Why Bill’s Book

 One of the benefits of retirement is it offers a person plenty of time to read. For me, this meant reading Bill Gates new book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster”.

I have worked diligently on climate and, while there will be plenty more to learn, I am confident my last 162 columns were accurate. But what if I was a genius, had billions of dollars, and on top of all these benefits my wife and I chose to pursue a lofty goal? Bill and Melinda Gates motto is, “Everyone deserves the chance to live a healthy and productive life.”

Bill Gates and Melinda Gates did not meet climate change head on. They started their foundation to promote education, grow sustainable economies, improve agriculture, introduce better financial services to the poor, promote gender equality, and eradicate debilitating diseases like HIV and Malaria. Defeating climate change was not on their “To Do List”.

Unfortunately for Bill and Melinda, they ran into a roadblock on the road to defeating these persistent threats and making people’s lives more pleasant and productive.  What they discovered is if climate change is real, the threat 97% of climate scientists have been warning us about for a long time, then ALL their lofty goals, no matter how wisely they choose to deploy their resources, would be impossible to attain.

Sensing the science world might be right, Mr. Gates set up learning sessions with the world’s leading scientists, glaciologists, energy scholars, agricultural experts, economists, venture capitalists, and politicians to not only know the science, but to simultaneously find ways to communicate the issues and solutions to you and I in plain language. These experts fully cooperated with him much to his and our benefit.

I must confess, I am jealous. My learning journey over the last eight years has been to vet sources of information for veracity, then to learn the basics (and more) via books, science magazines, online courses, and to travel to presentations by experts. I mused, “Wouldn’t it have been great to spend time asking the best of the best all my questions one on one?”  I guess that is the difference between a retired helicopter pilot and a brilliant entrepreneur.

When you read the book, if you come away with anything, it is Bill Gates is thorough. (I counted 190 people in his acknowledgements) He lays out the threat, the solutions we have today, the solutions not yet known, where funding needs to be focused to discover answers, the changes needed in the market, the ways to entice private capital, the essential role of government, and finally the role each of us must play if we are to win.

I encourage you to buy the book and read it carefully. If you start the book, I warn you not to stop mid-book. Continue to the end. The first half lays out in detail the threats and the challenges. He pulls no punches. When I reached the midpoint of the book the challenges seemed insurmountable and I was pretty much a basket case of depression.

The last half of his book is solutions and paths to new solutions. From these well laid out plans, my mood gradually improved and I came away optimistic and confident we can move forward with vigor and be successful.

Here is Mr. Gates final paragraph: “I am an optimist because I know what technology can accomplish and because I know what people can accomplish. I’m profoundly inspired by all the passion I see, especially among young people, for solving this problem. If we keep our eye on the big goal- (getting to zero [emissions])- and we make serious plans to achieve that goal, we can avoid disaster. We can keep the climate bearable for everyone, help hundreds of millions of poor people make the most of their lives, and preserve the planet for generations to come.”