Bill Gates has had quite the life- as a computer pioneer, he built many of the systems that the world’s electronics operate on. And after that he took the money and has become one of the largest charitable donors in the world, fighting for the rights and well-being of those in poverty around the world. So, if you invent the future and use the proceeds to take care of the world, what’s left to do? How about try and save it from climate change?

Last week Gates spoke to a TED Conference, whose audience members included the founders of Google and climate champion Al Gore, according to the AFP.

"Energy and climate are extremely important to these people. 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," said Gates.

It’s exciting to see someone as influential, respected and rich as Bill Gates get moving on what we can do about climate change. It’s interesting to see as well that his angle on it is to help fight the poverty that comes from climate change, meaning that his concern is the effect on the people in areas that count on the weather rather than on the Earth itself as a whole ecosystem. Either way, he’s doing some amazing things with a whole lot of money behind him.

First, he is backing “terrapower,” which has a great name that could avoid some of the pitfalls that come with green and eco. Terrapower reactors are energy sources that could theoretically be fueled by nuclear waste. If those work, places that were toxic waste dumps could turn out to be the answer to the world’s energy needs… Imagine that.

It sounds like Gates took very gigantic and complicated problems and presented the nuts & bolts of a simple solution, one that is sweeping in its conclusion and inspirational in its message. Essentially, Gates said we need an energy source that does not create carbon.

"The formula is a very straight forward one. More carbon dioxide equals temperature increase equals negative effects like collapsed ecosystems. We have to get to zero. With the right materials approach it could work. Because you burn 99 percent of the waste, it is kind of like a candle."

According to Gates, terrapower is more reliable than wind or solar, cleaner than coal or natural gas and safer than present-day nuclear plants.

Bill Gates is a smart guy and a savvy businessman. If he’s excited about some energy source that burns nuclear fuel that will potentially burn for decades and give off no carbon dioxide, well I am going to turn my head and get excited about it as well.

"Today we are always refueling the reactor so lot of controls and lots of things that can go wrong. 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."

That sounds amazing.

It doesn’t work yet and it will take hundreds of millions or billions of dollars to figure it out. But it could work, and it would solve everything. Too good to be true? Perhaps. But so is having a portable box that can access every kind of information you ever wanted and let you talk to people on the other side of the world… you know, a computer.

 Photo Credit: Domain Barnyard (via Flickr under CCL)