Global warming and peak oil might sound nasty to you, but for some folks working on green technologies it sounds like "Ka-ching." With growing concern about CO2 from fossil fuels that may or may not be running out anyway, venture capitalists pumped a record $2.2 billion into cleantech last year, says a report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers entitled "Cleantech Comes of Age."

Much of the boom is focused on alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, and biofuels with total investment in that area reaching $1.1 billion. However, pollution mitigation and recycling also attracted funding, with 29 recorded deals totalling over $202 million.

It'd be nice to think that the surge in interest in eco-friendly tech has to do with our collective consciences driving us to better stewardship of the planet, but we all know it's because oil is at $123 a barrel and rising, making alternative energy and straight-up conservation look a lot more attractive. But whatever the reason, it's all a step in the right direction.

via [Green Tech Blog]

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You may have to wave goodbye to your ant farm - climate change may prove to be a more powerful pesticide than DDT. New research shows that even relatively minor fluctuations in temperature could have devastating effects on insects, especially in the world's tropical regions.

An article in the Independent quotes Curtis Deutsch, who co-authored the study to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, as saying that although temperatures are not expected to increase as much in the tropics as at the poles, even a 1C or 2C jump could be fatal for insects already surviving at their edge of their climactic comfort zone.

While that doesn't sound like it's all downside, especially for anyone who's been up north during blackfly season, the repercussions could be pretty ugly. Insects in warm climates are key to a healthy environment, pollinating flowers and plants, carrying away organic waste (read: eating crap) and serving as dinner for various birds and animals. If the bugs fail to adapt to a changing climate, the consequences will be felt all the way up the food chain.

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When you and I holler about global warming, it may not mean much, but when a group of folks whose name is immortalized in the song "Puttin' on the Ritz" start complaining, people sit up and take notice.

A group of descendants of John D. Rockefeller, founder of ExxonMobil predecessor Standard Oil, are calling for a shake-up in management at the oil giant, saying that the company is "failing to address the future of energy". The family are apparently concerned about Exxon's late and reluctant conversion to climate change belief, and subsequent failure to do much about the issue.

The group is looking to have the jobs of Chairman and CEO, currently both held by Rex Tillerson, to be split into two separate roles. It's not known exactly how much Exxon stock the family actually owns, so it's unclear whether their request will have any impact.

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As Earth Day transmogrifies from funky hippie-fest into mass-marketed secular holiday, there's been a lot of hand-wringing about business jumping on the eco-bandwagon. After all, isn't it the greedy corporations who mucked everything up in the first place with all their smokestacks and oil spills and whatnot? There's an idea that saving the planet requires shunning the ugly corrupt world of money and power, and focusing on composting our poo and planting herb gardens in old hub caps.

Unfortunately, that idea isn't just wrong, but dangerously so. As individuals, we lack the resources, (and generally the willpower) to do what it's going to take to slow down the oncoming freight train of environmental disaster. That's why this is the time to form partnerships, not draw battle lines; time to embrace the occasionally fumbling but often well-intentioned efforts of the corporate world.

If that sticks in your craw, consider the fact that unless you're living Unabomber style, you and yours have been sucking at the teat of big business for decades anyway, sticking your head in the sand as the planet got ripped apart in the quest for consumables. That's why you've got an iPhone and a freezer full of Lean Cuisine, while about a billion people around the planet are casting a hungry eye on the family goat.

One reason we need to draw corporate resources into the green fold is that while many of us have good intentions, we have a problem with follow-through. All else being equal, most of us would probably prefer that our grand-kids not have to live in an overheated toxic swamp. However, we still don't walk when we can drive, don't buy CFL bulbs instead of incandescents, don't turn the furnace down or the AC off - in other words, don't even take minimal action to avert the nastiness that with any luck won't hit its stride until after we've all passed away peacefully in our hot tubs.

