This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster" by Bill Gates. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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Are you looking for How to Avoid a Climate Disaster quotes by Bill Gates? What are some of the most noteworthy passages worth revisiting?
In How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, Bill Gates presents a practical discussion of climate change informed by his experience as a tech mogul and philanthropist. He discusses the looming effects of global warming on the planet and presents potential solutions for curbing CO2 emissions at the government, business, and individual levels.
Below is a selection of quotes with explanations.
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
In How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, Bill Gates asserts that we need to find ways to produce more energy without emitting greenhouse gases and further warming Earth’s atmosphere. To this end, Gates uses his experience in the technology industry to highlight feasible technological innovations for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and includes suggestions for their implementation.
The following How to Avoid a Climate Disaster quotes highlight some of his key ideas:
“Remember that we need to find solutions for all five activities that emissions come from: making things, plugging in, growing things, getting around, and keeping cool and warm.”
Bill Gates divides the major sources of carbon dioxide emissions into five categories. These categories (and their corresponding percentage of overall emissions) are manufacturing (31%), electricity generation (27%), agriculture (19%), transportation (16%), and heating and cooling (7%). He argues that we must tackle the climate change problem systematically in all five categories.
Furthermore, Gates contends that generating electricity without emitting carbon dioxide is the most critical step to eliminating carbon emissions because non-carbon electricity can also help reduce emissions in all other categories. For example, electric cars reduce emissions in the transportation category, and electric heat pumps can reduce emissions from furnaces in the heating and cooling category.
“Whatever other resources you may have, you can always use your voice and your vote to effect change.”
Gates explains that our individual efforts to reduce our emissions have little impact on global warming. Instead, the most important thing individuals can do to reduce carbon emissions is engage in the political process. Gates stresses the importance of voting for elected officials and policies that prioritize the climate, becoming active in local politics, and running for office.
“… making steel and cement alone accounts for around 10 percent of all emissions. So the question “What’s your plan for cement?” is just a shorthand reminder that if you’re trying to come up with a comprehensive plan for climate change, you have to account for much more than electricity and cars.”
Cement and steel that go into constructing roads, bridges, and buildings are the major sources of greenhouse gases. However, the demand for these building materials will increase as the global population grows.
Reducing CO2 emissions from cement production is problematic because the technology for carbon-less manufacturing on a large scale doesn’t exist yet. Gates explains that our most viable yet imperfect option is to keep the process roughly the same but capture the carbon dioxide before it reaches the atmosphere.
Unfortunately, while this technology exists on a relatively small scale, it can’t capture all the carbon dioxide emitted, and it makes both the manufacturing and the final products more expensive. Since the options for carbon-less manufacturing are limited, using materials as efficiently as possible and recycling materials is especially important.
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Here's what you'll find in our full How to Avoid a Climate Disaster summary:
- Bill Gates's technology-based strategies for reducing global carbon emissions
- The challenges and limitations that come with fighting climate change
- The roles governments, private entities, and individuals must play to save the planet
