า ถ้าไม่อยากให้มนุษยชาติและสิ่งมีชีวิตอื่นๆ เผชิญกับหายนะระดับที่ไม่เคยเกิดมาก่อน
หนังสือแบ่งเป็นสองช่วง ช่วงแรก (บทที่ 1-3) อธิบายอย่างช้ดเจนเข้าใจง่ายว่า climate change เป็นปัญหาใหญ่เพราะอะไร และทำไมเราต้องลดการปล่อยก๊าซเรือนกระจกให้เหลือศูนย์ สามบทนี้ส่วนตัวเป็นตอนที่ชอบที่สุด แม้จะอ่านหนังสือเกี่ยวกับเรื่องนี้มาหลายเล่มแล้วก็ตาม เพราะเกตส์พยายามอธิบายด้วยภาษาที่เข้าใจง่ายมากสำหรับคนทั่วไป เห็นชัดว่าเขาอินก้บเรื่องนี้พอสมควร บทที่เหลือพูดถึงวิธีรับมือจากสายตาของเกตส์ ในฐานะวิศวกร/น้กเทคโนโลยี ดังนั้นจึงเต็มไปด้วยการอธิบายนวัตกรรมและเทคโนโลยีที่น่าจะช่วยแก้ปัญหาได้
แอบขัดใจที่ไม่ได้พูดถึงความซับซ้อนว่า จะเปลี่ยนแรงจูงใจของนักการเมือง/ผู้ดำเนินนโยบาย/ผู้ครองตลาด ให้หันมาร่วมมือกันแก้ปัญหาได้อย่างไร (แต่เกตส์ก็ออกตัวแต่เนิ่นๆ ว่า เขาสนใจวิศวกรรม ไม่ใช่รัฐศาสตร์) และไม่พูดถึงการถกเถียงเชิงจริยธรรมที่ว่า สุดท้ายเราต้องเปลี่ยนค่านิยมออกจากมหกรรมบริโภคนิยมหรือไม่ (เกตส์มีสมมุติฐานเป็นนัยๆ ว่า เราจะคิดค้นเทคโนโลยีสะอาดได้โดยที่คนไม่ต้องเสียสละอะไรเลย บริโภคแค่ไหนก็ทำต่อไปได้) ดังนั้นในแง่นี้มุมมองของเขาจึงออกจะเป็น technological fundamentalist ไปหน่อย แต่โดยรวมหนังสือเล่มนี้ก็มาถูกที่ถูกเวลา ควรค่าแก่การอ่านในยุคที่ไม่มีสังคมไหนรอดพ้นจากผลกระทบของ climate change อีกต่อไปแล้ว
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February 24, 2021In this book Bill Gates offers a singles and doubles approach to mitigating climate change rather than a home run, which he centers around the long-term goal of reducing the present annual carbon emissions total of 51 billion tons to zero by 2050. The book is more like a set of fleshed out PowerPoint notes. Much of it will feel like beginner stuff to anyone who has read up on the subject previously. There is a disjuncture between the upbeat tone and the relatively cautious prognostications of change since it seems like in large part humanity is going to be biting the bullet on this one. We are going to need to rely heavily on nuclear power in any realistic race to zero, as well as eat less meat and invent a number of energy-efficient ways of making concrete and other such things. The developing world is not going to stop developing just because we have hit post-industrialization and the virtual age, and that process is going to generate pollution. A lot of the projects that Gates runs down here are ones that he himself is investing in so knows much about.
I appreciate that Gates is a rich guy who at least notionally cares about the collective good. And although it might not be as emotionally satisfying to hear that there is One Simple Trick to solving this global crisis, the mitigation measures he runs down here are likely more realistic.
I appreciate that Gates is a rich guy who at least notionally cares about the collective good. And although it might not be as emotionally satisfying to hear that there is One Simple Trick to solving this global crisis, the mitigation measures he runs down here are likely more realistic.
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