How to avoid a climate disaster – Bill Gates - Review
Let me throw some light on an impending apocalypse like scenario, northern ice caps could melt down submerging coastal
cities, hurricane, heat waves, floods, droughts and a range of other
unforeseen disasters that can regress human life by centuries. This can result in unprecedented
economic depressions, massive levels of immigration, dearth of energy along with food
supply and the worst of all a potential world war. Before I go any further, let’s
understand that climate change is a critical aspect every human should be aware
of and willing to participate in a positive course correction.
Bill Gates starts with a number – 52 billion tons of CO2 and
it’s equivalents which is the estimated amount of greenhouse gases that’s released
into the atmosphere every year. The threat is that these gases take approximately 10,000
years to breakdown and take a different form. Greenhouse gases traps the heat received
from sunlight there by increasing the global temperature, in a critical way
they are essential because without it the earth will be excessively cold for survival. However, we cannot be blowing up too much of them in the atmosphere, tipping
the balance towards making earth intolerably hot.
The challenge is not just reduction of greenhouse gas
emissions but bringing it to zero and this has to be accomplished within 2050,
needless to say that with 190+ countries, their economic development, policies
and plenitude of other factors taken into consideration, net zero emissions is
a herculean task. As a first step towards it, the global leaders of 190+
countries have already signed the Paris accord 2015 but this is just the first
of the million steps away from the end goal.
Bill Gates throws light on the major contributors towards carbon
emissions which happens to have it's footprint on almost every walk of human life – Electricity,
Infrastructure components like cement & steel, fuel consumed for travel, animal
husbandry and deforestation. He constantly refers to word green premiums which
is basically the additional price that the consumers would have to pay for alternate
forms of energy or fuel. The broad level goal is to bring down green premiums
close to zero which will evoke a 180 degree shift towards clean technology.
There are already a few breakthroughs that have been discovered, like Boston Metal’s green steel with zero CO2 emissions. Do check the link below:
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CO2-Free Fe: Green Steel Tour with Boston Metal - YouTube
Bullitt Center –
Seattle, Washington is a wonderful case study for constructing green commercial
complexes. It generates 30% more energy than it consumes during the summer
season while making use of 26 geothermal wells to generate heat during winter.
Officially, it’s the world’s greenest commercial building.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNvXTqimMK4
Here is another breakthrough innovation to produce drought
resistant crops. CGIAR’s scuba rice can withstand 2 weeks of being
submerged underwater. This is an excellent innovation that can potentially save
the yield of the farmers during floods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M92MldRIWL4
Bill Gates underscores the magnanimity of the problem in front of human race, highlights relevant innovation that provide solutions, the breakthroughs we need and draws out a high-level methodology at a global scale to evolve out of the situation.
Recommendation: Must Read !
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