Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

March 9, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (Bill Gates) said at a recent event in India that climate change is an urgent and urgent problem, but it is unrealistic to expect climate change to be mitigated through a sharp drop in global energy demand or people stopping eating meat. On the contrary, innovative solutions are the more effective approach.

"will all Indians become vegetarians? will all Americans become vegetarians? I don't expect that to solve the problem of climate change," Gates said in an interview with Ananth Goenka, executive director of the KuaiBao Group of India, who attended the 5th Ramnat Gonka Memorial Lecture (Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture) in India on March 1.

Meat has a great influence on the climate. According to a study published in the journal Nature Food in 2021, the global food system accounts for about 35 percent of the world's total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, of which 57 percent are related to animal foods and 29 percent are related to plant foods.

Gates said: "in the campaign to deal with climate change, you can come to the conclusion: 'Hey, we spend too much!' and 'Hey, maybe we shouldn't travel anymore!'"

However, these views of slowing growth are not for everyone. Gates said that although Americans can use less energy than they do now, it is "totally unfair" to require people living in India to use the same amount of energy. "I don't think we can count on people living in poverty to solve the climate problem," he said. " But he admits that, in fact, "most of the demand for energy, cement and steel comes from middle-income countries such as India".

Recognizing that it would be foolish to ask consumers to significantly limit their energy needs or cancel their meat consumption, this does not mean that Gates is encouraging people to overuse energy.

But Gates says climate change is creating more energy demand for air conditioning, and that demand will only continue to grow. "as India gets warmer, I bet the demand for air conditioners will soar," he said. "

Gates also said that at present, the United States "has the most air conditioners", which also exceeds the demand of Europe. As the weather gets hotter and the use of air conditioners increases, especially when the energy used to power air conditioners produces greenhouse gas emissions, there is a so-called "positive feedback loop". This is a self-perpetuating behavior pattern, and the final result is often strengthened by the initial behavior.

Gates reiterated that global warming is very slow, which makes it very different from the rapidly spreading epidemic. "the situation is getting worse every year," he admits. "but this is one of the most difficult problems to solve because the global modern economy is based on energy density, and more than 80% of the energy comes from burning hydrocarbons." Hydrocarbons are energy sources based on fossil fuels, such as coal and oil.

Gates said rich countries are primarily responsible for global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions, but low-and middle-income countries near the equator suffer the most. "this is incredibly unfair," Gates said. "so we need to act now."

Gates also talked about nuclear energy in his speech. "the situation with nuclear power is that, unlike computers with falling prices, the complexity of nuclear reactors is increasing, so when they reach what we call the third generation today, their costs are frighteningly high," he said. then cheap natural gas enters the market, making the popularity of nuclear energy very difficult. The nuclear industry has not yet invented new designs, so we need to start from scratch. "

Gates admitted that he preferred nuclear energy and even founded the nuclear energy innovation company TerraPower, which is committed to the development of advanced fission reactors. Gates also invested in several start-ups that study nuclear fusion.

Nuclear energy can be produced either by splitting atoms or by allowing neutrons to collide to form larger atoms and release energy, the way the sun generates energy. Nuclear fusion can produce almost unlimited clean energy without the radioactive waste left behind by nuclear fission. But so far, it has proved very difficult to complete nuclear fusion on Earth.

Referring to the commercialization of nuclear fusion technology, Gates said: "there are about 16 smaller companies in the world that have made progress in the field of nuclear fusion, and I am an investor in four of them. But we can't count on this technology entirely. Some companies say that if all goes well, they may be able to produce cheap electricity in 10 to 15 years' time. Therefore, we must keep an open mind: can the defects of nuclear fission be solved? Will nuclear fusion occur? If these solutions work, it will definitely be a good thing for human beings. "

Gates understands that nuclear power is still sceptical because the industry has failed to provide cost-effective technology as planned, but he remains optimistic about its potential. "with the intensification of climate damage, we have as many options as possible to build new energy systems," he said. Nuclear power, because it is not affected by the weather, so it is very easy to use, you can mix a variety of energy technologies. I mean, I support the use of solar and wind energy as soon as possible to build as many power grids as possible. "

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