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Hi. This is not true. Like seriously enormously not true. It's cute letting a celebrity billionaire be your climate policy figurehead [editor's note: it's really not], but this is straight up shouting predatory delay using the US govt as a megaphone.
1/ https://twitter.com/tgradous/status/1385907479637336067
1/ https://twitter.com/tgradous/status/1385907479637336067
I have never heard a SINGLE climate scientist working on mitigation saying we are missing technology, let alone a made up number like 45% of technology. I have heard ALL OF them say we lack the political will to act immediately, which we need to do, with all the tech we have.
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2/
So we have a billionaire making one of the central arguments to *not* act on climate immediately, but instead invest in speculative tech. Color me so surprised we wrote a whole damn paper on "discourses of delay" - and @leolinne made Bill's persona.
3/
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/global-sustainability/article/discourses-of-climate-delay/7B11B722E3E3454BB6212378E32985A7
3/
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/global-sustainability/article/discourses-of-climate-delay/7B11B722E3E3454BB6212378E32985A7
Cannot even express how angry and disappointed this makes me in @POTUS & @SecRaimondo . It's wrong, it's corrupt, it's evil, and the US is chock-full of amazing scientists and engineers who could do better climate policy and communication than Bill Gates before breakfast.
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Even more glad we wrote this one now. A wealth tax IS climate policy, everyone. It really is.
5/ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16941-y
5/ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16941-y
Just going to remind everyone of this as well. Bill Gates has a history of wrecking international policy to maintain profits. Don't trust him on climate.
End/ https://newrepublic.com/article/162000/bill-gates-impeded-global-access-covid-vaccines
End/ https://newrepublic.com/article/162000/bill-gates-impeded-global-access-covid-vaccines
Aaand I just went back to the original article and it's very clear that "we're missing half the technology" is shorthand for "I refuse to consider reductions in energy demand to be climate policy."
Which ...
Which ...
1) reductions in energy consumption ≠ reductions in energy services delivered. There is a thing called efficiency.
2) reductions in energy are not a bad thing if its purpose is useless overconsumption (something a billionaire might know about, cough). https://twitter.com/PeterJNewell_/status/1384075777101090830
2) reductions in energy are not a bad thing if its purpose is useless overconsumption (something a billionaire might know about, cough). https://twitter.com/PeterJNewell_/status/1384075777101090830
3) energy use and human development are not as closely linked as you might think when you look at the evidence
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab7461
4) we can model universal sufficient energy at LESS THAN HALF what we use now by 2050 using EXISTING technology ffs. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102168
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab7461
4) we can model universal sufficient energy at LESS THAN HALF what we use now by 2050 using EXISTING technology ffs. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102168
5) And to top it off, a more equitable world is easier to decarbonize using EXISTING technology than one with billionaires, another argument for a wealth tax. https://theconversation.com/why-a-more-equal-world-would-be-easier-to-decarbonise-153593
Add your own arguments in replies because I am about to rage-stroke over here. 
Bill Gates, this doofus mascarading as an expert, is literally making arguments to delay climate action because we "need" new technology to decarbonise his wasteman wasteful lifestyle.
Bill Gates, this doofus mascarading as an expert, is literally making arguments to delay climate action because we "need" new technology to decarbonise his wasteman wasteful lifestyle.
I am outspoken and sometimes say things that go too far on this hellsite. I am trying hard here to be somewhat measured. But how in god's name is this not evil? How? It's wrong, it's misleading, it prevents positive immediate action, it protects wealth & inequality. I just can't.
And of course the incomparable @krustelkram made a perfect representation of @BillGates in her comic book adaptation of the "discourses of delay" paper. Bang to rights.
https://www.celinekeller.com/discourses-of-climate-delay
https://www.celinekeller.com/discourses-of-climate-delay
