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To: Snowshoe who wrote (72513)	2/13/2010 5:08:22 AM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Respond to of 74559

Bill Gates Takes On Threat Of Climate Change LONG BEACH, Calif. (AFP)--Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates has broken from philanthropic work fighting poverty and disease to take on another threat to the world's poor--climate change. "Energy and climate are extremely important to these people," Gates on Friday told a TED Conference audience packed with influential figures including the founders of Google Inc. (GOOG) and climate champion Al Gore. "The climate getting worse means many years that crops won't grow from too much rain or not enough, leading to starvation and certainly unrest." Gates said he is backing development of "terrapower" reactors that could be fueled by nuclear waste from disposal facilities or generated by today's power plants. He broke down variables in a carbon-dioxide-culprit formula, homing in on a conclusion that the answer to the problem is a source of energy that produces no carbon. "The formula is a very straight forward one," Gates said. "More carbon dioxide equals temperature increase equals negative effects like collapsed ecosystems. We have to get to zero." To dramatize his point, Gates pulled out a large jar of fireflies in a playful flashback to when he unleashed mosquitoes on a TED audience a year earlier while discussing battling malaria. "They won't bite," Gates joked of the fireflies. "As a matter of fact, they might not even leave this jar." Gates touted terrapower as more reliable than wind or solar, cleaner than burning coal or natural gas, and safer than current nuclear plants. "With the right materials approach it could work," Gates said. "Because you burn 99 percent of the waste, it is kind of like a candle." Nuclear waste fed into a terrapower reactor would potentially burn for decades before being exhausted. "Today we are always refueling the reactor so lot of controls and lots of things that can go wrong," Gates said. "That is not good. With this, you have a piece of fuel, think of it like a log, that burns for 60 years and it is done." Researching and testing terrapower will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, with the building of a test reactor likely to cost in the billions. Once the technology is proven, market forces will drive down costs, Gates predicted. Work on terrapower has been done in France and Japan, and there has been interest in India, Russia, China and the U.S., according to the famed philanthropist. Gates said that if he were allowed a single wish in the coming 50 years, it would be a global "zero carbon" culture. "If I could pick a president or a vaccine, which I love, this is the wish I would pick," he said. "We need energy miracles. The microprocessor and Internet are miracles. This is a case where we have to drive and get the miracle in a short time-line." Gates dismissed climate-change skeptics, saying terrapower would render arguments moot because the energy produced would be cheaper than pollution-spewing methods used today. "The skeptics will accept it because it is cheaper," Gates said. "They might wish it did put out CO2, but they will take it." The world is at "an extraordinary moment" in the struggle to save the climate balance, according to former U.S. Vice President Gore. A vital step will be to put a price on carbon-dioxide emissions so the cost of polluting the air gets factored into the global economy. Legislation to do that has cleared the U.S. House of Representatives and must fight its way through the Senate, where it needs only a few more supporters to send the law on to the willing pen of President Barack Obama, Gore said. "A price on carbon-dioxide emissions can help us make the right decision, not only on nuclear, solar, and wind but on the gamut of energy alternatives available to us," Gore said. Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection has organized groups in 22 U.S. states with "swing senators" in the hope getting the legislation passed "before the political season gets completely wild." "These next few months represent the last feasible political window for quite some time to get this done," Gore said. "So much is at stake we have to double down."

To: Snowshoe who wrote (72513)	2/13/2010 5:33:27 AM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

>>> I never understood what held up the Euro, a pixie dust currency conjured up by a fiat committee... <<<< ........ and your currency of choice is the USD ??? wonder who is holding up this fiat currency with the "IN GOD WE TRUST" logo - may be it is GOD <GGG> with some elected figure stamped on it?? ...... at at time that government statistics are getting more and more inaccurate? That's a joke As to the valid observation of the disparity between the north and south in Europe one should ask himself if the average wages in NYC are similar to those in New Orleans or can Louisiana or Mississippi be compared to Illinois or New Jersey or Connecticut – it seems more sun makes people less productive. Will the US fall apart because those wage and income discrepancies? Or will the budget problems in CA, ILL, NJ, etc. bring about the disintegration of the US? Every one is talking his market positions, and at this time bashing the Euro is in vogue!!