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A review by exterm
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates
4.0
This quote from the book says it best:
That's what the book is about. It is very good at that. Gates introduces the idea of "green premiums", the difference in price between the current way of doing a thing and the "clean" way of doing that thing. He uses that to quantify the gap from where we are to where we need to get, and to compare alternatives.
A large part of the book is exactly that: Comparing the status quo with a possible zero-carbon future. The rest of the book lays out what needs to happen for that future to arrive.
My main gripe with the book is that it goes into a lot of detail on things that I have no influence over. Lots of things need to happen in government agencies, for example.
He does give a few ideas for how individuals can indirectly influence companies, governments and agencies to do the right thing, as well as what individuals can do to directly affect change (in a very small way). However I really did not need all of the detail around how the government can do certain things.
An aspect that stuck out positively for me was his wholistic perspective. He highlights that we can't just "do less", because large swaths of the planet's population just don't have that option. Not everybody can just stop eating meat and dairy, for example. But even if they could, that would be a very hard sell. Rather, we can use economics to our advantage to make something that people will want to buy, produce or use, and will be able to afford. If it's obviously better, it will get wide adoption automatically, and companies will be interested in distributing it.
Overall, it is a great summary of where we're at and how we can possibly still avoid the worst of the looming disaster.
When we have a fact-based view of climate change, we can see that we have some of the things we need to avoid a climate disaster, but not all of them. We can see what stands in the way of deploying the solutions we have and developing the breakthroughs we need. And we can see all the work we must do to overcome these hurdles.
That's what the book is about. It is very good at that. Gates introduces the idea of "green premiums", the difference in price between the current way of doing a thing and the "clean" way of doing that thing. He uses that to quantify the gap from where we are to where we need to get, and to compare alternatives.
A large part of the book is exactly that: Comparing the status quo with a possible zero-carbon future. The rest of the book lays out what needs to happen for that future to arrive.
My main gripe with the book is that it goes into a lot of detail on things that I have no influence over. Lots of things need to happen in government agencies, for example.
He does give a few ideas for how individuals can indirectly influence companies, governments and agencies to do the right thing, as well as what individuals can do to directly affect change (in a very small way). However I really did not need all of the detail around how the government can do certain things.
An aspect that stuck out positively for me was his wholistic perspective. He highlights that we can't just "do less", because large swaths of the planet's population just don't have that option. Not everybody can just stop eating meat and dairy, for example. But even if they could, that would be a very hard sell. Rather, we can use economics to our advantage to make something that people will want to buy, produce or use, and will be able to afford. If it's obviously better, it will get wide adoption automatically, and companies will be interested in distributing it.
Overall, it is a great summary of where we're at and how we can possibly still avoid the worst of the looming disaster.