Gates’s How To Avoid A Climate Disaster

Question 1

The rate of population growth is like a NYC every month for the next x years

Answer 1

40. 10b by the year 2060. And remain thru end of the century

Question 2

The melting of permafrost will release which greenhouse gas? Why is it so bad?

Answer 2

Methane.

It’s leads to even hotter climate than CO2. At least it has a relatively less long term effect

Question 3

of tons of Greenhouse gases (CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, etc) emitted per year across globe? How much did it drop during the Covid-19 pandemic?

Answer 3

51B tons. Only 5%

Question 4

As climate gets warmer, the air gets…

Answer 4

…thirsty, sucking up more moisture from soil , leaving it more arid for crops to grow. The solution : adapt by growing more drought resistant crops

Question 5

Negative emissions technology means

Answer 5

Taking out greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere

Question 6

Metaphor for climate change

Answer 6

Bathtub being filled with water which eventually will spill over. Every bit of water that we can slow down (reduce temperature in fractions) matters. We need to get to zero emissions- stop the flow altogether (not even a trickle). Then, we d need to take off the water stopper (negative emissions technology) to let some of the water drain (reduce greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere.

Question 7

Todays CO2 emissions- how much of a percent remains in x years

Answer 7

20% remains even in 10,000 years

Question 8

Colorado River supplies water to how many people? It supplies what irrigation to what % of all American crops?

Answer 8

40M. 14%

Question 9

Making electricity accounts for what percent of all greenhouse gas emissions?

Answer 9

27%

Question 10

Coal pollution vs nuclear power in terms of deaths

Answer 10

More people die from coal pollution in a single year than from all nuclear accidents combined

Question 11

Passenger cars represent how much a % of emissions from transportation? And what percent is it if worldwide emissions.

Answer 11

Less than half . 16%

Question 12

How much greenhouse gas is emitted by the things we do? (By category)

Answer 12

Making things (cement, steel, plastic): 31%
Plugging in (electricity): 27%
Growing things (plants, animals): 19%
Getting around (planes, trucks, cargo ships): 16%
Keeping warm/cool & refrigeration: 7%

Question 13

When you hear kilowatt, gigawatt, and a hundred or more gigawatts, think…

Answer 13

…house, city and big country, respectively

Question 14

Power density is…

Answer 14

…how much power you get from different sources for a given amount of land (or water, if you’re putting wind turbines in the ocean).

Question 15

Energy sources ranked from high to low in terms of watts per square meter.

Answer 15

FF and Nuclear 500-10,000
Solar: 5-20
Hydropower: 5-50
Wind: 1-2
Wood/biomass: less than 1

Question 16

Green premiums concept (explain example if jet fuel)

Answer 16

Example: gallon of jet fuel is $2.50. Gallon of advanced biofuel is $5.50. Difference of $3.50 is green premium. Not always easy to apply as there isn’t always a viable green option but helpful.

Question 17

What % if all electricity is generated from fossil fuels worldwide?

Answer 17

62%

Question 18

Solar and wind farms generate electricity x% to y% of the time vs z% for nuclear

Answer 18

25-40%. Vs 90%

Question 19

TerraPower

Answer 19

Nuclear power company founded by Bill. Gates to run on many different fuels including waste from other nuclear facilities

Question 20

Nuclear fusion

Answer 20

Involves pushing atoms together (opposite of fission which is splitting atoms). A decade away from being a possibility.

Question 21

Nuclear fusion Advantages

Answer 21

-hydrogen as a fuel is cheap n plentiful since it can come from the ocean and meet the worlds needs
-East would be radioactive for hundreds of years as opposed to hundreds of thousands of years (about as dangerous as radioactive hospital waste).
-no chain reaction to run of control; fusion stops as soon as you stop supplying fuel

Question 22

Cons of nuclear fusion

Answer 22

-huge engineering challenge to get temperature to 50M degrees Celsius (takes so much energy to kick off fusion)

Question 23

How we grow things (raising animals, growing crops, etc) as a % of 51B tons of greenhouse gas emissions . What’s the issue?

Answer 23

19%. Methane and nitrous oxide.. 28x more warming per molecule and 265x more , respectively than CO2

Question 24

Meat consumption and calories . For every 1 calorie we consume of…

Answer 24

Chicken- fed 2 calories ;
Pig-fed 3 calories
Cow- fed 6 calories (least environmentally friendly)

Question 25

Transportation contributes x % to global (CO or GHG) emissions. What rank is it (worldwide)? After which categories?

What rank is it on the U.S?

Answer 25

1 (we fly n drive a lot)

16%. 4th. After how we make things, plug in, and grow things.

Question 26

3 big products that we enjoy today as a result of govt R&D spending:

Answer 26

-GPS
-internet
-lifesaving meds

And Gates says Microsoft wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for the government’s research on smaller, faster microprocessors