Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla on Wednesday slammed billionaire Elon Musk over his climate-talk tutorial to Republican Party Presidential candidate Donald Trump, saying his thoughts about CO2 ppm (parts per million) levels and their consequences were simply “dumb”.
In a thread on X social media platform, Khosla said that regarding Trump’s point of the temperature going up in some places and down in others, “you know as well as I that's a dumb way to look at it. The aggregate macro trends are indisputable. The earth is warming”. He said that he does not expect former US President “to know the nuances of various CO2 ppm levels and their consequences, and him reaching out to the person who has arguably done more for climate than anyone else is pretty sensible”.
“You had a responsibility that I think you largely abdicated by downplaying the reality of things,” Khosla told Musk.
Musk tried to educate Trump about climate change, greenhouse gases, and the future of renewable energy. Making the case for renewable energy, he spoke to Trump as if he were tutoring a kid, that there are two reasons for adopting it – the finite petroleum resources and carbon dioxide (CO2) build-up’s impact on health.
The Tesla CEO said: “People don't realise this: If you go past a thousand parts of CO2 per a million in the atmosphere, you start getting headaches and nausea. So even without global warming, it's not a comfortable place. So you don't want to get too close to that number”.
Khosla argued, saying that focusing on 1,000 ppm because that's when things start to get "uncomfortable" for humans (nausea and headaches) is “totally off”.
“At 500 ppm, the likelihood of catastrophic climate impacts, such as large-scale disruptions to ecosystems, accelerated ice melt, and extreme weather events, becomes much higher. Some have warned that exceeding 500 ppm could lead to irreversible damage and tipping points in the Earth's climate system. You know this,” the serial investor told the Tesla CEO.
“We're at 420 ppm so even at the pace of 2-3 ppm increase per year. we could be 25-40 years away from a climate disaster. Which brings me to my next point -- we absolutely should be vilifying oil and gas companies. They have been hiding research on climate, and rather than engaging transparently on what's needed for a 30-year transition (while opposing electric mind you!) they've been behaving in bad faith despite knowing full well what they're doing,” Khosla further posted.
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