my key takeaway points from the book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster

 my key takeaway points from the book 'How to Avoid a Climate Disaster' by Sir Bill Gates; and some loud thinking.

I normally maintain Onenote pages every time I read a book. But since this one about Climate Change & Energy Consumption is more of a social issue, I decided to put my notes in this public blog-post. If you haven't already, you should get one which sells for just ₹799 (or $11) - https://cutt.ly/6k0ecba. If you run ANY business, this is going to be a great read. But especially those who are going to start or choose a new career or business - or looking to switch, this book will help you immensely. A pdf labelled 'How to Avoid a Climate Disaster - The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need' accompanies the audio book which is full of insights about the topic that everyone really needs to know for one's own sake. But do read completely (or listen) the book to comprehend how new opportunities will be available both to fight climate change as well as grow in your business or career.

We must choose either prosperity or ecology TODAY if we want to continue to do things the way we do. There is no way around unless we tackle climate change.

Those who make early advancement in their lives and work in the right direction are going to be the ones benefited most. Simply put, - It's difficult to build a company like Schneider making circuit breakers or Microsoft making operating systems & office automation today. That place is already taken! But what you can do is build new stuff that is suited in the changed, new world. We all agree that technology is an important part of our lives now. What we should recognize is that we need a technology-based, technology centered new society.

Forecasting models today are very elementary. We know for sure it's disastrous for humankind if temperatures & sea-levels continue to rise. But, we do not know what it can ripple to and make irreversible and massive damages to life on Earth? Unfortunately, we are planning and trying to meet targets only based on what we know for sure! e.g. In India, we are setting aggressive targets for air-conditioners to be pretty efficient by 2050 because of rising temperature as well as demand. That is the best we are doing right now and we even haven't considered all that the climate scientists have to say. 

Nature doesn't care about us whatsoever. But, we don't like to listen to bad news. Here's a TED video from 2015 about some virus - https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_the_next_outbreak_we_re_not_ready?language=en

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb3gn_dDbfQ

Now, a Climate Disaster would be of a much massive scale compared to Covid-19, threatening our very existence. And, it will happen suddenly. The alarm you set on your phone some night, may never ring. Interested now?

Unfortunately there is no 'Golden Way to Avoid Climate Disaster'. This isn't a drill - First do this, then that and then another step... blah, blah, blah.. And, it's done. Nope, there is no user manual. There are many ways to approach this problem and innovate for solutions. Businesses, small and large, are going to contribute hugely to it. Thanks to the ideas the author has shared, we know which few approaches to choose out of a million available. Then there is the geographical/climatic diversity and available disparate avenues as discussed in chapter 8, e.g. 'Electric Heat Pump'. One thing that we are sure about is that we need to let go of many old ways of doing things. Government policies will play an important role too. Governments aren't very good at innovating but start-ups are! What governments are good at is achieving gigantic scale. So smart new founders & scientists should find out solutions suited to specific demands and/or locations - and when those are established - achieve scale with an umbrella of large investors and the right government policies.

Now, there is a lot of stepping out of our comfort zone to be done. And stretching your imagination & being open to new ideas is in order. Where I live, I can imagine an inter-city 'solar corridor' that connects say Mumbai & Nagpur with smart-cities powered by renewable energy along it. Discussing such ideas openly will lead to newer ones. Some day, we can "de-congest" our cities and create employment opportunities while we avoid climate disasters.

A company called Diversified Technologies Inc. of Massachusetts, USA made a product called Pulsed Electric Field Machine that lets you treat food (among other applications) amazingly well without any preservatives or thermal treatment - thereby retaining original nutrients, taste etc. When we designed our lab grade pulsed electric field generator and later production grade PEF machines, we already knew what the market would be and could study a lot of readily available papers. But we don't have this luxury while dealing with climate change because a solution that might work great in a particular geographical location may not work equally good elsewhere. Hence, it's essential to take cues from such books (& other sources) and innovate on the lines most suited to us. Clearly, we can no longer afford to just ignore climate change and chase profits. Here's a snap from the pdf accompanying the book:

Page 8 of pdf (How to Avoid a Climate Disaster Supplement)

Just have a look at the China's plot. And they started way before the climate was this damaged!

Al Gore used to show a picture of a balance scale with gold bars on one side & the entire Earth on the other. We owe to our future generations a right judgement.