How to Avoid a Climate Disaster Book Summary

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster Book Summary Preview

Key Insights

With icebergs melting in the Arctic waters and 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases filtering into the atmosphere each year, our world is on the brink of widespread, irreversible disaster.

As the planet evolves and becomes increasingly industrialized, cities across the globe are improving their infrastructures and bolstering their economies. However, this modernization comes at a price--the climate.

When the climate suffers, we all suffer. Storms and wildfires start to worsen, water levels rise dangerously, and various species of plants and animals start to go extinct.

In order to take back our world and the many resources it provides, humans must reach a lofty, but not unobtainable goal: zero greenhouse gas emissions.

So, how do we get there? 

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates provides a comprehensive look at the current reality of our situation, while offering practical alternatives--on both an individual and government level--to the production of harmful chemicals that have become so embedded in our daily lives. Construction, food production, transportation, and heating and cooling are areas of focus in the text.

Approximately one third of the world’s 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases comes from how we make things. As countries become more and more prosperous, this number will continue to climb. However, if the pandemic has shown us nothing else, it has provided a sliver of hope: we are capable of producing less greenhouse emissions. COVID-19 has actually led to a short-term reduction in this realm.

By implementing changes (and in some cases, making sacrifices), we can still turn back from the precarious brink. We have until 2050 and the clock is ticking.

How We Make Things--Construction

 Gas. Steel. Concrete.

The United States produces 96 million tons of cement annually and each of these materials are produced in exponential quantities across the globe. While it can be hard to imagine life without these resources, their existence, en masse, is highly problematic.

When buildings are constructed, massive amounts of steel and concrete are often required. In order for these materials to be used effectively, significant quantities of carbon and heat are needed. 

The issue?

This carbon and heat is typically generated from burning fossil fuels.

After all, heating fossil fuels is a cheap and efficient way to make steel. The problem is that one ton of steel then generates 1.8 tons of carbon dioxide, which is toxic to the environment.

But it’s not just gas, steel, and concrete; other materials create sustainability challenges as well.

Plastic and limestone, commonly used for producing cars and roads, both receive carbon from fossil fuels as well.

The question becomes, what alternatives to standard construction materials exist?

By implementing carbon capture technology, our world could capture and use carbon emissions from a power plant rather than relying upon fossil fuels for the creation of building materials. The downside is that carbon capture technology is expensive and underfunded.

How We Eat Things--Food

One of the key contributors to greenhouse gas emissions within the food industry is synthetic fertilizer. Fertilizer contains nitrogen, which is not fully absorbed by plants, allowing it to escape into the air and cause pollution....

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