When John Doerr spoke at the Ted conference in March, he broke into tears at the end of a 20-minute talk about global warming.
We heard from some participants that the speech was moving.
The talk is on YouTube, and is worth watching. Doerr summarizes what large companies like Wal-Mart can do, what governments can do (citing California’s emission-capping legislation, but more, such as geothermal policy), what entrepreneurs can do (make “designer bugs” for biofuels, for example) and what citizens can do (sign up for carbon neutral programs, or otherwise help policy leaders).
China will pump 22.9 gigatons of greenhouse emissions by 2050, up from 3.3 gigatons, which would be catastrophic. We can’t tell them to stop, because we’re emitting seven times what Chinese do on a per capital basis. In other words, we’ve got to start at home to take urgent measures, to set an example and start pushing urgent measures internationally.
(Hat-tip to Dan Primack)
In separate but related: A Russian scientist, Yury Izrael, says a sulfur-based aerosol sprayed into the atmosphere at a height of 10-14 kilometers (six to 10 miles) could reflect the sun’s rays, and help slow down global warming. (Update: This guy is controversial, as you’ll find out from a quick Google search, and his Wikipedia entry. He has denied global warming is a problem.)
6 Comments
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Yuri Ammosov said:
Ohmigod… GW propaganda goes beyond stratosphere. I cannot recall Doerr sobbing even over Segway. I recently mentioned after another VC GW pitch that there is a geological shift component to warming - and guess what his reply was? “How dare you! etc etc” Do I smell BIG BIG MONEY there?
BTW, it would be quite imprudent to call career bureaucrat Mr.Israel a “scientist”. Burn down the house to cook food, what an advice.
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David Gong said:
If “we’re emitting seven times what Chinese do on a per capital basis”, then by 2050, US will pump ~22 gigatons of greenhouse emissions as well. Why couldn’t this be catastrophic? Can we make all the numbers right first before pointing fingers? The climate is what it’s today not because of future but of the past.
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Peter Gwynne 75 said:
this guy Doerr needs to dose up on some male hormones.
He realizes that
-temps rise b4 Co2
-Co2 make up 38-parts-per-100,000 of the entire atmosphere. It would take humans 5yrs to get to 39-parts/100,000.
-sea levels haven’t risen in 50yrs
-As the sunspot solar cycle has spiked since 1970, so have temps on the Earth..& Mars…& Neptune…& Mercury
-why didn’t he cry before Y2K…or about the Ozone Layer…or about killer bees?
-b/t 1940-1970, Co2 rose dramatically, yet temps dropped
-Doerr realizes ‘man-made’ global warming is the biggest bunch of bullcrap that the counter-culture has ever tried to get over on the consumer, right?
-even if all G-8 nations (China & India too) adopted Kyoto, the result would be a drop in temps by 0.04-degress Celsius by yr2100…at the cost of trillions in taxes & millions of jobs
-The Environmental Elite=Enemy of the Poor
-Live Earth=The Opposite of Live Aid
-If ELF=Terrorist then
Environmentalist=Fascist -
David Gong said:
To add some number fuel: US’s current greenhouse emission is ~23 gigatons and by 2050 this number will reach ~33 gigatons if nothing is done. In comparison, by 2050, China emits ~23 gigatons which is US’s current (2007) level.
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george orwell said:
The vast majority of scientists believe it to be a problem. Unless, you (individually, you) are educated in the underlying science to refute it, you are likely just parrotting someone’s political opinion.
The most recent aggregates of *published* scientific literature are even more reliable because they rely on the conclusions from more than an *order of magnitude* increase in the reports queried.
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VentureBeat » Vinod Khosla’s campaign on biofuels said:
[...] week, we pointed to the teary-eyed speech by the well-known venture capitalist John Doerr, arguing for ways to stop global [...]