Jaipur Literature Festival has gone online like everything else, and what is missing in terms of a physical festival vibe is being made up by having an amazing line-up of speakers from across the world. While there is always a great number of national authors and international writers plus lakhs of visitors when conducted at Diggi Palace, Jaipur – surely the practical issues like Visas and at times the travel restrictions and controversies, and many other commitments have kept away some amazing people, which is surely not the case this year.
Businessman, technologist and philanthropist Bill Gates recently launched his book ‘How to Avoid Climate Disaster -The Solutions We Have And, The Breakthroughs We Need’. Festival Producer, Sanjoy K. Roy, described the book as a practical guide “to avoid a climate catastrophe, with the help of experts in the field of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science and finance.”
The Bill Gates Foundation is working towards a mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 51 million tons to zero by 2050.
A few takeaways from his session with Alok Sharma, President of the COP26 Climate Conference on perils of climate change, at JLF 2021.
- I think we can give the younger generation credit that in this political round, it [climate] was more discussed, by far, than at any time in our history.”
- We want climate to be a bi-partisan issue because we’ve got to cap thirty years of progress, not just four years.
- Climate change is too big of a problem and it cannot be tackled without governments driving this.
- I am not an expert on advocacy. I have incredible admiration for people like Greta [Thunberg]… We need that attention to intensify and stay very, very high for all thirty years. You know different parties may be in power in different countries and yet, we can’t have them checking out of this cause.
- If progress, innovation and action don’t harness results, Gates warned that in “ten years from now, we could have a very cynical view of this thing.
- I do think that people want to associate themselves with something more than just their own individual success. So, there is almost a religious commitment to the Earth, and what we’re doing for future generations
