Two weeks ago we started this feature of interviews with leading scientists and thinkers on the subject of energy. The first interview was with Dennis M. Bushnell, Chief Scientist, NASA, Langley Research Center.   This is the second of what will be an ongoing series of interviews in the weeks ahead.  Regular readers of this blog know that I believe that facing and solving the multiple issues concerning energy is the single most pressing problem that we face as a species.  There is a lot of media coverage about energy, alternative energy and global warming, but what has been missing is the knowledge and point of view of scientists, at least in the main stream media.  What do the best and brightest think about energy and the future?  Please continue to come to www.evolutionshift.com and find out.
This week we interview Darel Preble.  Darel is chair of the Space Solar Power Workshop, a volunteer organization dedicated to finding and understanding the cleanest, most reliable, baseload energy source - that is SSP. It operates under the Space Solar Power Institute, 501(c)3 educational corporation, which Darel chartered in 1997.  In 1994, 1995, and 1996 he wrote a series of three annual white papers (on his own time and dime) for the aerospace and  electric power industries.  Darel was then a strategic and advanced systems energy analyst and the Nuclear Security Analyst at The Southern Company. He left Southern in 1997 when it was the largest electric utility …

This column begins a new feature for this blog.  Every week, for the near future, I plan to have an interview with a well respected scientist or thinker on the subject of energy.  Regular readers of this blog know that I believe that facing and solving the multiple issues concerning energy is the single most pressing problem that we face as a species.  There is a lot of media coverage about energy, alternative energy and global warming, but what has been missing is the knowledge and point of view of scientists, at least in the main stream media.  What do the best and brightest think about energy and the future?  Please continue to come to www.evolutionshift.com and find out.

This series is launched with an interview with Dennis M. Bushnell.  Dennis is Chief Scientist, NASA, Langley Research Center.  I had the good fortune to meet and listen to Dennis at the recent Energy conference hosted by the Foundation for the Future.  Then, and here, Dennis has clear, firm and well researched positions on energy.  Enjoy.

1. Evolutionshift.com:  Thank you for this interview.  Dennis, your title is ” Chief Scientist, NASA, Langley Research Center”  That sounds impressive.  What is it that you do in general, and how much of your job relates to energy issues?

 Bushnell: In General - Technical oversight and advanced program formulation of/for the NASA Langley Research Center, which conducts research in the areas of Aeronautics, Earth and Planetary Atmospheric Science and Space Exploration.  Energy-related tasks include Aircraft Emissions reduction, …

The New York Times is my favorite newspaper.  Amidst all the media that I consume, it holds a disproportionately influential place in my life.  It is a pleasure to read.  In fact a number of columns I have written for this blog have been reflections on an article that I read in the Times.  So it thrilled me today when I opened the Times and saw that www.evolutionshift.com had scooped it.

Several weeks ago, I wrote a column about Planktos and interviewed its founder and CEO Russ George.  I had met Russ at a unique conference about the future of energy and humanity hosted by the Foundation for the Future and was so taken with his vision and what he was doing that I prevailed upon him to be interviewed.  Just last week we met up again at a ‘green business convention’ in Chicago.  He had just made the entire convention carbon neutral and had also made Mayor Daley’s car carbon neutral for a year.  He does this by the planting of thousands of acres of trees in Eastern Europe and, more interestingly the seeding of vast plankton blooms in the Ocean.  Both the trees and the plankton blooms absorb vast amounts of CO2, thus allowing Russ to build a business of carbon offsets, which helps the Earth survive until we can replace fossil fuels as our primary source of energy.

So it was with great delight that I opened today’s New York Times and saw that the …

Last week I wrote about an incredible energy conference hosted by the Foundation for the Future.  As one of a select few invited to observe and participate in the conference, I had the incredible experience to listen to and meet with 15 of the top thinkers and scientists in the world today on the subject of the future of energy.  The brilliance of both the participants and the level of discussion were so great that I decided that it must be shared with the readership of this blog.  A number of the participants agreed to share their views and research with me.  This then is the first of several columns that will give you insight into our energy future, as seen through the eyes, minds and research of some of the most well known, most accomplished energy experts alive today.

Russ George is a man who is doing what he can to save the planet, literally.  In addition, he is an entrepreneur who hopes that by helping us to help him save the planet, his company can make money. [As regular readers of this blog know, I am fully in support of this, as there is a need to counterbalance the status quo of the energy business with new ways to make money that provide help to the planet and develop a future of sustainable and renewable energy.]  Russ is Founder and CEO of Planktos, a company that “Restores Ecosystems and Slows Climate Change”.  Planktos is the leading ecorestoration …