The founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, believes that the world will soon plunge into an ecological crisis whose consequences will be far more tragic than those of the Covid-19 crisis.
The Covid-19 epidemic that has hit the world hard has caused a crisis, claimed many lives and led to economic hardship unparalleled for generations, billionaire Bill Gates wrote on his blog.
“Of course, I’m talking about Covid-19. But in a few decades, the same description will fit another global crisis: climate change. As horrible as this pandemic is, climate change could be worse,” he says.
He reminds us that in the event of a disaster, it is human nature to be concerned only with immediate needs.
“But the fact that considerably higher temperatures seem far away in the future is nonetheless a problem,” says Bill Gates.
The only way to avoid the worst is to step up efforts today on a planetary scale.
“We must act now to prevent a climate catastrophe by creating and deploying innovations that will allow us to eliminate our greenhouse gas emissions,” he notes.
Bill Gates compares the consequences of Covid-19 and global warming.
Global warming, just as deadly as the Covid-19
According to him, this calculation should be based on the death rate, which, according to him, is 14 per 100,000 people. Over the next 40 years, rising temperatures could increase the death rate by the same amount: 14 deaths per 100,000 population. But then the figure could increase.
“By 2060, climate change could be just as deadly as Covid-19, and by 2100, it could be five times as deadly,” he says.
To remedy the situation, he believes it is vital to put science and innovation at the service of the world and ensure that “solutions work for poor countries too”.
In addition, it is a matter of “starting now”. “Unlike the new coronavirus, for which we should have a vaccine next year, there is no quick fix for climate change,” he stresses.
It will take decades to develop and deploy all the clean energy inventions that humanity needs, notes Bill Gates.
