An Extract from Bill Gates' "How To Avoid a Climate Disaster"

How to avoid a climate disaster is a brief account of climate change written by Bill Gates. The book describes global carbon emissions in the atmosphere, their causes, and its negative impacts on earth. The book is written by Bill Gates which is helpful for students, scholars, companies, and governments that want to mitigate the consequences of climate change in the future. At the beginning of the book, Bill Gates says that the world is emitting 51 billion tons of Carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in a single year. According to Bill Gates, the world needs to adopt new ways of making things like Cement, steel, plastic, growing crops, and generating electricity. For example, making Cement, steel, and plastic alone causes 31% of the global carbon dioxide emission. In previous times, the world was balanced and emitting as much carbon dioxide (co2) that plants and other things absorbed smoothly. However, after the industrial revolution, more amount of Co2 gasses reached into the atmosphere that disturbing the balance. Moreover, the greenhouse gases remain for 10000 years in the atmosphere so the world needs to remove those gases that are already existing in the atmosphere. Similarly, greenhouse gases are causing great damage to the world. Rising sea levels, drought, and diminishing food production are some alarming symbols of distribution in the world. In terms of temperature, human has already increased it by 1 degree Celsius since preindustrial times. It will rise 1.5 and 3 degrees Celsius by mid-century and 4 to 8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Rising temperatures will cause severe storms and droughts in the world. Thus, rising temperature is increasing the threats of drought, shifting diseases, and further spreading malnutrition in various parts of the world. Moreover, human prosperity also contributes to climate change. More human prosperity demands more cars, houses, and energy that will double the use of fossil fuels in the world. Therefore, getting zero-emission will be hard to achieve. Similarly, the world needs 5000 gigawatts to meet the requirement of the world for electricity. The world cannot attain the requirement from existing renewable resources because the current renewable resources cover more space for installation and produce less amount of electricity than traditional sources of energy. In short, it is difficult to achieve 5000 gigawatts from the current renewable resources. In addition, the products will also become expensive if these products are made with zero-carbon activities. For instance, Steel prices will increase from 750 dollars to 964 dollars per ton when companies use renewable resources for making steel. Therefore, human prosperity will demand more electricity which results in more Co2 emissions in the atmosphere. To reduce global emissions, the world really needs is strong policies in the next 10 years. According to Bill Gates, we cannot achieve net-zero by 2030. The world needs to make ground for carbon-free innovations, new approaches to businesses, supply chains, markets, and policies that will help new devices to avoid climate disasters. Because without demands no one will invest in zero-carbon companies. Moreover, hydrogen produced without emitting carbon, electro fuels, advanced biofuels, zero-carbon cement, steel, and fertilizer, carbon capturing devices, and flood-tolerant food crops are some technologies that require governments’ support to survive in market. To conclude, the world should spend the next decades focusing on the climate-friendly policies, technologies, and market structure that will put the world on the path to reduce emissions greenhouse gases by 2050.