TED.com, May 2007, video, 18 minutes. "John Doerr, Silicon Valley's legendary moneyman, is afraid of eco-apocalypse. After building his reputation (and a considerable fortune) investing in high-tech successes, he's turning his focus toward green technologies, and hoping it isn't too late… 'I don't think we're going to make it,' he proclaims, in an emotional talk about climate change and investment. Spurred on by his daughter, who demanded he fix the mess the world is heading for, he and his partners at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers embarked on a greentech world tour — surveying the state of the art, from the ethanol revolution in Brazil to Wal-mart's (!) eco-concept store in Bentonville, Arkansas. KPCB is investing $200 million in green technologies to save the planet and make a profit to boot. But, Doerr fears, it may not be enough.'"
New Calvert Fund to Help Investors Address Climate Change. GreenBiz.com, June 14, 2007. “In response to a survey finding that the vast majority of investors see climate change as full of both risks and opportunities, SRI group Calvert has launched a new Alternative Energy Fund aimed to create investments that support the environment and generate profit at the same time. The Calvert Climate Change/Alternative Energy Survey, found that 76 percent of U.S. investors are worried about global warming and what climate change could mean in terms of major changes during their lifetime, and a further 85 percent of survey respondents said that they believed investments in alternative energy are a win-win in terms of helping the planet and being profitable. Despite those high numbers, only 16 percent of investors said they have discussed alternative energy investments with a financial advisor. In response to these numbers, Calvert announced on Wednesday that it had created the Calvert Global Alternative Energy Fund to meet investor demand and environmental concern. The fund will seek out leaders in the alternative energy market both in the U.S. and abroad.”
Global Warming Will Provide Opportunities for Pharmaceuticals: Industry Report. Bloomberg News, June 14, 2007. “Global warming will contribute to a more than doubling of the world pharmaceutical market in 13 years as higher temperatures spur diseases, according to a study. Rates of respiratory ills and infectious diseases will increase in some countries by 2020, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said in a report Wednesday. Sales of medicines will increase to $1.3 trillion US by then, from about $600 billion last year, if drug makers find innovative treatments, according to the report. Climate change may cause malaria, cholera, diphtheria and dengue fever to resurface in countries where they were eradicated more than 60 years ago, the report said. Sales of asthma and bronchitis products will also be higher because warmer temperatures trigger pollen production. The drug market will also get a boost from a population growth and the spread of obesity. ‘Global warming would have a major effect on the world’s health,’ PricewaterhouseCoopers said. ‘All these changes are creating new openings for pharmaceuticals. Some of them may be in different therapeutics areas. But demand for innovative medicines for old and new conditions alike is growing not shrinking.’… PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting and consulting company based in New York, addressed global warming as part of a broader study for clients on the biopharmaceutical industries.”
Google, Intel Pair Up to Reduce Global Warming. By Mark Boslet, San Jose Mercury News, June 12, 2007. “Google and Intel today kicked off an effort to help blunt the impact of global warming by bringing greater energy efficiency to personal computers and servers. An estimated 2 percent of worldwide carbon emissions come from computers, and the two high-tech firms hope to reduce that by 54 million tons of carbon dioxide a year. They were joined in their energy-saving push - named the Climate Savers Computing Initiative - by other big-name technology companies such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Advanced Micro Devices, International Business Machines, Microsoft and Lenovo. Also supporting the venture is the Environment Protection Agency and PG&E. About half the energy in a personal computer and about the third of the energy in a server is wasted in the form of heat, said Urs Holzle, a senior vice president at Google. ‘This spends a lot of energy for no good purpose,’ Holzle said during a presentation at the Google campus in Mountain View. To reduce energy loss, Climate Savers is urging the computer industry to use more efficient power converters and voltage regulators, big culprits in energy waste. It is advocating a steady improvement in the efficiency of both devices between now and 2010, and wants to enlist Fortune 500 companies and consumers to buy computers with the energy-efficiency improvements.”
