Energy

Bill Gates: The World Needs ‘A Miracle’ To Solve Man-Made Global Warming

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Chris White Tech Reporter
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Bill Gates wrote in a letter posted on his website the world will “need a miracle” to come up with a solution to man-made global warming.

Gates argued things look bleak right now for the Earth’s climate, as carbon emissions are unlikely to be dialed down anytime soon, unless of course younger generations can find a magic button to whisk away the warming.

In his annual letter, which was primarily addressed to younger millennials, Gates notes he sees the climate problem through a basic math formula: P x S x E x C = carbon dioxide. The P represents population, S represents the number of services each person uses, E means energy and C is carbon dioxide created by energy.

The world can only be saved, according to Gates, when carbon dioxide production, or C, goes down to zero.

“When I say ‘miracle,’ I don’t mean something that’s impossible. I’ve seen miracles happen before. The personal computer. The Internet. The polio vaccine. None of them happened by chance. They are the result of research and development and the human capacity to innovate,” Gates said during an interview with Bloomberg Business.

He added: “In this case, however, time is not on our side. Every day we are releasing more and more CO2 into our atmosphere and making our climate change problem even worse. We need a massive amount of research into thousands of new ideas—even ones that might sound a little crazy—if we want to get to zero emissions by the end of this century.”

Gates said that he chose to direct his report at young people because he believes they are the best option going forward.

“With scientific innovation, you see that people in their 20s get a depth of knowledge and a willingness to look at things in a different way,” Gates said about millenials. “So, I would say it’s likely that if an energy miracle comes in the next 15 years, key participants will be the teenagers of today.”

A prescription for global warming requires a mixture of “risk takers” and “dark horses.” In short, the world needs people willing to conjure up innovative ideas that seemingly come out of nowhere.

Gates went on to note during the interview that the modern internal combustion engine was one clear example of a dark horse.

“Then, there was this dark horse where they were exploding things in these metal boxes called internal combustion. They kept blowing things up, but because of the energy density of gasoline, the private market weighed the relative merits, and two out of three approaches are footnotes in history,” Gates said.

The billionaire also suggested young people will need role models if they are to become world leaders in the alternative energy market. And of course, Gates offered a bevy of people he thinks are great role models for millennials.

“I think Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page—some of the IT people that took a risk and did amazing work that has changed the world,” he told Bloomberg Business.

He included in his list of role models Techno-wonder Elon Musk, telling the interviewer that Musk “would be great” for young people to tether themselves to in the future.

Gates noted in a November 2015 Atlantic interview that a carbon tax is the best way to get innovators to solve climate change – in essence, young innovators will need role models and the giant hand of the government if they are to bring about the miracle Gates thinks is possible.

“Even if you have a new energy source that costs the same as today’s and emits no CO2, it will be uncertain compared with what’s tried-and-true and already operating at unbelievable scale and has gotten through all the regulatory problems,” Gates told The Atlantic.

The Microsoft creator turned philanthropist concluded by arguing people grow more disgusted by global warming and pollution the wealthier they become.

Wealth “is the leading indicator of things that we will change. We will change our energy economy” and our climate because we will become unhappy about it.

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