<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<font size="+2"><i><b>December 21, 2022</b></i></font><br>
<br>
<i>[ Bill Gates finally says ] </i><br>
<b>Bill Gates: ‘Our grandchildren will grow up in a world that is
dramatically worse off’ if we don’t fix climate change</b><br>
TUE, DEC 20 2022<br>
Catherine Clifford<br>
<b>KEY POINTS</b><br>
<blockquote>-- Bill Gates funds climate adaptation through his
namesake philanthropic venture, the Gates Foundation, and he
invests in climate tech companies through his investment firm,
Breakthrough Energy Ventures.<br>
-- “Getting to zero will be the hardest thing humans have ever
done,” Gates writes in his year-end letter published Tuesday. “We
need to revolutionize the entire physical economy—how we make
things, move around, produce electricity, grow food, and stay warm
and cool—in less than three decades.”<br>
-- The bad news is that greenhouse gas emissions are still
increasing. The good news, writes Gates, is that investment in
climate tech solutions is exceeding his expectations.<br>
</blockquote>
The idea of becoming a grandparent is emotional for Bill Gates to
even write about.<br>
<br>
“I started looking at the world through a new lens recently — when
my older daughter gave me the incredible news that I’ll become a
grandfather next year,” Gates wrote in a letter published overnight
on his personal blog, Gates Notes.<br>
<br>
Gates’ 26-year-old daughter, Jennifer, and her husband, Nayel
Nassar, are expecting their first baby in 2023...<br>
- -<br>
“I can sum up the solution to climate change in two sentences: We
need to eliminate global emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050,”
Gates writes. “Extreme weather is already causing more suffering,
and if we don’t get to net-zero emissions, our grandchildren will
grow up in a world that is dramatically worse off.”<br>
The implications are enormous — and so is the challenge.<br>
<br>
“Getting to zero will be the hardest thing humans have ever done,”
Gates writes. “We need to revolutionize the entire physical economy
— how we make things, move around, produce electricity, grow food,
and stay warm and cool — in less than three decades.”<br>
<br>
Gates got started in working on climate change when he learned about
the struggles of small farmers in countries where his namesake
philanthropic organization was doing work. The Gates Foundation
funds climate adaptation work, helping people adjust to the
implications of a warming world, where there is no profit to be made
by a commercial enterprise.<br>
<br>
“It starts from the idea that the poorest are suffering the most
from climate change, but businesses don’t have a natural incentive
to make tools that help them,” Gates writes...<br>
- -<br>
But Gates says decarbonizing global industry is too large a problem
even for his deep pockets.<br>
<br>
“Philanthropy alone can’t eliminate greenhouse gases. Only markets
and governments can achieve that kind of pace and scale,” Gates
said. Any profits Gates makes on investments he makes in
Breakthrough Energy companies will go back into climate work or into
the philanthropic foundation, he said.<br>
<br>
Plus, if companies working to address climate change can be
self-sustaining, that will encourage other investors to put money
into them.<br>
<br>
“Companies need to be profitable so they can grow, keep running, and
prove that there’s a market for their products,” Gates writes. “The
profit incentive will attract other innovators, creating competition
that will drive down the prices of zero-emissions inventions and
have a meaningful impact on emissions from buildings.”<br>
<br>
Greenhouse gas emissions still increasing<br>
The bad news is that greenhouse gas emissions are still increasing.<br>
<br>
“Unfortunately, on near-term goals, we’re falling short. Between
2021 and 2022, global emissions actually rose from 51 billion tons
of carbon equivalents to 52 billion tons,” Gates writes.<br>
<br>
On Monday, the secretary-general of the United Nations also
underscored the grim reality of the current moment in climate
change.<br>
<br>
“We are still moving in the wrong direction,” António Guterres said
Monday. “The global emissions gap is growing. The 1.5-degree goal is
gasping for breath. National climate plans are falling woefully
short.”<br>
<br>
Despite the bleakness of the current climate moment, Gates is
optimistic about the rising investment in decarbonization
technologies.<br>
<br>
“We’re much further along than I would have predicted a few years
ago on getting companies to invest in zero-carbon breakthroughs,”
Gates writes.<br>
<br>
Public money for climate research and development has gone up by
one-third since the 2015 Paris climate accord, and in the United
States, laws passed this year will put $500 billion toward moving
the U.S. energy infrastructure away from fossil fuel-based sources,
according to Gates.<br>
<br>
Private money is also going into climate technologies at a good
clip. Venture capital firms have put $70 billion in clean energy
