“So, who am I to lecture anyone on the environment?” asks a man that flies in private planes and owns big homes. Okay. He is trying to mitigate his impacts through sustainable fuel and carbon offsets. But is Bill Gates the man to tell us how to fix climate change?
Bill Gates’ philosophy is one of improving life chances and lifestyles while cutting carbon emissions. It is an unashamedly market-led approach, creating incentives through carbon pricing and reducing the cost of greening energy. His approach is to roll out new technologies for energy and food production, not to change the fundamental ways that society works.
How to avoid a climate disaster is textbook overlaid with Gates’ opinion on how to save the world. Saving the world is about adaptation, supported by technology, government and business investment. Unsurprisingly, it is a very America centric view of climate change. Even his brief sojourn into Nigeria comes across as the perspective of a wealthy donor.
There is no ecological thread to Gate’s vision. My ears pricked up when he says planting trees is not the solution, just leave the land untouched and they will grow anyway. Would he be about to champion rewilding? Alas no. Gates is a technocrat through and through. This book is about green carbon policies not greening the planet to promote biodiversity as well reducing atmospheric carbon. Even when he suggests increasing mango forests, he is talking about carbon sinks not biodiversity.
Burgers are mentioned often. Coming from a burger family, Bill Gates urges us to eat less meat and champions his investment in lab grown meat. I lost track of the number of companies he was investing in and of the work the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is doing.
Gates’ takes a firm stance on nuclear energy:
“Here is the one sentence case for nuclear power. It is the only carbon free energy source that can reliably delivery power day and night in any season almost anywhere on earth that has been proven to work on a large scale. No other clean energy source even comes close… What’s most important is that the world gets serious once again about advancing the field of nuclear energy. It’s just too promising to ignore.”
The book riled me at the beginning. The foreword, read by Gates himself in the audio version, was little more than environmental flagellation by a man with a massive carbon footprint. A man who has chosen offsets and greener fuel, not a change in lifestyle and is now seeking penance for his carbon sins. I still held that opinion at the end of the book.
Gates is a prominent world figure. With the Foundation, he has the money to invest in speculative scientific projects and start-up businesses, shrugging it off when they fail. So this is a book that will help shape views.
But this is a very America centred book. Attacking recent American policies, Gates says:
“Lowing the green premiums the world pays is not charity. Countries like the United States should not see investing in green energies as just a favour to the rest of the world. They should also see it as an opportunity to make scientific breakthroughs that will give birth to new industries composed of major new companies creating new jobs and reducing emissions at the same time.”
This book is worth a read and if you are looking for a birthday gift for a discerning teenager, it could be a good choice.
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates. Allen Lane £20 pp272.
* Andy Boddington is a Lib Dem councillor in Shropshire. He blogs at andybodders.co.uk.
8 Comments
Bill Gates is a an extremely wealthy man craving a meaningful purpose now that he has retired from the job he understood. He does not understand the subject he chose to write about and one wonders why he bothered. Probably he means well but that does not make an account of his ideas worth purchasing.
As I write this, high pressure dominates our weather and wind turbines are predictably stationary. To be strictly accurate, they are rotating very slowly using power from the grid. If they were left stationary it would cause damage to their bearings.
This demonstrates that to shut down all back up forms of electricity generation is irresponsible madness but that seems to be the policy of all members of the political class.
Thanks for the review. It will save me a lot of time.
I am consistently surprised by how little attention lab grown meat gets. That (along with driverless cars) looks like potentially the big change for the next decade or so.
“Nick Clegg announces special relationship with Gates …www.philanthropy-impact.org › 22 Jul 2010 — Following a meeting with philanthropist Bill Gates on Wednesday, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said the coalition government was looking……”
Ah, so that’s alright then…….
I think Andy (and Peter) is being a little hard on Gates. However, Andy’s observations are actually more important than many think. Gate’s book will be read and he will be listened to by those in the position to do something. So its omissions eg. “no ecological thread”, provide an indication of the battles to come. What Gates is largely focusing on is what traditional markets can do and/or invest in.
Yes he has a huge carbon footprint – just like most people at his level of wealth and influence, but recommend understand what he is saying and what the implications might be.
Remember the UK Government decided to press ahead with HS2, even thought it totally failed to satisfy any of the mandatory environmental requirements the Government had set out, hence why it was deemed okay to destroy ancient woodland (ie. habitate and ecosystems that have taken 400+ years to establish), yet the Government is committed to achieving “green” targets…
Bill Gates had embarked on spending the rest of his life on using and giving away his vast wealth for the benefit of mankind. In my book, that entitles him to pass comment on how he thinks the world can be made better.
Brad, Of course there is also the question as to whether it will be for the benefit of mankind. Nuclear is still a highly dangerous technology, especially in the hands of less stable government systems. Carbon offsetting is the modern equivalent of buying indulgences, often little more than allowing rich people to hand over money to you for woodland that was there anyway so they can pretend they are doing something meaningful.
I am sure that some of the things Bill Gates invests his money in will be a benefit. However, as a tome setting out a way forward, it seems to be just another tweak things here and there easy solution, which says nothing about the real elephant in the room – the need to fundamentally change human behaviour.
@David Evans – “Nuclear is still a highly dangerous technology”
Yes, the particular branch of nuclear energy, developed by the UK/US to support the manufacture of nuclear weapons is. However, it isn’t the only form of nuclear energy, it is just the one that has received the most investment to date.
Given the current situation in the US, I doubt “a tome setting out … the need to fundamentally change human behaviour.” would get much traction, however, if it helps to start America (and its devotees) moving down the “hippie”/”Lefty” trail then that is probably a good thing.