If humanity can successfully mitigate climate change, “[i]it will be the most incredible thing mankind has ever done, “according to Bill Gates.
It will require “total effort, you know, like a world war, but it’s us against greenhouse gases,” Gates told Anderson Cooper in Sunday’s “60 Minutes” episode.
Gates is relentlessly optimistic. “There are days when it seems very difficult. If people think it is easy, they are wrong. If people think it is impossible, they are wrong,” he said.
“It may seem overwhelming.”
If the fight against climate change is oppressive for billionaire philanthropist Gates, it certainly is for the average person. But, according to Gates, it’s important to remember that each preson can help.
“It’s easy to feel helpless in the face of a problem as big as climate change,” writes Gates in his new book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.” “But you are not powerless. And you don’t have to be a politician or a philanthropist to make a difference. You have influence as a citizen, consumer and employee or employer.”
Here’s what you can do to combat climate change, according to Gates.
Be political
Avoiding what Gates calls a “climate disaster” will require new energy production and distribution systems, which requires “concerted political action,” writes Gates.
“This is why involvement in the political process is the most important step that people from all walks of life can take,” he says.
Show your representatives that your representatives are concerned with climate change by making calls, writing letters and speaking in city halls.
“It may seem old-fashioned, but letters and calls to your elected officials can have a real impact,” writes Gates.
Be informed and specific in your interactions with politicians as well. For example, require funding for clean energy innovation research or a carbon tax and let politicians know that your vote depends on their action, he says.
Popular activism is important because electricity, in particular, is often regulated and governed by state utilities. Communication with these employees can be an important lever for ordinary people to pressure.
Or, if you’re so inspired, run for local public office, writes Gates.
Use your purchasing power
Buy and use sustainable products, such as a smart thermostat, for example, that will help regulate energy consumption and the use of fuel sources that emit greenhouse gases. You can also vote with your wallet by doing things like signing up to buy your energy from a clean energy source and updating your old bulbs.
“When you pay more for an electric car, a heat pump or a vegetable burger, you’re saying, ‘There is a market for these things. We will buy them, ‘”writes Gates. And companies respond to that information “very quickly, in my experience,” he says.
Demand more from your workplace
“As an employee or shareholder, you can pressure your company to do its part,” writes Gates.
While larger companies have a greater impact on the collective reduction of greenhouse gases than smaller companies, smaller companies may come together in local organizations or chambers of commerce to make a more measurable impact, says Gates. And larger companies can cooperate to pressure even bigger suppliers.
Something like a program to plant trees is an easy first step. And some companies have internal carbon taxes, writes Gates.