Archive for the ‘insulation’ tag
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.