startups in the past two years, Gates writes.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/20/bill-gates-our-grandchildren-will-pay-if-we-dont-fix-climate-change.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/20/bill-gates-our-grandchildren-will-pay-if-we-dont-fix-climate-change.html</a>
<br>
<p>- -<br>
</p>
<i>[ Published in Seattle PI newspaper in 2009 - Bill is just
starting to accept this still valid advice ]</i><br>
<b>First Person: Prodding the sacred cow</b><br>
By RICHARD PAULI,<br>
GUEST COLUMNIST<br>
Mar 1, 2009|Updated Mar 25, 2011<br>
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest
philanthropy, has overlooked the biggest threat to human health and
human future -- the increasing rate of climate destabilization from
global warming.<br>
<br>
Last year the foundation co-chairman said about global warming: "The
fact of the matter is we don't think about it." I urge that
immediately be changed to: "Every individual, organization and state
should be thinking about climate change now."<br>
For too long the Gates Foundation ignored extensive research that
concludes global warming and climate destabilization has extended
and amplified disease and other human health problems. Foundation
science advisers can report that global warming is caused, enhanced
and accelerated by carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by
industrial civilization. The biggest danger to our future is that we
may fail to regulate CO{-2} output. Continued global warming causes
sea levels to rise, which will increase disease vector populations.<br>
<br>
If eradicating malaria is the foundation's goal, it must regard the
compelling data and devastating forces of a changing climate. All of
the awesomely great works by the Gates Foundation can be undone by
the horrible realities of global warming to come. If the foundation
truly wants to support human health and nurture prosperity, it needs
to refocus and modify priorities in a way that respects climate
change.<br>
<br>
Investment policy for the foundation trust forbids trading in
tobacco stock since that industry so obviously harms health.
Similarly, I ask the foundation to halt investments in carbon fuel
companies and other polluting industries.<br>
It may derive revenue from more than $1 billion invested in oil
company stocks, but the resulting greenhouse gas emissions will
further increase the rate of warming. Until the foundation decides
how best to be part of the solution, it shouldn't be part of the
problem. The foundation should completely divest from any
hydrocarbon energy company stock holdings.<br>
<br>
We all praise the Gates Foundation for generosity and laudatory good
works saving lives and giving hope for the future. But gradually,
inexorably, everyone is beginning to feel the aggravation, pain and
real suffering from our destabilizing climate. To further ignore the
problem is misguided, shortsighted and squanders the opportunity for
change.<br>
<br>
At the very least, the foundation should accept climate change as a
real cause of suffering and include it when evaluating the global
health metrics that underlie its good works. With such an honest
view, others can share in its objective: for all people to have
healthy and productive lives.<br>
Failure to act is the biggest sin. Knowledgeable people of wealth
and power should take a stand -- because it is right, because it is
needed and because inaction brings harm to us all.<br>
By RICHARD PAULI<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.seattlepi.com/local/opinion/article/First-Person-Prodding-the-sacred-cow-1301367.php">https://www.seattlepi.com/local/opinion/article/First-Person-Prodding-the-sacred-cow-1301367.php</a><br>
<br>
<p><i><br>
</i></p>
<i>[ wishes are fishes for this nifty idea, 11 min video ]</i><br>
<b>The entire internet on a single chip! MASSIVE energy savings.</b><br>
Just Have a Think<br>
83,554 views Dec 18, 2022<br>
Internet usage is projected to account for 20% for all global
electricity consumption by 2025. So anything that can help to reduce
that catastrophically large number must surely be good thing. Now
scientists in Copenhagen have successfully demonstrated a chip that
can send enough data every second to cope with the entire internet's
traffic, all at a fraction of the energy demand. So, how did they do
that?<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHahy_NtMDI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHahy_NtMDI</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[ video interview with cultural scholar ]</i><br>
<b>Douglas Rushkoff (Dec 2022) | What Could Possibly Go Right?</b><br>
Post Carbon Institute<br>
Dec 19, 2022<br>
#97 Interview with Douglas Rushkoff<br>
Douglas Rushkoff makes another appearance on our podcast, sharing
his latest thoughts on What Could Possibly Go Right? Listen to his
previous interviews in episodes 28, 52 and 83.<br>
<br>
Douglas Rushkoff is an author and documentarian who studies human
autonomy in a digital age. Rushkoff’s work explores how different
technological environments change our relationship to narrative,
money, power, and one another. Named one of the “world’s ten most
