Bob Grylls, Contributor
We have all heard about global climate change. The young will experience temperature’s rising well beyond the comfort level; seniors will miss out. Carbon dioxide emissions is the main culprit. Many books have been written about this pending doom; more than any one person could absorb.
The first of the long list was “An Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore in 2006. Al did a terrific job, and his book and name were on the tip of people’s tongues. However his warnings were too advanced for the time. People were curious but dismissed them as not serious.
Today, the world’s most prominent climate activist is Swedish Greta Thunberg, a 17-year-old, who has succeeded in creating a global attitudinal shift, transforming millions into a worldwide movement calling for urgent change. Time magazine wrote of Thunberg’s influence. Unfortunately, she was considered too young, unable to gather a critical mass of followers.
Now we have another challenger out to save the world. It’s Bill Gates himself, the co-founder of Microsoft and co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (to fund global health programs). His book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” encompasses a 4-part sure-fire plan to get climate change under control by 2050. I’m skeptical: a world-wide monumental swing towards climate change resolve is a whole lot harder than feeding the hungry.
As well, Al Gore is more athletic looking than Bill and Greta Thunberg is a helluva lot better looking. While Bill Gates is a nerd and has officially adopted that persona, to not intimidate others, but maybe to manipulate! He seems the antithesis of what one would expect from a leader. Despite dropping out of school, his arrogance and risk-taking made him successful.
This billionaire has enough money to protect himself to the bitter end of the worst climate crisis. Why does he want to be top dog then? Rather than giving lectures and writing books, he should donate 90% of his wealth to the cause which would be a boost. It would as well keep him out of sight.
Gates said, “It took me years to finally become interested in the climate rather than just being an advocate for global health.” Where had he been? Dozens of top scientists and talented entrepreneurs have been working their butts off trying to resolve this quandary.
Yes, he has published his Green Manifesto, playing out like he is the redeemer – the others in the trenches obliged to fall in line to his egotism. The same with little people like you and I who recycle, conserve energy, and plant trees – he says our efforts are minimal, it is the ‘big picture’ that is the only answer.
He calls the climate change problem simple: not releasing more greenhouse gases. In fact, stop releasing them altogether – eureka! His explanation is straightforward too. Think of the climate like a bathtub that’s slowly filling up with water. Even if we slow the flow of water to a trickle, the tub will eventually fill up and water will spill all over the floor. To stop temperatures rising and avoid a disaster, we have to turn off the tap entirely. Astounding, but didn’t we know this already.
How hard will it be? In the course of writing his book ”How to Avoid a Climate Disaster”, he developed an answer. He called it Green Premiums – the differences in cost between a fossil-fuel-based way of doing something and the clean, non-emitting way of doing the same thing.
Armed with these Green Premiums, we can see which zero-carbon tools are practical now, and which ones we still need to improve or invent. Gates has finally clued in that clean technology must become so cheap that everyone adopts it. Too bad we don’t have the economic structure put it into practice. So this route involves mobilizing capital to reduce the Green costs to then reduce the Green Premiums.
Gates also sent a signal to auto manufacturers that there’s a growing market for electric vehicles. Too late again – they are in the works.
Another example to drive down Green Premiums involves the airline industry offsetting the emissions by buying sustainable aviation fuel that is barely developed yet Gates claims he and his family somehow buy enough clean aviation fuel to offset emissions from their flights.
Gates working with partners (large corporations and the rich) will likely create an expansive program of Green Premiums .
Being the opportunist he is, may well champion the climate change decline and be crowned the king for saving the world.
