How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
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How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
by Bill Gates (Goodreads Author)
3.40 · Rating details · 68 ratings · 21 reviews
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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. (less)
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Hardcover, 272 pages
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Bill Gates bought another seaside mansion last year.
Why would he do that if he really believed global warming was going to lead to sea level rises? Barack Obama, another global warming believer, also bought a shoreline mansion recently too.
https://variety.com/2020/dirt/moguls/bill-and-melinda-gates-pick-up-del-mar-oceanfront-mansion-1234590980/
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2 Likes · Like 20 Days Ago See All 4 Answers
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Average rating3.40 · Rating details · 68 ratings · 21 reviews
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Jessica
Jan 15, 2020Jessica marked it as no-thanks
bill 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. (less)
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Ayibatari Ogounga
Mar 01, 2020Ayibatari Ogounga rated it it was amazing
can't wait to read this, so cool .this might be better than what Vaclav smil has to offer ...really looking forward to it. (less)
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Thomas Pienkos
Jan 26, 2021Thomas Pienkos rated it did not like it · review of another edition
Why is a computer guy, who is concerned about preserving his billions, writing about Climate concerns, Education or medicine and vaccines? We have top scientists across the world, we do not need one of the wealthiest men and non specialists tell us what to do and when. Especially when Gates is one of the largest investors in Monsanto/Bayer, a company that is killing us and our environment. Bill Gates should go back under his rock and leave the science to the experts. He is a THREAT to the planet and its occupants, not its saviour. (less)
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Dev Pradhan
Oct 20, 2020Dev Pradhan marked it as to-read
Shelves: unreleased
Can't wait to read this book by the man who encouraged me to read through his recommendations. Climate change is a major issue in the world and Gate's research on it will be a big help for us to defend it. (less)
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Chris Ferguson
Jan 26, 2021Chris Ferguson added it · review of another edition
For further reading, please see "The Great Reset" by Klaus Schwab. (less)
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Kathleen
Jan 29, 2021Kathleen rated it did not like it
Billionaires are the leading cause of climate change.
flag3 likes · Like · 6 comments · see review
B.K.
Jan 26, 2021B.K. rated it did not like it · review of another edition
More fiction to drive Gates fortune to new heights.
flag3 likes · Like · 1 comment · see review
Jim
Feb 02, 2021Jim rated it did not like it · review of another edition
Shelves: no-thanks
The problem with people who have found religion is that they honestly think they can save the world if only they can convert everyone else.
People want to feel more important than they are. Countless literary fantasies involve characters saving lives, recognized as true heroes.
Bill Gates helped create an operating system for IBM PCs. IBM completely missed the market opportunity and allowed Gates and his partner to own the code. Decades later, every computer purchased means another $100, maybe a little less, in his pocket.
So he has a lot of money. And now he thinks he can save the world. The climate changes. It got a little warmer in the '90s and '00s and Al Gore made a movie. Kids and high school science teachers loved it, even though none of the predictions of doom within have come true.
So here he's repeating what the most hysterical of college professors are bleating, desperate for rock-star status as this tower of inept projections based on computer models built on fraudulent or just plain dishonest data is about to collapse.
The good news is that the world won't end. The bad news is that when it doesn't, this is the kind of drivel that people think will have saved it. Just like people praise their gods when they get goodies and blame evil when they don't.
It's too bad Gates has wasted his limited world-wide fame on this nonsense, but here we are. (less)
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SoleTobel
Jan 26, 2021SoleTobel rated it did not like it · review of another edition
Fascist. Like ever. Disgusting human being.
flag2 likes · Like · 2 comments · see review
Thomas Vos
Feb 14, 2021Thomas Vos rated it liked it
Ik had liever 30 bladzijden probleemstelling en 240 bladzijden oplossing gezien.
flag3 likes · Like · 1 comment · see review
Samuel Weidler
Apr 24, 2020Samuel Weidler marked it as to-read
How to aviod a climate disaster?
C02=P×S×E×C
Reduce Emissions.
