3 February '10
12:40 PM EST
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Cleantech
Top Ten Players in Green Energy

January Top Ten Players in Green Energy: Nos 6-10

6: Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft

Bill Gates founded one of the world’s most successful software companies. Today, he’s also one of the world’s most ambitious philanthropist. Given that unique background, Gates’ actions carry weight. In an interview last week Gates mentioned that he had invested some money with Vinod Khosla’s Khosla Ventures. As we’ve noted that Khosla’s fund is not your “mom and pop” cleantech fund, as it tends to go after cutting edge outfits backed by promising, out-of-the box ideas. One of its investments is in LS9, the developer of enzyme-based diesel fuel.

A few days after talking about his Khosla investment, Gates announced that he would spend $4.5 million to fund geoengineering projects. You don’t get more cutting edge than that — geoengineering seeks to deliberately change climate pattern on a global scale to mitigate the impact of climate change. Read More »

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21 October '09
3:32 PM EDT
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Policy

Dubner and Levitt Defend Superfreakonomics on New York Public Radio

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner appeared on The Leonard Lopate Show on New York Public Radio this afternoon and defended the section on climate change in their new book Superfreakonomics.

We won’t get too deep into the controversy over their thinking on carbon reduction and geoengineering, but for a primer on the controversy start with this statement in their book:

In other words:  it’s illogical to believe in a carbon-induced warming apocalypse and believe that such an apocalypse can be averted simply by curtailing new carbon emissions.

Climate Progress’ Joseph Romm has railed against this and other statements in the book here, and he’s been joined by other progressive bloggers.

The controversy provoked Dubner to respond today:

The movement to stop global warming has some of the components of a religion and I’ll tell you we’ve certainly experienced that in the past few days. Its feel very much like a fatwa has been levied. As with fatwas there’s obviously a bizarre twisting and omission of facts.

Go to the show’s site here.

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