More importantly, even if all of us became enviro-zealots of Gore-esque proportion, grass-roots action isn't going to be enough to pull us back from the brink. No matter how many CFL bulbs you buy, or how often you leave the Prius in the driveway, yours and my efforts mean diddly in a world that's adding 75 million people a year, many of whom will aspire to owning sub-zero fridges and giant SUVs.

The New York Times reports that use of fossil fuels - the chief cause of man-made climate change - will skyrocket in the next 30 years, principally because of increased affluence and modernization in places like India and China. The number of automobiles on the planet is expected to double to two billion, and the way it stands now, most of those will be gas-powered carbon spewers, not Ed Begley specials.

At the Bali Climate Change Conference last year,International Energy Agency executive director Nobuo Tanaka observed that in order to meet energy needs while stabilizing carbon emissions at sub-catastrophic levels, the human race would have to construct the following each and every year between 2013 and 2030: thirty nuclear plants of 1000 MW each, twenty-two 800 MW coal- fired power plants with carbon capture and storage (a largely untested technology), twenty 500MW gas-fired plants with carbon capture and storage; 400 biomass plants of 40 MW each, two hydro dams on the scale of the Three Gorges Dam in China at 1.7 million MW each; and 17,000 wind turbines of 3 MW each.

The whole shooting match should run us about 22 trillion dollars, which would put a dent in anyone's retirement fund. But that's OK, because there are no plans in place for any of this stuff anyway.

Nope, given the sheer scale of the problem, we need big bucks, and bigger organization. And that means business (as well as governments, who have access to the golden-egg laying goose of our tax dollars). Fortunately, we in the post-industrial west have a lever with which we can move the corporate world - our buying power. The reason the Wal-Marts and the Fox Networks ("Green it! Mean it!") of the world have suddenly gotten green religion is because that's what the public is looking for right now.

But we need to push them further. We need eco-friendly factories and power plants, reduction and recycling on a massive scale, R&D dollars flowing into renewable energy sources, and a new understanding of marketing and consumerism. Our job as consumers and citizens of the planet is not to be satisfied with green sloganeering and recycled t-shirts. It's our role to hold businesses accountable, to yank our shopping and advertising bucks when they obfuscate and greenwash, and to reward them with our dollars when they do the right thing.

Organizations are made up of human beings, and we all have a vested interest in keeping the Earth livable. It's time to stop complaining about our private Earth Day party being co-opted by wealth and power, and work at pointing that wealth and power in the right direction.

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The thing about greening up Information Technology is that apart from saving a polar bear or two, it usually entails using less power, less space, and less waste, which means...anyone? anyone? That's right, you over there in the pocket protector, it'll save money too. So if you currently are, or plan to become, the CIO of a major corporation, then InfoWorld has some useful tips on how you can feel ecofriendly while also helping the bottom line.

Among the suggestions:

• Desktop power management - Power management tools that automatically power down computers can save $50 per year per machine.
• Server virtualization - Many companies have servers that are underutilized because they're dedicated to a specific department or function. By combining and maximizing the use of each server, you save on hardware and energy.
• Document technology systems - Software is now available that automatically forces printing on two sides, or requires black and white only. No more employees printing out the family holiday card using expensive colour ink.
• Refurbished machines - Does everyone in the accounting department need a new and super-powerful machine? Of course not unless they're spending their days playing World of Warcraft, in which case you've got issues other than IT to deal with.

There you go - you just bought yourself a flight on the corporate jet.

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1. Statements of account balances for each of your accounts, including savings and checking, RRSPs, etc.
2. Statements for each of your loans or lines of credit.
   

1. One bill for each credit card you hold.
2. One bill for phone service.
   
3. A bill for your cell phone.
   
4. You might have a bill for cable TV.
5. You almost certainly will have a bill for your Internet connection.
6. If you haven't set something up through your landlord, then expect heat and hydro bills also.
7. Any menial items, such as subscriptions to magazines or games, that for some reason you are not already handling online.
8. Car insurance bills.
9. Life insurance bills; many parents hand these off to their kids at, or after, college.
10. Car payments.
11. Health/health insurance bills.