Or in otherwords...
(COVID-19)
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Aaron Akbar
Feb 13, 2021Aaron Akbar rated it it was amazing
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. (less)
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Marianne
Feb 09, 2021Marianne rated it did not like it
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... (less)
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Carla Harlin
Feb 07, 2021Carla Harlin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
I appreciate every book that gives solutions and things we can do to avoid climate disaster. The title is already good because it refers to "climate disaster" not "climate change". The latter is something we cannot prevent, but we can adapt to it.
For free self-help books, check out this list: https://alexamood.com/list-of-free-se... (less)
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James Edward
Jan 26, 2021James Edward added it · review of another edition
Risky, betting all we have on the ideas both that CO2 can be reduced, and that doing so will limit climate change. Even worse, reliable and affordable technologies to do it don't even exist. Climate's always changing anyway; where I live, ten thousand years ago there was a mile thick layer of ice and snow; now none at all. Can't blame humanity for something that happened before we even existed. (less)
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Genie Langdon
Jun 25, 2020Genie Langdon added it
Bill needs to provide leadership. At least the book shows his interest, but he's not yet focused primarily on climate, which is the planet's number one problem. Meanwhiie, it's frustrating to know the book is out there but we can't see it yet. (less)
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Stephen Chase
Feb 14, 2021Stephen Chase rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: adults-only, christmas-books, history, real-places, social-studies, sexy
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The greatest Bill Gates book ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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About the Author
Bill Gates is cochair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and founder of Breakthrough Energy. In 1975, Bill Gates founded Microsoft with Paul Allen and led the company to become the worldwide leader in business and personal software and services. In 2008, Bill transitioned to focus full-time on his foundation's work to expand opportunity to the world's most disadvantaged people. Along with cochair Melinda Gates, he leads the foundation's development of strategies and sets the overall direction of the organization. At Breakthrough Energy, he's putting his experience as an innovator and problem-solver to work to address climate change by supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs, big thinkers, and clean technologies. Bill uses his experience partnering with global leaders across sectors to help drive the policy, market, and technological changes required for a clean energy transition. In 2010, Bill, Melinda, and Warren Buffett founded the Giving Pledge, an effort to encourage the wealthiest families and individuals to publicly commit more than half of their wealth to philanthropic causes and charitable organizations during their lifetime or in their will.
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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/14/how-to-avoid-a-climate-disaster-by-bill-gates-the-new-climate-war-by-michael-e-mann-review
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates; The New Climate War by Michael E Mann – review
‘Poor people, in every country, are the most at risk from droughts, floods and heatwaves’
‘Poor people, in every country, are the most at risk from droughts, floods and heatwaves.’ Photograph: Tom Ridout/Alamy
Two eminent voices on the climate crisis present clear strategies for tackling emissions, deniers and doomsayers
Bob Ward
Sun 14 Feb 2021 18.00 AEDT
153
President Joe Biden has promised a new era of American leadership on global climate action, after four years of unscientific denial and misinformation under Donald Trump. Two important new books by prominent American authors, both written before the result of the presidential election was known, should help to capitalise on the new spirit of cautious optimism by laying out bold but well-argued plans for accelerating action against climate change.
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates presents a compelling explanation of how the world can stop global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions effectively to zero. Gates and his wife, Melinda, are well known for their foundation’s tremendous work on improving health and tackling disease around the world, particularly in poor countries. It is this concern for the most vulnerable people on the planet that has meant Gates has occasionally appeared equivocal about climate and energy policies that he thought could undermine the fight against poverty and illness. However, this book lays out forcefully his understanding that the impact of climate change poses a far bigger threat to lives and livelihoods in developing countries – it is thwarting efforts to raise living standards because poor people, in every country, are the most at risk from droughts, floods and heatwaves.
Gates rightly emphasises the importance of improving the resilience of both rich and poor countries to current and future climate change that cannot now be avoided. But his book leaves no doubt that adapting to the impact is not a solution on its own – we must also eliminate global emissions of greenhouse gases.
