A Few Observations on Environmentalism
I took most of the day off yesterday to be a part of a family outing at the Los Angeles County Fair. While the kids were on the rides, I wandered off on my own to check out as many eco-friendly solutions as I could find in the “home and garden” area, including a clever new approach to solar water heating for swimming pools.
There was also a marvelous exhibit heralding some of the great American inventors: Franklin, Edison, The Wright Brothers, Carver, Ford, as well as dozens of others: the guy who invented the yoyo, another who gave us Post-it notes, etc. I felt a bit sad that the designers felt the need to limit the focus to Americans, but outside of that, they did a good job.
Now I’m on the train back from Los Angeles, sitting next to a very affable lady of Indian descent who works as an environmental engineer, whose job functions include a great deal of permitting and regulation. So far, the conversation’s been quite thought-provoking. “We regulate businesses, but we educate people,” she says. “As a society, we expect people to make the right decisions with respect to the environment, but not to the extent that they cease to enjoy their lives. I’m not an eco-Nazi,” she smiles.
Here’s an 
Of all the byproducts of our gross extravagance in energy consumption over the last half century, the one that could be most toxic to all of us is the way it has turned brother against brother with regard to environmentalism. Here’s the website of the 
A reader from Nigeria sent me a business plan on an ethanol plant that would provide a far cleaner way for West Africans to cook their food than their current approach, which is a combination of kerosene and wood gathered from rapidly disappearing forests.
Late last night I was on a Skype call with a friend, a clean energy aficionado based in Central France. He went on at length about some of the projects he’s pursuing, several of which are various types of pyrolysis plants that will invoke some extremely specific equipment that I never knew existed. I learned about machines that process corn and miscanthus, as well as:
It was 72 years ago on this date that a group of teenagers came across the now-famous cave paintings in Lascaux, France. I’ve always regarded this discovery as integral to the path on which Homo sapiens finds itself: gradually coming to see that our common humanity is a far more important feature of our species than our surface-level differences. 
I’d like to invite you to our September webinar, featuring my friend and colleague Andy Lower, Executive Director of The Eleos Foundation. Eleos is a dynamic non-profit, that, through its for-profit subsidiaries, invests in and partners with social entrepreneurs who effectively implement high impact, early stage, pioneering market based solutions in the fight to eradicate extreme poverty.
I just sat down over lunch with a printed publication to which I subscribe called the “
Here’s a recently recorded hour-long 
