"For Gates, the case for net zero is “rock solid”.
The science is settled, and he is convinced that “the only way to avoid disastrous outcomes is to get to zero”.
For readers already convinced of the “climate crisis” and the imperative to go to “net zero” by 2050, this book holds no surprises.
For those more skeptical of popular discussions of climate change, what is most striking is that Gates – among the world’s most celebrated and successful data scientists — is so curiously unaware or indifferent to data that challenge many of the presumptions contained in the book."
Thus, for example, while Gates is aware of the low energy density and intermittency of solar and wind power (when the sun sets and the wind does not blow) and the prohibitive costs of batteries to store electricity at grid-scale, he nonetheless finds it imperative that we have policies “to force an unnaturally speedy transition”.
Net zero “requires the US to build as much wind and solar we can build and find room for”. Indeed, it would seem that Gates’ optimism sees nothing but promise in affordable decarbonization.
... Alas, ‘following the science’ is neither straightforward nor consensual.
The diversity of scientific views on every aspect of climate change which one would have expected Bill Gates to be conversant with are not to be found in this book.
Indeed, he dismisses contrarian arguments as products of “small and politically powerful groups not persuaded by the science”.