Bill Gate’s is asking for an energy miracle. He calls for a solution with unbelievable scale and reliability. Why energy? Because energy influences so much of our lives and our planet. For instance, energy can reduce poverty! Currently our methods of obtaining energy are harming our planet and people. People especially living in areas most affected by global warming. Because of the amount of C02 emitted from the way that we obtain energy, the temperature of our planet is rising. Rising temperatures create a positive feedback in which something like the melting of the Siberian ice sheet crosses a threshold and lead to various other consequences. Rising sea levels encroach on land, land where peoples homes are. Bangladesh is one country where the impacts of rising sea levels could displace millions of people. Another place are the Pacific Islands. There are over 300,000 islands with thousands of people (including indigenous groups) that are finding their land shrinking. It is a real problem. What this video. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrT0pNiXYJo&feature=related)
With a situation with a positive feedback, the consequence of global warming occur at a higher frequency once a threshold has been past. The only way to really stop this feedback loop is through a dramatic change. One incredible step towards reversing all of this could be with what Gates calls an energy miracle! This energy miracle is founded on the principal of ZERO carbon emissions. It’s not sufficient for us to decrease emissions by 20%, 50% or even 80%. It has to be 100%! How? Well there are 4 main factors that we can look at to solve this: people, people using these services, energy for each the services and the C02 put out/unit of energy. This is what the equation looks like
C02=P x S x E x C and we want C02=0!
How do we get there? What we need is news ways of thinking. Yes, this sounds all too familiar. We need creative way of looking at things. We need, I like the way Ken Robinson defines it, Intelligence! Intelligence is three pronged. It is diverse, which means it requires us to look from different perspectives. It is dynamic, in that it changes as we include different factors and inputs. It is also distinct in that it is original and unique. Intelligence defined as such incorporates elements of design and creativity. Approaches to how we solve problems are made much more complex because the reality is, these problems are very complex. Poverty for example is not a simple issue. It comes in many forms and is rooted from different causes. How is it that we solve our poverty and energy crisis? I definitely don’t have the answer to that but I say wouldn’t it be interesting to get a group of kids together and ask them? How effective are those large-scale conferences in Copenhangen or Bali with all the major political leaders? What changes are really happening?