How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: Bill Gates, a Summay by Scott Campbell

MARCH 28, 2021

Why Zero?

· Greenhouse gases capture and hold onto heat which results in a warmer earth. The more gas, the more heat, the warmer we get.

· Once atmospheric residents, greenhouse gases become long term tenants, staying as long as 10,000 years.

· Underground carbon from compressed plants forms fossil fuels like coal, oil, or natural gas.

· Burning fossil fuels spews out carbon, which traps heat.

· “Zero” means “Near Net Zero.” Ideally we achieve Net Zero and then start to reduce what’s leftover—a “Net Negative” solution.

A Little Is a Lot

· Just a few degrees change in planetary temperature might produce catastrophic consequences. The last Ice Age reigned at just six degrees cooler than today,.

· The dinosaurs had a planet just four degrees warmer.

· Historic geographic locations which experienced more of a change, because of varying levels of soil moisture, hold up to forty percent of our population.

· Methane and nitrous oxide join carbon dioxide as the most common greenhouse gases.

· Greenhouse gases are measured and discussed as “Carbon Dioxide Equivalents.”

· Greenhouse gases do not absorb sunlight, but they do absorb some of the energy re-radiated from the earth.

What We Do and Don’t Know

· Although we understand the physics and chemistry behind global warming, we don’t fully understand why and how it affects climates.

· Computer models need to be improved.

· We do know that the net effect of global warming in the long term will not be good.

· Since pre-industrial times, say before 1850, we’ve already elevated the planet’s temperature by one degree Celsius. By 2050, it might be between 1.5 and 3 degrees, and by 3000, between 4 and 8 degrees.

Ill-effects

· Climate change appears to make more intense and wetter storms. It creates floods and hurricanes because of excess moisture entering the air from too much warmth.

· Climate warming creates more devastating and more frequent wildfires because warm air soaks up moisture from the soil and plants.

· Sea levels rise from melting polar caps and general expansion and hit the poor the hardest by crop and home destruction and drowning.

· Climate change kills wildlife and plants and some crop production, and therefore is laced with loss of income. Heat makes cows and chickens less productive which drives up prices on dairy, meat, and eggs. Fish die or migrate. Coral reefs die.

· Climate change may favor harmful insects like mosquitoes, and in new locations.

· Heatstroke becomes more common.

· Climate change drives mass migration away from poor countries into richer ones.

· Climate change could be as deadly as COVID was by 2050, and by 2100, five times worse.

Coping and Solutions

· Adaptation: Minimizing the consequences of climate change. For example, anticipating that the world’s poorer farmers will suffer the most, take steps now to help them with flood and drought resistant crops.

· Mitigation: the most rich and industrial countries must mitigate their production of greenhouse gases. Gates predicts that the best zero-carbon entrepreneurs and companies will eventually be the financial leaders.

Ever wondered what Bill Gates prefers on his burgers? If he could still write the code that made him a billionaire?

Or what he thinks about being targeted by weird COVID-19 conspiracy theories?

Wonder no more.

Mr Gates held his ninth Reddit AMA — Ask Me Anything, for the uninitiated — and covered a whole lot of "meaty" ground, as the Microsoft co-founder put it himself.

Here's the best of what he had to say.

Gates is super into synthetic meat right now

While his focus is on fighting climate change (he's just published a book about it), Mr Gates spoke a lot about how important synthetic meat is key to solving the challenge in the years ahead.

Asked what "niche technology do you believe could play a significant role in the future in the battle against climate change?" Mr Gates said: "We need a lot of technologies — synthetic meat, energy storage, new ways of making building materials… We want to be open to ideas that seem wild."

Subscribe at www.summaries1000.com, first page, to get some freebies.

$2.49-$2.99

Audiobook: $2.99-

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 to 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.

“I wrote How to Avoid a Climate Disaster because I think we’re at a crucial moment. I’ve seen exciting progress in the more than 15 years that I’ve been learning about energy and climate change. The cost of renewable energy from the sun and wind has dropped dramatically. There’s more public support for taking big steps to avoid a climate disaster than ever before. And governments and companies around the world are setting ambitious goals for reducing emissions. What we need now is a plan that turns all this momentum into practical steps to achieve our big goals. That’s what How to Avoid a Climate Disaster is: a plan for eliminating greenhouse gas emissions. I hope you’ll check out the book, but much more important, I hope you’ll do what you can to help us keep the planet livable for generations to come.” - Bill Gates

REVIEWS:

“The most comprehensible explanation for what’s driving our warming planet; how to measure the impact of the myriad contributions to this staggering and seemingly incalculable problem; and ultimately how to go about finding more effective approaches to each of them. It’s the closest thing I’ve seen to a how-to guide for addressing the climate crisis.” —Clinton Leaf, Fortune “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster presents ideas with the methodical approach of a college textbook . . . Remarkably, given the state of the world, it is an optimistic, can-do sort of book, chock-full of solutions.” —Christina Binkley, The Wall Street Journal Magazine “The most refreshing aspect of this book is its bracing mix of cold-eyed realism and number-crunched optimism . . . Ultimately his book is a primer on how to reorganise the global economy so that innovation focuses on the world’s gravest problems. It is a powerful reminder that if mankind is to get serious about tackling them, it must do more to harness the one natural resource available in infinite quantity—human ingenuity.” —The Economist “The author’s enthusiasm and curiosity about the way things work is infectious. He walks us through not just the basic science of global warming, but all the ways that our modern lives contribute to it . . . Gates seems energized by the sheer size and complexity of the challenge. That’s one of the best things about the book—the can-do optimism and conviction that science in partnership with industry are up to the task.” —Richard Schiffman, The Christian Science Monitor “With the help of experts in fields such as physics, engineering, chemistry, finance and politics, the technologist and philanthropist offers a practical and accessible plan for getting the world to zero greenhouse gas emissions and averting climate catastrophe.” —Barbara VanDenburgh, USA Today “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster is clear, concise on a colossal subject, and intelligently holistic in its approach to the problem. Gates may not be the perfect messenger, but he has written a fine primer on how to get ourselves out of this mess.” —Adama Vaughan, New Scientist “Bill Gates has a plan to save the world . . . While acknowledging that the challenge is daunting, and how we make things, grow things, move around, keep cool and stay warm will all need to fundamentally change, Gates argues that wholesale transformation is possible while maintaining lifestyles in high income countries and continuing to lift billions out of poverty.” —Greg Williams, Wired “His expertise . . . is apparent in the book’s lucid explanations of the scientific aspects of climate change. The solutions he outlines are pragmatic and grounded in forward-thinking economic reasoning. Although he does not avoid the hard truths we must face as our climate changes, Gates remains optimistic and believes that we have the ability to avoid a total climate disaster.” —Miriam R. Aczel, Science “Concise, straightforward . . . Gates has crafted a calm, reasoned, well-sourced explanation of the greatest challenge of our time and what we must change to avoid cooking our planet.” —Jeff Rowe, Associated Press “A persuasive, optimistic strategy for reducing greenhouse emissions to zero by midcentury . . . Though Gates doesn’t shy away from acknowledging the daunting challenges ahead, his narrative contains enough confidence—and hard science and economics—to convince many readers that his blueprint is one of the most viable yet . . . supremely authoritative and accessible.” ––Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Those looking for an accessible review of how global warming can be countered will find this a handy—and maybe even hope-inspiring—guide.” ––Publishers Weekly “Gates has put his considerable wealth behind global health, educational, and economic initiatives and now turns his laser-like attention to this most existential of issues . . . He provides illuminating contexts for [his] perspectives and offers a treatise that is imperative, approachable, and useful.” ––Booklist --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

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