Questions for the panel. This is long, but the Bill Gates climate memo is far longer.
Why does Bill Gates need more than 5,000 words to make a few simple points?
Seems like the big one is “Relieving suffering in less developed countries should be important, too.” Do you agree? Do you think rich countries, corporations, and billionaires can afford to fix both problems at the same time?
His other big point is “Stop wasting attention and money on climate fixes that won’t work soon, especially for poor countries.” Do you agree? What about so many of his investments with that exact description?
We have the technology now at low enough cost to fix some of his biggest climate villains: Electricity (28%), agriculture (19%), and transportation except for jet travel (about 16%). Do you agree? Why should we invest in anything other than scaling up and removing political and cultural barriers in those areas?
What about the political and cultural barriers to reducing both global climate change and suffering in less developed countries? Gates doesn’t even mention those problems. They are big, serious, and very hard to fix. Breakthrough technology that doesn’t get used doesn’t help anyone.
The rest of these questions are important but much further down in the weeds.
Why do we need 24-hour fission and fusion power when abundant solar and wind can be stored in batteries at far lower cost, far faster, and far safer? Why not pursue much cheaper, much safer enhanced geothermal that also provides 24-hour power? How can you scale multibillion-dollar fission and fusion energy plants enough to make a difference? Note that “small modular reactors” have been expensive failures so far, with no clear path forward. How can less developed countries ever afford these energy sources?
Geologic hydrogen is a “probably not.” Hydrogen has serious, hard-to-solve problems with safe transportation and use while creating more global warming. Leaked hydrogen turns other stuff into greenhouse gases. And hydrogen is very, very hard to keep inside wells, pipes, and tanks. Carbon capture and storage at large scale is in a similar but different box. If we’re not supposed to waste attention and money chasing crazy climate solutions, why is he chasing these?
Gates says “there aren’t enough skilled workers around the world to install” heat pumps. What about companies like Mitsubishi, Midea, and Gradient shipping thousands of heat pumps that fit in a window and plug into a normal outlet without skilled workers?
Questions for the panel. This is long, but the Bill Gates climate memo is far longer.
Why does Bill Gates need more than 5,000 words to make a few simple points?
Seems like the big one is “Relieving suffering in less developed countries should be important, too.” Do you agree? Do you think rich countries, corporations, and billionaires can afford to fix both problems at the same time?
His other big point is “Stop wasting attention and money on climate fixes that won’t work soon, especially for poor countries.” Do you agree? What about so many of his investments with that exact description?
We have the technology now at low enough cost to fix some of his biggest climate villains: Electricity (28%), agriculture (19%), and transportation except for jet travel (about 16%). Do you agree? Why should we invest in anything other than scaling up and removing political and cultural barriers in those areas?
What about the political and cultural barriers to reducing both global climate change and suffering in less developed countries? Gates doesn’t even mention those problems. They are big, serious, and very hard to fix. Breakthrough technology that doesn’t get used doesn’t help anyone.
The rest of these questions are important but much further down in the weeds.
Why do we need 24-hour fission and fusion power when abundant solar and wind can be stored in batteries at far lower cost, far faster, and far safer? Why not pursue much cheaper, much safer enhanced geothermal that also provides 24-hour power? How can you scale multibillion-dollar fission and fusion energy plants enough to make a difference? Note that “small modular reactors” have been expensive failures so far, with no clear path forward. How can less developed countries ever afford these energy sources?
Geologic hydrogen is a “probably not.” Hydrogen has serious, hard-to-solve problems with safe transportation and use while creating more global warming. Leaked hydrogen turns other stuff into greenhouse gases. And hydrogen is very, very hard to keep inside wells, pipes, and tanks. Carbon capture and storage at large scale is in a similar but different box. If we’re not supposed to waste attention and money chasing crazy climate solutions, why is he chasing these?
Gates says “there aren’t enough skilled workers around the world to install” heat pumps. What about companies like Mitsubishi, Midea, and Gradient shipping thousands of heat pumps that fit in a window and plug into a normal outlet without skilled workers?
Thank you — will do my best to get to some of these!