We are all more aware of global warming than we were years ago.  As a country we passed through the tipping point of awareness in the last year.  We have a better understanding of what it is that we each do to contribute to global warming, and a number of us have taken action to lessen those contributions as much as possible.  We now need to change some of the language we use in this area as it will help us to continue to change our thinking and perhaps our behavior. 

I have heard a number of relatively environmentally aware people speak about their cars with a MPG reference.  People speak about ‘doing their part’ by driving a car that is rated as a 30 mpg vehicle, or that they just bought a hybrid to help cut down on harmful emissions and to save on gasoline.  That is great, no question.  What is needed now is for those people, and all of us, to not rest on our laurels based upon what we have purchased, and move to how we use what we have purchased.

The question should be “What is your carbon footprint?” not what is the mpg rating of your car.  For example, let’s assume a green thinking consumer has just bought a car with a 30mpg rating, having shed her big SUV that only got 15 miles per gallon.  That’s great, but she should ask herself what her carbon footprint is before she wears even a scarf of self …

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 …

About a month ago, I wrote a post entitled ‘Water’.  In it I suggested that water would become an increasingly precious resource in the southwestern U.S. and that disputes would occur between states and other regulatory entities over rights to the water of the Colorado River.  It was therefore no surprise to see a huge front page story a few days ago on the topic.  The front page picture was of a fishing pier that was jutting out into the air since Lake Mead was 80 feet below ‘normal’.  Welcome to the new normal.
The two driving forces that are making water so much more scarce are unchecked population growth in the southwestern U.S., and the fact that, according to scientific evidence, what had been thought of as prolonged droughts were, in fact becoming the new normal. This means that everything about water will need to be revisited and rethought.  Usage, recycling, legal interpretations of water rights and ownership, escalating prices for water and a need for fundamental perceptual change on water and it’s usage.  Welcome to the twenty-first century when we have finally come to the crossing of inevitable trend lines.  These are the ever upward trend line of population growth and uncoordinated real estate development and the trend lines of both limited resources and climate change.
Water is a life source.  Water is a life source of all living things to varying degree.  Food, water and oxygen are three things that are essential for …