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Bill Gates Hopes for “Energy Miracles” at TED

During his TED speech on Friday, Bill Gates took on climate change, saying the world needs serious breakthroughs in energy technology. "What we're...

Ben Jervey
By Ben JerveyFeb 18, 2010
Ben Jervey
Ben is a writer and editor covering climate change, energy, and environment, and is currently the Climate and Energy Media Fellow at Vermont Law School. He was the original Environment Editor at GOOD Magazine and his work has appeared regularly in National Geographic News, Grist, DeSmogBlog, and OnEarth. He recently worked with the non-profit Focus the Nation to publish an Energy 101 primer. When living in New York City, he wrote a book, The Big Green Apple, on how to live a lower impact life in the city. A bicycle enthusiast, Ben has ridden across the United States and through much of Europe.
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During his TED speech on Friday, Bill Gates took on climate change, saying the world needs serious breakthroughs in energy technology. "What we're going to have to do at a global scale is create a new system… So we need energy miracles," Gates said, suggesting that we use the next 20 years to develop these breakthrough technologies…and the following 20 years to deploy it. Brad Plumer at TNR thinks that "seems somewhat misguided," and I agree. As Plumer explains "radical breakthroughs in the energy sector don't come along often-and it can often take a very long time for a truly novel scientific discovery to translate into widespread technology." Joe Romm's got a lengthy, comprehensive breakdown of Gates' talk on Climate Progress, which he describes as "like a miraculous ice cream cone made up of 80% homemade chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream and only 20% bat guano." (Maybe you'll have to read for yourself.) Alex Steffan at Worldchanging saw a lot of positive, calling it "the most important climate speech of the year."Interestingly, Gates spent a good chunk of his talk hyping up a certain technology–the "traveling wave reactor"–that could turn spent uranium fuel rods into energy, spotlighting one company, TerraPower, that's leading the charge. (Gates happens to be a principal owner of the company. Warrants mentioning.) We'll embed the talk itself when TED loads it to their site.Photo (cc) Flickr user magnifynetThis post originally appeared on www.refresheverything.com, as part of GOOD's collaboration with the Pepsi Refresh Project, a catalyst for world-changing ideas. Find out more about the Refresh campaign, or to submit your own idea today.
technologyenvironmenttedclimate changeenergybill gatespepsi refreshterrapower

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