Bill Gates knows a lot. But he doesn’t know how thankful he should be for my quick reflexes.
One evening in the mid-1990s, driving to a lecture in downtown Seattle, I spotted Bill and Melinda Gates headed for the same venue, arms entwined, deep in conversation. How remarkable and wonderful, I thought, that the world’s richest man and his wife can freely wander the streets of Seattle at night, unattended, without fear of molestation.
Shortly I saw them again, standing uncertainly on a corner where I was about to turn left into a one-way street. I stopped, awaiting their decision on where to go. It did not seem imminent. So I swung into the crosswalk — just as Bill and Melinda Gates stepped directly in front of my car. My brain busied itself with the “Stand-on-brake!” command before it allowed me to reflect on the unthinkable consequences of becoming the person who mowed down the world’s richest man and his wife in a crosswalk.
I missed Bill’s hip by inches. Oblivious, they sauntered on without a glance my way.
I’ve kept a wary eye out for Bill Gates ever since.
Over time, we’ve both mellowed. Bill Gates has evolved from bratty Harvard dropout and ruthless business competitor to the world’s most generous philanthropist, concerning himself especially with health and education of people in poor countries. That, plus his latest contribution to the world’s well-being, “How to Avoid a Climate Change Disaster,” has caused me to conclude that all is forgiven.
Gates’ book brings clarity and common sense to our underfunded, uncoordinated, ad hoc efforts to deal with climate change. His 230-page primer is a folksy account of how he came to understand what it will take to keep Earth habitable. He provides what’s long been missing: an overarching, reality-based roadmap.
“I’m aware that I’m an imperfect messenger on climate change,” the Microsoft co-founder writes, conceding he’s rich enough to purchase compensation for his large carbon footprint.
Intellectually curious, he’s a self-described “big picture” guy with command of facts on the ground. What I like best about Bill Gates is that — unlike some billionaires who apparently cannot get off this planet fast enough — he’s investing his fortune saving the planet we’ve got and the poorest of those living upon it.
Little time left
We Americans — who are most responsible for overheating the planet yet the most unwilling to repent — consciously chose to make climate change more expensive. We did this by squandering 40 years not taking it seriously enough. We have 29 years left to intervene before humans will be powerless to stem its worst manifestations. By 2050, time’s up.
So Gates’ basic message is rightly stark. Every year, the world adds 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. By 2050, that must be reduced to zero tons, he emphasizes. He does not shy away from how hard, costly and complicated — or how non-negotiable — this tardy reduction will be.
Population growth will add one New York City’s worth of construction every month for the next 40 years, he warns. (We do now see that pandemics may interfere with population growth projections.)
Gates explains why we must build a unified national power grid (see the recent crippling power outage in Texas), how we might deploy cheap hydrogen energy (see Sen.. Brad Hawkins and Douglas County PUD’s hydrogen project) and why battery storage is so vexing.
When Gates’ close friend Warren Buffet — himself once the world’s richest man — asked Gates why we can’t just put electric batteries in airplanes to eliminate their emissions, Gates explained that so many batteries would be needed that the plane couldn’t lift off the ground. “Ah,” said Buffet. It’s an “ah-ha” moment that shows how far we are from energy literacy.
Human-caused greenhouse gases come from five sources, Gates explains: making things (31%), plugging in (27%), growing things (19%), getting around (16%), keeping warm and cool (7%).
Gates has his own dog in this fight. He owns TerraPower, which aims to build a fail-safe nuclear reactor that doesn’t produce as much dangerous, long-lived radioactive waste as those now in use.
Not helpless
We’ve been living cheaply on this planet. Now comes the real power bill. Gates warns that our present climate-safe energy sources are not yet inexpensive enough to compete with unsafe fossil fuels. He urges massive public and private investments to quickly bring down costs of climate-safe energy because that’s the only way we’ll get it soon enough.
Many people feel helpless about climate change. Gates is having none of that. He believes innovation, technology and government can rise to this unprecedented human challenge. He’s come a long way from his days scorning government.
“I’m an optimist,” says the visionary software engineer who shrank room-sized computers to desktop size.
If we don’t get serious about climate change, little else we care about, and expend our efforts and treasure on, will matter. Not social justice, not health care, not education, not peace on Earth. There will be no peace on Earth if we don’t stop fueling global warming.
Last Thursday, President Joe Biden announced that the United States will cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 from what they were in 2005.
Is this enough to qualify as getting serious about climate change? Hello?
Stay tuned. This much we do know: pessimists are not the people you call when heavy lifting’s wanted.
Solveig Torvik lives near Winthrop.
