Why Bill Gates is wrong (what’s new?)
Dave Roberts on Grist has this to say about Bill Gates’ recent TED talk:
Gates has burst on to the energy scene with some rather ill-considered thinking. To get a flavor, see his blog post, “Why We Need Innovation, Not Just Insulation.” The idea is that “conservation and behavior change” might get the world to its 2020 or 2030 targets, but to get to 80 percent emissions reductions by 2050 we’ll need fundamental technological innovation. Ergo: we should pay more attention to, and devote more money to, basic science and R&D.
via Why Bill Gates is wrong | Grist.
Roberts goes on and on about why Gates is wrong, and Roberts mostly gets it right. But we can succintly tell you why Gates was wrong:
If you build tight and build right, a building’s energy consumption goes way down.
No innovation required there, just good craftsmanship and a solid work ethic. Alas, those two things are sorely lacking in the U.S. construction trade, and no amount of technological innovation is going to change that.
I don’t think that good craftsmanship and a solid work ethic are lacking in this country. If 10% or 20% of workers are poorly skilled or have a bad work ethic, I think this is dwarfed by the energy efficiency problem of our legacy buildings. My house was built in 1936. It was built by good craftsmen with, I’m sure, a solid work ethic. They were doing the best they could do at the time, but I don’t think you could build a less energy efficient house today. Every year I add improvements to lower my heating costs (motivated by my solid work ethic and enabled by my adequate craftsmanship), but it takes time and money to kill the drafts, replace the windows, install an automatic thermostat, wrap the water heater, etc., etc., etc. My house is a microcosm of the country. We need time and money to retrofit old buildings. And incentive! A landlord whose tenants pay for heating has little incentive to improve energy efficiency. He can make an expensive long-term investment (ouch), or he can let the tenants eat the costs. Guess what usually happens?
Bob Hoffmann
26 Feb 10 at 2:30 pm