Five questions for corporate climate plans, from Raven Baxter's Gates Notes campaign

Raven Baxter partnered with Gates Notes in April 2021 on a Twitter campaign for Bill Gates' new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. On April 6 she posted a thread that turned the book's five questions into a guide for the public to test companies' climate plans.

"There are a lot of ways companies are touting plans to combat climate change that may go over our heads. What does it all mean?" Baxter wrote in the thread's first post.

It was a busy spring for climate policy. Knopf published the book on February 16. Three days later the United States officially rejoined the Paris Agreement. Two weeks after Baxter's thread, the White House held an Earth Day Leaders Summit on Climate. There the United States pledged to cut net greenhouse gas pollution 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

Each post paired a question with a short explainer. The first asked how much of the 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases produced each year a technology could eliminate. The second asked about cement. "Making steel and cement alone accounts for around 10 percent of all emissions. What is their plan? This is a question to get started on holding people accountable," she wrote.

The third question set out the scale of power, from 1 kilowatt for an average American house to 5,000 gigawatts for the world. The fourth asked how much space a power source needs. The fifth asked what it would cost. "Fossil fuel prices aren't a proper reflection of the environmental damage they cause when used. Hold companies accountable for not putting a premium on green options," she wrote, linking Gates' page on the green premium.

Baxter invites climate questions in her #AskRaven video, April 7, 2021. Image: Raven Baxter video (@ravenscimaven on X)

Baxter asked readers to "join me by replying with some of your own questions you think are important to ask large organizations that are touting plans for climate change." On April 7 she invited climate questions in a video tagged #AskRaven. "I read the book. There's a lot of interesting things in here," she said.

The book in Baxter's April 8 post. Baxter is not pictured. Image: Raven Baxter video (@ravenscimaven on X)

On April 8 she wrote about her own stake. "One of my biggest goals as I begin my entrepreneurial journey has been understanding what my role is as a business owner in taking action on climate change," she wrote.

Gates Notes is Bill Gates' personal website. He launched it in January 2010 to share what he is learning. His book lays out a path to zero emissions and explains the "green premium," his term for the extra cost of a clean option.

Bill Gates' account liked the thread's first post. On April 15 Baxter shared the notification with the line "Bill Gates knows who I am." That post has drawn 1,248 likes. The cost question led the thread, with 161 likes.

Baxter, a molecular biologist and science communicator, was then pursuing a Ph.D. at the University at Buffalo.

The thread and the #AskRaven video remain on X. Gates' introduction to the book is on Gates Notes.

Paid partnership with Gates Notes, marked #GatesPartner.