Through his latest book, Bill Gates exposes one of the largest issues facing the human race today: climate change. Clearly, the title says it all- if our countries continue to act as they are doing now, we will inevitably have to face a climate disaster. Although the word 'disaster' often connotes a one-off event, climate change, is something that will impact the lives of everyone and everywhere. It is not something that we can expect to disappear within a matter of months or years, but something that has the potential to destroy our planet and cause irreversible repercussions. In this book, he advocates for a zero-emission future and lays out a plan to reach that goal.
Introduction: 51 BILLION TO ZERO
There are two figures in this title. 51 billion represents the number of tons of greenhouse gases the world is adding to the atmosphere every year, and this number is not going down. In fact, it is increasing. Zero emissions is the goal that Gates explains that we need to work towards. By looking at these two figures, anyone reading this can tell that there is a stark difference between the two. This is undeniably true, and he highlights the difficulty of closing the gap(entirely). Now you may be thinking, surely it isn't as difficult as he makes it out to be-we only need to stop using fossil fuels and everything will be fine right? However, one important thing to note is that fossil fuels represent energy, and energy is used in almost every aspect of our lives. Gates provides a short list of examples: growing things, making things and transport.