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How to Avoid a Climate Disaster- An Interesting Conversation

Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and philanthropist, talked to Dr Prannoy Roy in an exclusive interview on the “climate pandemic”. He said the climate crisis triggered by global warming is worse than the coronavirus pandemic. He said every year the climate crisis kills five times more than the pandemic at its peak. “We must do the hardest thing humanity has ever done,” he said.

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Excerpt from the talk

NDTV: Overall, one feels quite happy about the way we developed a vaccine so quickly. It’s unbelievable that in a year, 12 months, the way we tackled it, I mean, a lot of things could have been better in retrospect, but there are a lot of positives to be learned for future and for the environment. How, if we put our mind to it, we can do things. But one thing about a pandemic, it’s in your face, everybody is terrified and they act.
In fact, just like nuclear plant explosions are deadly, we may all have a misguided view of nuclear energy. You answer the question, is Nuclear Power dangerous. In fact, the data shows it is the least dangerous in the sense it leads to the least number of people dying. Coal is the worst with over 24 people dying per terawatt hour produced. And for the same output, Oil leads to 18 deaths, Biomass at just under 5 and Gas at nearly 3 deaths. But the comparative figure for nuclear power is less than one person dying, in fact, less than zero point one deaths on average. That is so contrary to perceptions.
The environment is worse than virus pandemics in terms of the number of deaths, but it’s a slower process, while pollution causes many more deaths, but it is not in your face and sensational for the media and leaders to focus on enough.
Bill Gates: You’re absolutely right. The climate change, because it gets worse every year, it creeps up on you. And, by the end of the century, it’s very, very bad. It’s killing five times as many people as the pandemic at its peak. So, it’s slower and you have to take action way before the bad stuff happens. And there’s not just one invention, as the vaccine, that can get you out of the problem. It does fit in that you depend on your government to look ahead on your behalf. And you know, most governments, including the US, feel like they weren’t ready for this pandemic. A few countries like Australia did a better job of getting the diagnostic and limiting the total number of cases. If this had happened 10 years ago, we would have been much worse because our ability to make new vaccines was not as strong.

Source: NDTV

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Manjunath Gangadhar

Manjunath Gangadhar

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