This coming green boom will dwarf the dot-com technology boom of the 90's; partly because it is driven by necessity as well as profits, and that means foundation and government support, but mainly because it will touch every aspect of our lives- what we eat, where we live and where we travel, what we drive, do for a living, produce, how we produce it, how we distribute, how we package, transport, and dispose of everything we make. New energy sources of course are a huge thing, ranging from photovoltaics to wind to waves to algae to geothermal to microbes making petroleum- and on and on, limited only by our ingenuity. Everything will be tried. As is the case with energy, the winners will be many and diverse- because all of these different solutions will need to be deployed to complete the picture, not just one or two.
We are looking at a once-in-a-lifetime transformation throughout all areas of human activity, comparable to the industrial revolution but more rapid, and more pervasive than the IT revolution. All goods and practices that pollute and degrade the biosphere will be candidates for rapid replacement by zero-waste, zero-emissions, zero-impact solutions. The current infrastructure is industrial-age. There's so much to replace and improve it'll be like shooting ducks in a barrel. For a new generation it will be the Big Game where fortunes are made and ingenuity and boldness are rewarded.
And finally, investors of all kinds will be wanting to get in on the action. Funds that get you in on the boom in a savvy way will take off, and new alignments and fortunes will be made in green investing.
In the first period, coming to an end this year, Europeans have taken the lead- Germany particularly for solar, and for example the Danes for wind. But the collossal R&D potential of the United States is not manifested- yet- it's just beginning.
You can read more about the things I've referenced at Ecoversity's News and Links page
And you can watch video clips of some of these new solutions at Ecoversity's TV page.
Further reading:
Will Green Technologies Exceed the Internet as the "Mother of All Markets"? (article)
"We're talking about nothing less than the reindustrialization of the whole planet."
Venture Capitalist, John Doerr
