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It's not clear to me that these issues don't simply boil down to energy problems. The limiting case: an endless source of free energy. Using this, it seems obv
by esotericn 8y ago
It's not clear to me that these issues don't simply boil down to energy problems.
The limiting case: an endless source of free energy. Using this, it seems obvious that any carbon-emitting procedure can be mitigated, by capturing the emissions and storing them.
The question is whether concrete, cement and so on are viable building materials under this model; whether meat is viable; and so on.
Essentially, these are uncaptured externalities. If you tax the emissions at a higher rate than it costs to capture them, they will be captured, the question is whether demand decreases as a result of increases in cost.
- mbbutler 8y agoExactly. Gates is being too cute by half here. He starts by claiming that only 25% of greenhouse gases come from making electricity; a fact that is technically true but very misleading. He then goes on to name the contributors of the other 75% and almost all of them (with the exception of methane from farming) produce carbon through using energy in the form of fossil fuels. Solving the energy production problem solves the vast majority of these other problems.