How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: the Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
An excellent book to read at any time, particularly if one feels anxious about the future and climate change and needs a source of direction and optimism.
Suggested Readers: More suitable for adults- especially those looking for career paths or investment opportunities in growing industries that focus on sustainability and corporate responsibility.
Learning about climate change and its current and future repercussions can be daunting. Understandably, it may evoke sentiments of anxiety, hopelessness, cynicism, and anger. However, in “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: the Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need,” author Bill Gates does an excellent job of focusing on the available and possible solutions to this global crisis. A revolutionary mind in computer technology and a dedicated philanthropist, Gates turns his focus towards sustainable energy and production technologies, climate mitigation practices, and what humans can do on an international, national, state, local, and personal level. The ultimate goal: get to worldwide net-zero carbon emissions before it is too late. Although energy sources such as wind and solar power should be widely utilized, they are not enough to solve this problem alone. Humans must be brave enough to improve and reconsider technologies such as nuclear power as well as take on the costs of researching and developing revolutionary technologies that can produce products such as cement or steel without carbon emissions. Furthermore the book makes a dedicated effort to emphasize the need to empower poorer nations and individuals so they can afford to transition to the sustainable practices that we all must adopt. By no means, are these challenges easy; however, should there be any hope in overcoming this worldwide, life / death predicament, it will be through the determination, innovation, and optimism of the nations, groups, and individuals that accept this challenge head on- and by doing so, will reap the benefits of new opportunities and sow the seeds of a better future for us all.
Excerpt:
“First, we need international cooperation. The phrase “we have to work together” is easy to dismiss as cliche, but it’s true. When governments, researchers, and pharmaceutical companies worked together on COVID-19, the world made remarkable progress- for example, developing and testing vaccines in record time. And when we didn’t learn from each other and instead demonized other countries or refused to accept that masks and social distancing slow the spread of the virus, we extended the misery.
The same is true for climate change. If rich countries worry only about lowering their own emissions and don’t work to make clean technologies practical for everyone, we’ll never get to zero. In that sense, helping others is not just an act of altruism, it’s also in our self-interest. We all have reasons to get to zero and help others do it, too. Temperatures will not stop rising in Texas unless emissions stop rising in India.”
PUBLISHER: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2021