His strategy for reaching zero emissions is laid out in a very straightforward way, using numbers to help guide the reader to the magnitude of the challenge. He notes that annual emissions of greenhouse gases before the Covid-19 pandemic were well over 50bn tonnes worldwide, and rising. Getting to zero within the next few decades will be no mean feat.
The book breaks down the sources of these emissions into a few broad categories – making things, plugging in, and getting around – and Gates knows how to frame issues in terms with which everybody should be able to engage, without dumbing down the material.
At its highest level, his strategy is simple: make power generation zero-carbon by replacing fossil fuels with renewables and nuclear power, and then electrify as much of our activities as possible. This works in theory, but creates significant challenges, such as how to manage the intermittency of supply from sources such as solar panels and wind turbines.
A key device used by Gates is to calculate the cost of clean alternatives relative to fossil fuels, and where they are currently more expensive, to quantify the difference as a “green premium”. He then explains how this premium can be reduced through innovation and government policies. The credibility of the strategy is strengthened by references throughout to technologies in which Gates is investing his own money, such as novel ways to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and then store it. He also acknowledges that his sincerity will be doubted by some because of his wealth and use of private jets, for instance. But I think readers will discover from his book that he is a serious and genuine force for good on climate change.
Mann says that, far from needing a miracle, we could achieve 100% clean electricity with current renewable technologies
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The only major concern I have is that in emphasising, correctly, the importance of rich countries reaching zero emissions by 2050, he appears to suggest that cuts in greenhouse gases over the next 10 years are less important. In fact, the amount of warming we face depends on cumulative emissions, so countries such as the US and UK need to be cutting sharply from now, and for the next 30 years.
Gates is also caught in the crosshairs in Professor Michael E Mann’s book, The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet, which criticises the 2016 edition of the billionaire’s annual letter, written with Melinda, for highlighting the challenges of cutting emissions and declaring “we need an energy miracle”. Mann, America’s most famous climate scientist, points out that many zero-carbon alternatives to fossil fuels are now cost-competitive with fossil fuels. He even suggests that, far from needing a miracle, we could achieve 100% clean electricity with current renewable technologies alone.
The main focus of Mann’s book is a call to arms in the new war against “inactivists” who are using new tactics of “deception, distraction and delay” to prevent the phase-out of fossil fuels. Mann is a robust character, and has fought off several disgraceful onslaughts against him and his work by climate change deniers in US politics and the media over the past 20 years. He warns that vested interests and ideological extremists who oppose efforts to eliminate fossil fuels no longer deny outright the reality of climate change because people can now see the evidence for it all around them. Instead, opponents of action now rely on slightly subtler arguments, and Mann reveals how they are sometimes unwittingly assisted by clumsy communications from climate scientists and campaigners.
He cautions against highlighting in particular the need for action by individual citizens and consumers. As important as personal efforts are, they can distract attention away from the critical role of governments and companies in making systemic changes.
Mann criticises the practice of flight-shaming climate researchers, because it creates the false impression that experts have to experience personal sacrifice and deprivation to be taken seriously, regardless of how successful they are in persuading politicians to act. Despite the attention devoted to it, flying is responsible for about 3% of annual greenhouse gas emissions.
Mann also attacks “doomsayers”, including some members of Extinction Rebellion, who claim that we have already passed the point of no return, condemning us all to imminent climate destruction. Such claims are not based on science and have the effect of making people give up on efforts to rid the world of fossil fuels.
Mann does not pull his punches, but his aim is usually strong and true. This book will no doubt prove controversial for some climate campaigners, as well as the deniers, but I hope it will be read by everybody who is engaged in making the case for action.
Both Mann and Gates appear optimistic that the world can stop climate change, but they are also under no illusions about the scale of the challenge we face and the many obstacles that lie in our way. They also show just how wrong those people are who think we cannot or should not succeed.
Bob Ward is policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science
• How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates is published by Allen Lane (£20). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
• The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet by Michael E Mann is published by Scribe (£16.99). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
