Sustaining the Future with Green Technology
Out of all of the policy decisions made dealing with the issue of climate change and sustainability, there is still inevitably conflict, and solutions are slow to emerge. What’s the solution?
China’s co2 emissions are at 22.9 gigatons compared to 9.8 gigatons in the US. American’s use seven times more co2 per capita than Chinese. A Chinese official asked “Why should China sacrifice its growth so that the west can continue to be profligate and stupid?”
Now, there are all sorts of off-the-cuff sarcastic answers to this, but this really is a viable barrier to getting China to admit to reducing its emissions. What’s the solution?
The first thing that stuck out to me is how emotional Doerr got when he introduced his talk. It seemed like his passion was driven more by emotions than by logic. However, I don’t think this should keep us from the message because, as I have argued in the past, our response to climate change matters, whether it’s happening or not.
Doerr makes the case that finding profitable solutions to going green is the only way to make a real change. Radical innovation is what’s leading us towards a sustainable future and it transcends all policy and international conflict over policy.
He predicts than green technology will be ‘bigger than the internet’, which is a bold claim. But, as a highly successful technology venture capitalist, this claim shouldn’t be quickly dismissed. I think he may be onto something, and alternative energy might just be the next big boom.
Doerr doesn’t claim to have all of the answers, but does indicate that finding viable business solutions is a step in the right direction. This, of course, depends on us as consumers and how we respond to greener trends. So, what are you doing to be a little greener?
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Comments
Well said Drew. I am excited to see how this trend towards profitability affects emerging economies, such as China and India. One of my theories, which I have done extensive research on, is that China and India would be MUCH better off in terms of economic welfare if they agreed to an international treaty (such as Kyoto) that allowed for tradable emissions permits.
China would be able to develop greener infrastructure for the first time, which would be cheaper than retrofitting in the developed world, and then would be able sell emissions permits. I have a lot to say on this, and it is an up and coming series I am going to do, but I am interested in preliminary thoughts from others.
I totally agree that if we are to find solution to the problem of human produced climate change, real or not, it needs to be a profit driven venture. It needs to be practical; something middle america has no problem getting on board with. Because, let’s face facts here. There is zero we can do to stop it if it’s occuring, short of throwing modern civilization back to the stone ages. And even that’s probably too much since they burned wood then. However, more efficient energy sources will raise profit margins from the smallest household to the larges corporations. That will ultimately lead to their widespread acceptance.