To preserve a livable climate, we need technology deployment. That’s what drives innovation, as Gates himself used to argue.

So I listened to Bill Gates’ TED Speech a few hours after he gave it in Long Beach, CA.  Let’s just call that an IT miracle.

It wasn’t 80% crap like his recent piece on energy.

Quite the reverse, it was more like a miraculous ice cream cone made up of 80% homemade chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream and only 20% bat guano.  Curiously, the guano kind of stands out when you lick it, and that’s what people talk about.

Since TED is all hush-hush, most people get only the snippets the media shares, such as HuffPost’s headline:  “Bill Gates’ TED Speech 2010: ‘We Need Energy Miracles’.”  Mongabay.com reported:

Gates said the world needs to reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2050 and suggested researchers spent the next 20 years developing new technologies and the follow 20 years implementing them.

But I’ve got the scoop for you — and I’ll post the transcript when I get it.

Yes, Bill Gates keeps diminishing the value of aggressive action now, which is just plain suicidal.  We need both massive technology deployment now and much more innovation.  But the former is the sine qua non for having any chance to preserve a livable climate.  Ironically, the former is also the key to the latter, something Gates himself used to argue.  Strangely, Gates strongly praises Gore’s book even though its main thrust is directly at odds with Gates’.

This post will:

1. Look at what’s good in the speech.
2. Explain why “Energy Miracles” are widely overrated as a strategy for preserving a livable climate.
3. Explain why tech deployment is the key to the kind of innovation Gates wishes for.
4. Raise the issue some technologists have raised with me:  Is Gates is a hypocrite?

Read more

Part 1: Why increasing CO2 is a significant problem

I am launching the Climate Science Project — and I need your help.

At the suggestion of journalists, commenters, and others, I am going to assemble the best explanations of different aspects of climate science and post them.  Or repost them, in this case.  Then I’ll create an overview post for the sidebar that organizes them.

So I’m hoping you’ll help me identify the best articles, blog posts, videos, and the like on all areas of climate science from attribution to water vapor feedback (strangely, there are no “z” words in climate glossaries).  It doesn’t matter if the subject matter overlaps.  People need to hear and see things many times from different perspectives.

For instance, if you want a very good and uber-credible written primer on the science, I would suggest, “Understanding and Responding to Climate Change:  Highlights of National Academies Reports 2008.” If you want to understand why scientists are so certain that CO2 is such a big driver of our climate, you should watch Richard Alley’s lively talk AGU video, explains “The Biggest Control Knob: Carbon Dioxide in Earth’s Climate History.”

UPDATE:  Just to be clear, the explanations I’m looking for are not inherently aimed at one audience.  Obviously, my primary interest is explain things to my readers, but I am also interested in explanations for a more general audience.  Basically, I’m looking for the best stuff.

For “an easy-to-understand explanation for why increasing CO₂ is a significant problem,” NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt has an excellent 2007 post, which I re-reprint below:

Read more

I am recycling RecycleBank’s 10 romantic ways to green your Valentine’s Day:

Read more