Another catastrophe is not far off: Bill Gates

 Another catastrophe is not far off: Bill Gates

Bill Gates, co-founder of the top software company Microsoft Corporation, predicted an infectious virus and an impending epidemic in a 2015 speech at TEDX. Later, it coincides with coronavirus infection. Bill Gates hinted at another inevitable catastrophe. Here are some excerpts from a column he wrote on August 4 on a blog called Gates Notes.

Covid-19 is terrible. Climate change could be even worse. But some lessons learned from the current crisis can prepare us for the future.

The whole world has come to a standstill in a global catastrophe. So many deaths, so much fear of leaving home, and such an economic crisis no generation has seen before. This catastrophe has affected every region of the world.

Yes, I'm talking about Covid-19. But in just a few decades, the world will face another global catastrophe, climate change. As terrible as the epidemic has become, the climate change will be even more terrible.

I understand that it is difficult to think of problems like climate change at this time. When a disaster strikes, people just want to deal with it first. Now the whole world is facing a global epidemic like Covid-19. But the bottom line is that the rate of rising temperatures seems to be not far off. The only way out now is to accelerate our efforts to protect the climate. Just as the world is now fighting a new coronavirus and the world is slowly recovering, so too must we begin to work to prevent climate change. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions we need to lean towards new innovations, to patronize.

In the meantime, you may have noticed that the level of greenhouse gas emissions is lower this time than last year due to the slowdown in global economic dynamism. However, it is true that the rate of reduction in gas emissions in response to climate change is negligible.

Analysts may disagree with this number, but according to the International Energy Agency, gas emissions fell by 7 percent. This means that this year we will emit approximately 48 billion tons of carbon, which was 51 billion tons last year.

 If carbon emissions could be reduced at this rate every year, we would benefit from it. Unfortunately, this is not possible every year. Think about what we have to pay to reduce carbon emissions by only 6 percent. More than 6 lakh people lost their lives and more than 1 crore people lost their jobs. Less than half of the vehicles on the road at the same time this year compared to April last year. Aviation was closed for months.

If you want to gauge the extent to which climate change will harm us, look at the effects of Covid-19, the damage from climate disasters will be even more lasting. As much as the epidemic has caused death and economic damage, if global carbon emissions are not reduced, there will be regular loss of life and damage in the future.

In other words, by 2060, climate change will be just as deadly as Covid-19. And by 2100, it will be 5 times more frightening.

This picture is also clear from the economic point of view. The impact of climate catastrophe and Covid-19 may be less, depending on the type of economic model we are using. But the consequences will be the same — over the next decade or two, climate disasters will hit the world economically, just like Covid-19. And in the face of this amount of damage, the world will fall every 10 years. If carbon emissions continue at the end of this century, the economic catastrophe will be the worst.

How terrible the catastrophe of climate change will be is not the issue at stake. The point here is that if we have any lessons at all from Covid-19 at all, we need to be more aware of climate change and its aftermath by applying it now. We need to understand the consequences of our inaction in this regard. With the lessons learned from Covid-19, we will be able to save more lives and come out of the most terrible consequences. The current crisis is already warning us of the next catastrophe.

All we can do

1. Science and innovation must be allowed to move forward. One thing is clear, because of the small reduction in carbon emissions, we can't completely reduce carbon emissions just by stopping cars or aviation.

Of course we should save as much fuel as possible. I can save like now. I believe that once the epidemic is over, many people like me will become accustomed to teleconferencing by reducing their physical activity as much as possible.

We should use more fuel, but it must be safe. So now, as much as we need new and modern tests, medical services and vaccines to eradicate the coronavirus, we need new tools and strategies to deal with climate disasters. Such as zero-carbon method of fuel production, food production, habitat temperature control, development of transportation system. At the same time we need to innovate new crops and technologies that will benefit the world's poorest people, who cultivate on a small scale.

We need to observe climate change from different fields. Climate science only tells us why we need to start dealing with this problem now, not how to deal with it. That is why besides climate science we need to pay attention to biology, physics, chemistry, sociology, economics, engineering and other branches of science.

2. We have to find suitable solutions even for poor countries. We still don't know how badly Covid-19 has affected poor countries. But my guess is that once the epidemic is over, these countries will collapse even worse. The same will happen during climate disasters. The poorest people in the world will suffer the most.

In other words, climate disasters will hit poorer countries worse than Covid-19. However, the participation of this poor population in climate damage is the least. It is the responsibility of the countries that are causing the most damage to the climate to find a way out of this situation.

3. Get started now. We may get the new coronavirus vaccine by next year. But a climate catastrophe like the Corona cannot be eradicated in two years. It will take decades to innovate and distribute technology using safe fuels.

We need to make plans to prevent climate disasters. From now on you have to use zero carbon equipment. We need to make new and sustainable innovations readily available and help poor countries to adapt to global warming.

Although I've been working on Covid-19 lately. However, we are still investing in the innovation and production of new technologies using safe energy. We are organizing some programs that will drive the enthusiasm for innovation around the world. Reduce the level of damage caused by climate disasters.

Some states and individuals like me are committed to reducing carbon emissions to zero. They are forming funds, making policies. We need many more like that. We need to act as quickly as we can to deal with Covid-19.

Health experts have said for years that the world will face a deadly epidemic. But no one has ever prepared for it, the loss of which we can not compensate in any way now. And this is the warning sign of climate disaster, we have to learn from the current epidemic, we have to promise to build a beautiful future.

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