by comatose_kid on 2/23/16, 6:12 PM with 144 comments
by Mikeb85 on 2/23/16, 10:14 PM
Like nuclear fission? Or how about solar?
Anyhow, while I think the intentions are good, my experience in 3rd world countries has me convinced that all the charity in the world won't help.
In general, the problem in 3rd world countries isn't education, or sanitation, or lack of capital, or mosquito nets, etc...
The problem is corruption and safety. I've seen it in my wife's country - savings rates are generally high, there's lots of labour, a ton of entrepreneurial spirit and the barrier to entry is more or less zero. The problem is, the second you start any sort of enterprise, someone will rob you. Police will demand bribes. Politicians will demand bribes. If you don't give in, they'll send their criminal friends after you. Even if you do give in, they may anyway. Bandits will come rob you in the night, and if you're unlucky enough to be there at the time, they'll shoot you. If you're lucky, they just take some cash. There's literally zero incentive to do anything, lest you get robbed and/or killed. That's reality. You want to fix the 3rd world, you need to start with law and order. Nothing can happen until people feel safe, and feel like doing something will actually improve their life.
After that, it's infrastructure. Power, roads, emergency services, bridges, etc... Infrastructure enables travel, it enables businesses, lights, and so on. When you have infrastructure you can bring your products to market. And so on (most people know the economic benefits of infrastructure).
In my experience, families in the third world often have the equivalent of thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars saved. Witness how much money Syrians and Afghans pay to get smuggled into Europe. They won't invest that because they don't feel safe, but they have no qualms giving a smuggler thousands of dollars.
So much charity is just a band-aid, or worse, gets siphoned off to corrupt entities. You fix corruption and safety issues, and the third world is the new first world. But no, we give charity with one hand, and with the other are propping up horrible dictators, overthrowing democracies for choosing the wrong ideology, and encouraging corruption and oligarchy. Given what's happened in the world since I've been old enough to follow the news, I'm more convinced than ever that the developed world simply wants to keep the third world as dependent colonies.
tl;dr - long rant, something something corruption.
by ghouse on 2/23/16, 8:14 PM
by dmix on 2/23/16, 7:17 PM
I've read a few articles mentioning how Africa has been inspired by China in recent years who focused on infrastructure as a base for domestic growth instead of just exports or raw materials.
I can't imagine the struggle it must be to survive without access to energy and clean water. Our household recently had our pipes burst from freezing and were nearly at a breaking point after three days without water. Worse yet is the occasional black out. So I'm very sympathetic to this cause.
Bill and Melinda are doing some great work.
Sidenote:
> Changes in weather often mean that their crops won’t grow because of too little rain or too much rain. That sinks them deeper into poverty. That’s particularly unfair because they’re the least responsible for emitting CO2, which is causing the problem in the first place.
Is this really true? I thought farms were responsible for the most generation of CO2 and pollutants? At least in North America livestock accounts for something like 50% of the pollution (aka "cow farts"), even more so than oil/coal. The worlds obsession with meat is actually more harmful to the environment than cars/gasoline... but this is never popularly advertised thanks to efforts of the livestock industry and willful blindness by government agencies.
by ZeroGravitas on 2/23/16, 8:13 PM
Maybe he's thought about it, and as a famous geek thinks that the number one thing he can do is champion tech innovation.
But he specifically talks about increasing energy efficiency. An obvious opening to talk about carbon taxes that bake efficiency decisions into everything we buy (and provides a ready made market for new, low-carbon tech).
Or he talks about coal, again a great opening to talk about removing subsidies from that industry and getting the workers retrained in something else.
And he seems dismissive of solar, like those will only help African farmers when the sun is shining and so are barely worth even thinking about.
In general he seems too focussed on getting carbon to 0, and not enough focussed on the low hanging fruit which, if solved with todays existing tech and policy instruments, would extend the runway we have to find breakthrough tech before our world descends into anarchy and global warfare.
Just swapping natural gas for coal gives us much ability to burn fossil fuels, since it halves the carbon per energy output. Might not be as cool as a fusion reactor, but every carbon molecule counts.
by hanniabu on 2/23/16, 8:14 PM
by Reza7865 on 2/23/16, 6:55 PM
by AndyKelley on 2/23/16, 8:03 PM
by suyash on 2/23/16, 6:52 PM
by davesque on 2/23/16, 7:40 PM
by epicureanideal on 2/24/16, 5:30 AM
by emgoldstein on 2/23/16, 8:31 PM
Answer here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svante_Arrhenius#Greenhouse_ef...
by alexashka on 2/23/16, 8:21 PM
There is so much wrong with their thinking it's sad. Here's one example:
"If you’re an American, three out of four moms at your school have a job. Your father probably does at least some cooking. There’s a 35 percent chance you live with one parent"
She mentions these things in passing and goes on to claim how women do more 'unpaid' work and that that needs to change.
Really Melinda?
You think 'equality' is more important than not having the choice to stay at home and raise your children?
You think 'equality' is more important than the alarming number of single parents?
How many Americans are obese? Are they really happy with themselves? Not for long if they are. Where is that in your letter?
When you can't get the 'best country in the world' to stop eating itself to death, have failed marriages and constant fear of unemployment which causes financial ruin, not to mention absence of free education and health care - do you really think the priority is 'unpaid work' between men and women?
Unbelievable. Who raised these people? Rich people are so out of touch, even when they try to 'help', it's simply insulting to your average brethren.
by Saikia on 2/24/16, 3:52 AM
by crackpotbaker on 2/23/16, 9:04 PM
It's mathematically crazy that, during a mass shortage of food in some parts of the world, we're feeding a net loss of food in order to eat animal produce.
He's even insane enough to support getting more meat, dairy and eggs to Africa, instead of just bringing the nutrient filled crops.
With his attitude about energy and carbon footprint reduction, there's no way, India, China and Africa live sustainably on a meat filled diet.
by edw519 on 2/23/16, 7:49 PM
Someone who was gifted $1 million on the day he was born preaching about poverty is like someone who has never written a line of code running an I.T. department.