Gates, B: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need

A very practical approach to the solution and a dummies down to earth explanation of the problem. If governments would be able to apply the same mindset as Bill Gates did in Microsoft, we'd be way closer to a unified solution.

Climate change is a broad and complex topic. Plus, many people find it difficult to see clearly on the subject, given that it is politically loaded. Bill Gates provides an excellent "top-down", "high-level" view and roadmap on the topic, clearly answering questions like: Where do our emissions actually come from (e.g. electricity generation vs. manufacturing vs. transportation vs. heating/cooling)? What carbon-free alternative technologies do we already have in each of these fields? What is today's "green premium" (i.e. the cost differential) between them and the currently used technologies? By doing so, he provides a roadmap of which areas/technologies still require most innovation to bring down premiums (or state intervention to increase the cost of producing externalities). Scientists and experts on the topic probably won't find many new deep insights in this book, but for any interested layman or politician who wonders which levers we need to work on most urgently, this is an invaluable roadmap.

The topic is very interesting and I agree with most of Bills opinions, but I had expected more in-depth discussions from a smart and educated author as Bill Gates. For a scientist like myself, this book offers very little new insights. Its a nice overview but not much beyond a good "long read" article in a magazin oder weekend paper. Other than giving me a nice feeling that someone important like Bill Gates shares my opinions, this book did little to make it on top of my reading list. I would suspect, its more a bookshelf decoration than an educational. Very sad, because Bill recommends good books all the time - like I said before - I expected much more from him.

So ein schlechtes Buch habe ich seit langem nicht gelesen. Wer sich mit der Materie auskennt wird schnell merken das Herr Gates viel heisse Luft posaunt und viel fordert, sicher aber selber nicht an seine Propagierten Werte hält.