Book Blog #292: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates

 

Title: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster

Author: Bill Gates

# of Pages: 7 hours, 11 minutes (audiobook)

Genre: Nonfiction

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, shares what he has learnt in over a decade of studying climate change and investing in innovations to address climate problems. He explains how the world can work to build the tools it needs to get to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions - investing in research, inventing new technologies and deploying them quickly at a large scale. Gates is optimistic that the world can prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis. This is a visionary and inspiring book by one of the world's most celebrated public figures.

Review: For one, Bill Gates acknowledges his wealth and knows this will affect the credibility behind his opinion:

“I own big houses and fly in big planes...I cannot deny being a rich guy with an opinion. I do believe, though, that it is an informed opinion, and I am always trying to learn more.”

I tend to agree with him; we should consider his opinion first and decide if what he is saying has any useful information or would be a valid piece of advice. Then take his background as a top 1%-er and see if it invalidates any of this advice. He does take at least some steps to help reduce his carbon footprint; whether he is doing enough is up for debate, but this isn't a case where he is completely not "practicing what he preaches." 

I listened to the audiobook pretty closely in the first half. Gates does a great job of explaining the issues contributing to climate change; I didn't know a lot of the science behind it until I read Gates's simple and easy to understand explanation.

When he talks about emissions from cows, he addresses the common vegan route where some might suggest giving meat up all together. Thankfully he dismisses this as a realistic possibility and instead discusses the future of artificial meats, food waste, and how to reduce emissions from cows.

This is been the heart of what I enjoyed about this book; Gates is looking for solutions. It’s great to talk about theory or the best case, but Gates is considering BOTH the end goal and the realistic steps the world can take to reduce our carbon emissions.

That being said, nonfiction tends to not hold my attention. I ended up skim listening to some of the latter sections book, which makes me believe that this book actually sits between 3 or 4 stars. The reason why I ultimately gave it four is because I couldn't find anything wrong with it other than it's just not my type of book, and I happened to be exhausted over this topic (just completed a mini-research project relating the zero-emissions). 

I would recommend this book to those who are interested in learning more about climate change/how to reduce your emissions. He provides advice for multiple levels (e.g. individuals, corporations). Even if you are skeptical of Gates's credibility to talk about this topic, I think it's still worth hearing what he has to say.