Book Club: Avoiding Climate Disaster!

For April 2021, our book club is going to be reading How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/633968/how-to-avoid-a-climate-disaster-by-bill-gates/

ChiTownBio is dedicated to putting the knowledge, skills, and tools of biotechnology into the hands of all Chicagoans who want to explore the living world and use it to benefit our community. We want to encourage everyone to have access to add a little tinkering and learning about all biology into their lives.

One of the biggest problems facing society is the looming threat of climate change. The living world is at threat, but the living world may also hold key tools and solutions in order to make sure we can avoid the worst outcomes of climate change, and as a community biology lab, we want to stay informed on both the threat and these solutions.

To help us explore both, our next book will be "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions and Breakthroughs We Need." The book is described by its publishers like this:

"Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet’s slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal.

He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions—suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise.

As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach."

Join us for what is bound to be a very lively discussion of the book in our continuing virtual series. We'll not only be sharing our opinions on not only climate change, but also about the use of biology in fighting climate change, biotechnology, and the effect of climate change on the world around us here in Chicago.