influential intellectuals” by MIT, his twenty books include Team
Human, based on his podcast. Others include bestsellers Present
Shock, Throwing Rocks and the Google Bus, Program or Be Programmed,
Life Inc, and Media Virus. He also made the PBS Frontline
documentaries Generation Like, The Persuaders, and Merchants of
Cool. <br>
<br>
As 2022 comes to a close, enjoy this casual chat between Douglas and
Vicki.<br>
<blockquote>- The need to “adopt and invent alternative narratives
of success that involve mutuality, rather than singularity; that
are collective and communal, rather than alienated and isolated”<br>
<br>
- The importance of tolerating ambiguity, having a tender heart
and embracing difference<br>
<br>
- The “idea of asking the right questions at the right times… to
reduce the cognitive harm imposed by propagandists and media
people who don't have our best interests at heart.”<br>
</blockquote>
Complete show notes and transcript here: <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.resilience.org/what-could">https://www.resilience.org/what-could</a>...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fRs8vYKySc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fRs8vYKySc</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<i>[The news archive - looking back at the beginnings of ethical
statements on global warming ]</i><br>
<font size="+2"><i><b>December 21, 2015</b></i></font> <br>
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman discusses the political and
cultural dynamics that fueled the rise of climate-change denier and
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump:<br>
<br>
"Why don’t Republican voters seem to care?<br>
<br>
"Well, part of the answer has to be that the party taught them not
to care. Bluster and belligerence as substitutes for analysis,
disdain for any kind of measured response, dismissal of inconvenient
facts reported by the 'liberal media' didn’t suddenly arrive on the
Republican scene last summer. On the contrary, they have long been
key elements of the party brand. So how are voters supposed to know
where to draw the line?<br>
<br>
"Let’s talk first about the legacy of He Who Must Not Be Named.<br>
<br>
"I don’t know how many readers remember the 2000 election, but
during the campaign Republicans tried — largely successfully — to
make the election about likability, not policy. George W. Bush was
supposed to get your vote because he was someone you’d enjoy having
a beer with, unlike that stiff, boring guy Al Gore with all his
facts and figures.<br>
<br>
"And when Mr. Gore tried to talk about policy differences, Mr. Bush
responded not on the substance but by mocking his opponent’s 'fuzzy
math' — a phrase gleefully picked up by his supporters. The press
corps played right along with this deliberate dumbing-down: Mr. Gore
was deemed to have lost debates, not because he was wrong, but
because he was, reporters declared, snooty and superior, unlike the
affably dishonest W."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/21/opinion/the-donald-and-the-decider.html?ref=opinion">http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/21/opinion/the-donald-and-the-decider.html?ref=opinion</a><br>
<br>
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/
<br>
/Archive of Daily Global Warming News <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/">https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
/To receive daily mailings - click to Subscribe <a
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:subscribe@theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request"><mailto:subscribe@theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request></a>
to news digest./<br>
<br>
Privacy and Security:*This mailing is text-only. It does not carry
images or attachments which may originate from remote servers. A
text-only message can provide greater privacy to the receiver and
sender. This is a personal hobby production curated by Richard Pauli<br>
By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain cannot be used for
commercial purposes. Messages have no tracking software.<br>
To subscribe, email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated
moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:contact@theclimate.vote">contact@theclimate.vote</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:contact@theclimate.vote"><mailto:contact@theclimate.vote></a>
with subject subscribe, To Unsubscribe, subject: unsubscribe<br>
Also you may subscribe/unsubscribe at <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote">https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote</a><br>
Links and headlines assembled and curated by Richard Pauli for <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://TheClimate.Vote">http://TheClimate.Vote</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://TheClimate.Vote/"><http://TheClimate.Vote/></a>
delivering succinct information for citizens and responsible
governments of all levels. List membership is confidential and
records are scrupulously restricted to this mailing list. <br>
</body>
</html>