It takes a lot -- perhaps a minor miracle -- to put more than a thousand people in a celebratory mood at 7:30 a.m. And apparently, a public discussion with Bill Gates about climate change and its solutions is just such an occasion.
This week, the former Microsoft chief and current philanthropist and head of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation served as the main attraction at a fundraiser in Seattle put on by Climate Solutions, a regional non-profit organization with operations in Washington, Oregon and Montana.
During the breakfast event, Climate Solutions promoted its mission of clean energy solutions, in part through the premiere of its Solutions Stories video series, and in part through presentations from other regional environmental and political leaders, including Dean Allen, CEO of architecture and construction firm McKinstry; Climate Solutions' policy director, K.C. Golden; Washington state governor Christine Gregoire and Representative Jim McDermott were also in attendance.
But the real reason the crowds had thronged, and Climate Solutions had gathered dozens of volunteers wearing bright green hard hats as greeters and coordinators to welcome attendees, was to hear Bill Gates speak on climate change challenges and solutions, and how to, as Golden put it, "pioneer a sustainable path to prosperity that works for us for the long run and for the billions of people around world" who are less privileged.
Breakfast with Bill
Gates was interviewed by Climate Solutions' board co-president Jabe Blumenthal, who asked Gates about his interest in energy, climate change and how these topics relate to the work being done by the Gates Foundation. Excerpts of Gates' answers to Blumenthal's questions follow:
Q: How and why did you get involved in climate change?
Gates: I think it's important to think about energy and how critical it is in so many ways. Why has our civilization gotten so advanced in the last few hundred years? A lot of it is about breakthroughs in energy and intensification of energy use. If you think about poor people and improving their lives ... getting around, getting fertilizer, getting lighting at night ... so many of the things that count for them are related to energy.
As I learned about energy, I began to understand that we've got this constraint. We have to do it in a way that's not emitting CO2. We need multiple breakthroughs -- a portfolio of solutions--that deal with the environment and getting the costs down. In terms of overall planetary energy use, we have to have something that works for everyone. I've enjoyed learning about it and helping people understand how important this is.
Q: Can you talk about what you've done in the past couple of years to educate yourself about this area?
Gates: The number of great books in this area is phenomenal, including Creating the Twentieth Century by Vaclav Smil and Sustainable Energy -- Without the Hot Air by David MacKay. I'm also very lucky that some of the top people on climate and energy are willing to come and talk with me.
I agree with Rhys.
I agree with Rhys.
shut up and do it properly
shut up and do it properly rhys :L
The article in which I have
The article in which I have just read is unbelievably unbelievable! I am happy to say that i enjoyed the 5 minutes that I wasted to read this and hope to do it again soon. Bill Gates is a fantastically handsome man and very naughty!
Fantastic. People who don't
Fantastic. People who don't believe in global warming are so naughty!
Hey Bill, Apple's better.
Hey Bill, Apple's better.
Bill Gates would solve the
Bill Gates would solve the climate crisis by investing in an idea that would hopefully result in the solution. He would most likely also use google to publicise his ideas to the world and hopefully get donations possibly a new appeal for the climate crisis 'solution'.
It's rightly said , that We
It's rightly said , that We Inhale not O2 it's Air !
Bill, why produce cheaper
Bill, why produce cheaper energy when we could eliminate the need for this energy by ridding ourselves of drafty inefficient structures and replacing them with Passive Net Zero ones.
It's interesting that Gates
It's interesting that Gates is wowed by organic agriculture hater Vaclav Smil. That doesn't bode well for sustainability efforts in agriculture as far as the Gates Foundation goes.
Don't knock Gates too much!!!
Don't knock Gates too much!!! This man has clout. When he speaks, stuff gets done. The more that influential people come on board to clean energy, the quicker we'll move ahead. We have to support everyone who is putting their efforts into this. You never know who may be next...hopefully some of the witless wonders in Congress.
Bill Gates is a right wing
Bill Gates is a right wing nut job who stole his money by overcharging his customers, stiffing his employees, and hostile takeovers that have set the computer industry backwards for decades. Now Bill Gates environmental stewardship involves shutting down renewables and dumping billions of tax dollars into the nuclear industry. Bill doesn't do anything for free. Not even Charity. We cannot let his fake charity PR firms whitewash his corporate crimes.
I think algal biodiesel has
I think algal biodiesel has lots of potential if geneticists can bioengineer more efficient types of algae to yield more significant amounts of oil per unit of biomass. It could also solve the nutrient pollution problems that currently causes dead zones at the mouths of all major world rivers (by using those now-wasted nutrients as food to humankind's benefit). Any biofuels would be inherently carbon-neutral. They use and convert solar energy, and needless to say Photosynthesis is a tried and true technology that operates at ambient temperatures and does not create newly enriched toxic wastes that linger for thousands or millions of years.
Coupled with this is a need to shift agricultural practices away from fossil-fuel dependent means of production such as the Haber process (which produces nitrogen fertilizer). 3–5% of world natural gas production is consumed in the Haber process (~1–2% of the world's annual energy supply.
Also we need to find ways to manufacture portland cement which are not as fossil energy intensive. I was encouraged to see japanese researchers published findings on reuse of powerplant CO2 emissions to harden concrete. Haven't studied the reactions but this would be a good way to lock it up in carbonate mineral form rather than in the atmosphere (warming) and oceans (acidification) for hundreds of years.
Stick to computers Bill! If
Stick to computers Bill! If you haven't noticed we are not getting warmer but colder. We're going to need all the green house gas we can get in the next few years. Also, When you can make it rain in the desert and not rain in flood zones then talk to me about climate change.
> Roger > If you haven't
> Roger
> If you haven't noticed we are not getting warmer but colder.
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.A2.gif
Get your head out of your ass!
It concerns me that we assign
It concerns me that we assign a leadership role to Bill Gates on topics he's not qualified to comment on. In fact, his operating systems have probably contributed to more e-waste, more lost productivity and more excess energy use globally than any other tech company certainly, and maybe more than any company ever when you consider the decades of sub-par performance of nearly everyone's corporate computer network.
His technologies didn't reduced paper consumption and I'd argue it hasn't saved real time either, just changed time and our work lives 180 degrees. Take his money, it's the least he can do for what he has caused, but spare us the opinion beyond the importance of any average citizen's worried about our future.
Developed nations definitely
Developed nations definitely need to deploy energy efficiency quickly, as this will give immediate reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, plus it will stimulate the economy, particularly in the hard-hit construction sector. Despite this fact, the U.S. uniquely well-suited, and indeed, bears a large responsibility to develop energy solutions that can deliver a tripling of total global primary energy production over the next 40 years, and do it in a manner that has near zero GHG emissions.
Dr. Barry Brook, an Australian conservation biologist, has pursued this topic on his excellent blog site, www.bravenewclimate.com . His recent two-part post http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/05/09/renewables-are-not-sufficient-p1/ summarizes the challenges and potential solutions. His preliminary conclusion is that a future mix of technologies that is technically, economically and physically feasible would be about 25% renewables and 75% nuclear power. Dr. Brook provides excellent documentation and reasoning.