Business mastermind and software revolutionary turned full-time philanthropist, Bill Gates gave his two cents on a very hot button issue when he posted on his sort-of-blog “Gates Notes”, about cutting green house emissions. The name of the article is “We Need Productivity and Sustainability.”
He opined that cutting emissions by 30% by 2025 is unrealistic, while cutting by 80% by 2050 is a decent goal to set.
The reasons why he feels that the 2025 deadline is unrealistic seems to be realistic enough, they are:
- In order to do so, participating countries would have to cut electrical production and transportation related emissions, by 100%.
- Poor countries will still not be able to participate.
- There will still be inevitable emissions from domestic animals, making fertilizer, and the decay process.
So instead, feels Gates, the emphasis should be on developing innovations for power generating. As he puts it, what we need is “innovation, not just insulation”.
“One of the reasons I bring this up is that I hear a lot of climate change experts focus totally on 2025 or talk about how great it is that there is so much low hanging fruit that will make a difference.”
“This mostly focuses on saving a little bit of energy, which by itself is simply not enough. The need to get to zero emissions in key sectors almost never gets mentioned. The danger is people will think they just need to do a little bit and things will be fine.”
Wouldn’t it be neat if Microsoft came up with an effectual solution?
The “Gates Notes” is currently also headlining pieces about H1N1, global warming, education reform and the Sundance Film Festival.
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