Bill Gates Sees Climate Change as Important Global Problem

A note from Dorothy:

If you Google Bill Gates, you’ll find that his net worth has been estimated at close to $58 billion, not counting the $30-40 billion of the Gates Foundation. For the 13th consecutive year, he has been ranked by Forbes Magazine as the richest person in the world. If he were a country, the IMF would put him on its list of 180 at about 82nd, between Slovenia and Yemen. So if Gates thinks climate change is important, we should all feel a little more hopeful. His ideas for solutions may not be all we could wish for, but as he learns more about how very serious the global threat we face is and how extraordinarily complex an adequate solution must necessarily be, he may stop thinking in terms of simplistic formulas and quick technological fixes. He’ll see, like with climatic systems, many dangerous feedback loops are inherent in the development of economic, technological and social solutions, and these must not be ignored. The big industry in bio-fuels that has sprung up in response to the need for energy efficiency is a case in point.

Here are two opposing points of view on his recent talk for TED, “Innovating To Zero“

Bill Gates: the Most Important Climate Speech of the Year

By Alex Steffen, February 15, 2010

When We Talk Zero, We Sound Crazy. When Bill Gates Does It, Bankers Pick Up the Phone.

Note: Click the Duarte Blog for slides of the Bill Gates’ TED presentation, with comments.

On Friday, February 13, the world’s most successful businessperson and most powerful philanthropist did something outstandingly bold, that went almost unremarked: Bill Gates announced that his top priority is getting the world to zero climate emissions.

Now, I’m not a member of the Cult of Bill myself (I’m typing this on a MacBook), but you don’t have to believe that Gates has superhuman powers of prediction to know that his predictions have enormous power. People who will never listen to Al Gore, much to less someone like me, hang on Gates’ every utterance.

And Friday, Gates predicted extraordinary climate action: zero. Not small steps, not incremental progress, not doing less bad: zero. In fact, he stood in front of a slide with nothing but the planet Earth and the number zero. That moment was the most important thing that has happened at TED.

What exactly did he say, and why is it so important?

Please click here to read the rest of the Alex Steffen article.

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010976.html

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Why Bill Gates is Wrong

From Grist.org, by David Roberts, February 17, 2010

Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and philanthropist, made waves last week when, at the much-celebrated tech conference TED, he proclaimed that climate change is the most important problem facing the planet. Wo0t! Obviously having someone of Gates’ stature supporting the clean energy race is an unqualified good. (See Alex Steffen on Gates’ talk.)

That said, Gates has burst on to the energy scene with some rather ill-considered thinking. To get a flavor, see his blog post, “Why We Need Innovation, Not Just Insulation.” The idea is that “conservation and behavior change” might get the world to its 2020 or 2030 targets, but to get to 80 percent emissions reductions by 2050 we’ll need fundamental technological innovation. Ergo: we should pay more attention to, and devote more money to, basic science and R&D.

Now: it’s incontestably true that the U.S. investment in R&D is lower than it should be. We should increase funding in the search for game-changing technology that can help us generate and use energy more sustainably. Indeed, we should increase funding in lots of things! Therein lies the rub.

There are two problems with Gates’ dichotomy between innovation and insulation. The first is the more obvious but the second is more meaningful. (Also, see Joe Romm and Sean Casten for further Gates critiques.)

Please click here to read the rest of the David Roberts article.

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-02-17-why-bill-gates-is-wrong-on-energy-and-climate/