Bill Gates just told the climate world to change the subject.
In a 17-page memo ahead of next months U.N. summit in Brazil, he calls for a strategic pivot - away from cutting emissions and toward fighting poverty, disease, and suffering in the worlds poorest countries.
If I can eradicate malaria and the temperature rises by 0.1 degrees, Ill take the heat.
Thats Gates argument in a sentence: climate change is serious, but not civilization-ending - and the obsession with emissions is starving real human solutions.
Climate scientists fired back instantly: every 10th of a degree, they warn, fuels disaster.
Critics like Jeffrey Sachs called the memo vague and pointless, arguing poverty relief and decarbonization can happen together - if politics, not physics, gets fixed.
But Gates point hits a nerve.
Billions in climate funding chase abstract temperature targets while diseases and hunger kill in the present tense.
His message now? You cant save the planet if you ignore the people living on it.
Source: Associated Press
media (112):
c02aefbe3eb49fb8fcc7ce86f1b021df045a9eea8f57794f28e8d9b74c177428text quote (1317):🇺🇸 GATES' NUCLEAR REACTOR JUST CLEARED THE BIGGEST HURDLE - AND IT'S NOT LIKE ANYTHING YOU'VE SEEN
TerraPower's Natrium reactor in Wyoming just became the first advanced commercial nuclear plant to pass the NRC's full environmental review.
Bill Gates is actually building the future.
This isn't your grandfather's nuclear plant.
The 345 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor comes with a molten salt energy storage system that turns the entire facility into a grid-scale battery.
Base load? 345 megawatts, rock steady.
Peak demand: Ramps to 500 megawatts in minutes.
No other advanced reactor design can do this.
The implications are massive. Renewables are intermittent. Batteries are expensive and limited.
This thing stores heat, delivers constant power, and surge-scales when the grid needs it most - exactly what's required to actually replace fossil fuels.
Construction on non-nuclear components started in June. Final safety review drops by year-end.
If approved, this becomes America's first utility-scale advanced nuclear plant, replacing retiring coal capacity in the region.
Nuclear energy spent decades stalled by regulation and public fear. Gates put his money where the physics is - and it's moving.
The grid needed this 20 years ago. Better late than extinct.
Source: Interesting Engineering
media quote (112):
a911b8bda4abcd0dcc5eb843eb329cc22040baad2fb81911e807734459ecb274time (10): 1761686836
time orig (10): 1761667202
time quote (10): 1761483000
id (19): 1983284453750329740
id orig (19): 1983202104349986993
id orig quote (19): 1982429505584030129
uid (27): 1464280101638799360 akrmn21
uid orig (31): 1319287761048723458 MarioNawfal
uid quote (31): 1319287761048723458 MarioNawfal