As a scientist, I think science ought to have taken center stage at the recently concluded United Nations climate summit in New York City. The reason is obvious: climate change is a scientific issue. Instead, we witnessed a political spectacle. Media outlets and celebrities (on Twitter) celebrated Greta Thunberg’s climate summit speech, making it the highlight of the summit.In a fiery speech, based on a hand-written note, Greta condemned world leaders for making excuses and not acting … [Read more...]
Bill Gates Gets It on Wind and Solar
In an interview published in The Atlantic, billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates had two very astute observations about wind and solar energy: On the limits of wind power and solar photovoltaic cells: Wind has grown super-fast, on a very subsidized basis. Solar, off a smaller base, has been growing even faster—again on a highly subsidized basis. But it’s absolutely fair to say that even the modest R&D that’s been done, and the various deployment incentives that are there, have worked … [Read more...]