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There's still a myth in some businesses that green initiatives are something you do so that when Greenpeace turns up at your board meeting complaining about your latest oil spill or toxic baby food scandal, you can point to the half dozen trees you planted as proof of solid corporate citizenship.

However, research shows that being green has advantages way beyond image. Even if you're an evil company that doesn't care about the planet, fostering an eco-friendly attitude can be profitable.

A recent study by Brockmann and Co. found that when comparing organizations which were highly eco-aware with those who weren't, the greener firms had 3 times more customer satisfaction, 4.7 times more employee satisfaction, and 1.7 times more revenue per employee.

Greening up technology was a key driver in improving the overall score of a company, especially the use of videoconferencing instead of air travel when possible. However, factors such as effective recycling of waste, and encouraging employees to engage in environmentally responsible activities such as taking public transit play a big part as well.

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With the high-tech and housing bubbles thoroughly popped, at least one pundit is looking to green technology as the next engine to keep the US economy running.

In an article in Harper's magazine last month, venture capitalist Eric Janszen says that the conventional business cycle is now toast, at least in the US, and that the struggling economy will require continual bubbling in order to avoid collapse. Given that large numbers of investors are unlikely to be driven into a speculative frenzy over, say, new pet foods or modern art, he sees the logical bubble developing in eco-friendly technologies.

Janszen says that "the gross market value of all enterprises needed to develop hydroelectric power, geothermal energy, nuclear energy, wind farms, solar power, and hydrogen-powered fuel-cell technology-and the infrastructure to support it-is somewhere between $2 trillion and $4 trillion" . He adds a further $12 trillion in "hyper-inflated fictitious value", i.e. speculative overvaluation that typically ends up in share prices and the six-car garages of investment bankers.

Keep in mind that Janszen doesn't seem to view another round of enthusiastic delusion and inflated asset pricing as all that desirable - just the only viable alternative to a disastrous economic crash. There's something whimsical yet terrifying about Janszen as he breezily discusses the need for hyper-inflated values while tossing off phrases like "When the bubble finally bursts, we will be left to mop up after yet another devastated industry. "

However, in a recent interview with Wired, he comes off as a little more optimistic, suggesting that a focus on green tech would not only keep Americans employed and relatively prosperous, but would provide obvious side benefits in a a post-oil, globally-warming world. And why not? Spending money on clean, efficient energy production and transportation systems should be at least as beneficial for the economy as 1000 acres of power-guzzling McMansions or a host of Internet porn sites.

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The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development has released a report saying that one way or another we're going to pay for climate change, and it'll be cheaper if we do it now rather than later.

The bad news is that greenhouse emissions are going to go up no matter what we do, as much as 37% by 2030 if no action is taken. Needless to say, the consequences of a jump of that magnitude will include more wacky weather, water and food shortages, and other kinds of climate change unpleasantness with which we're already becoming familiar. However, the report estimates that the rise could be held to 12% if countries worked together to implement changes like "green" taxes, emissions trading, and more stringent regulation on heavily polluting industries.

Going to the root of the problem which bedevilled the Bali Climate Change Conference, the report says that it isn't enough for industrialized nations to limit their emissions, while developing countries go CO2-crazy in the pursuit of economic growth. It points out that by 2030, greenhouse gases from Brazil, China, India, and Russia are expected to be greater than that of all 30 OECD members combined, and suggests that the costs of reducing emissions be shared "fairly". That would include wealthier countries helping poorer ones by providing green technology and expertise to help them advance on a low carbon track.

The OECD is essentially a club of rich nations and wannabes, so the insistence on equal participation could reflect a little bit of self-interest. However, the group isn't especially known for its treehuggerish tendencies, so a warning from them is something governments might want to take seriously.

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