An Alternative to the Administration's Attack on Kyoto
Date: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 @ 20:15:24 UTC
Topic: General
Yesterday, the U.S. Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs attacked the Kyoto Accord, stating that: “Only new technology can halt climate change”. However, all of the specific technologies the Administration supports will take decades to make an effective contribution to a reduction in greenhouse gases.
The approach is top down, and will therefore inevitably be slowed to a crawl by mammoth organizations, where breakthroughs are likely to propagate too slowly to avoid what may already be en-route to becoming catastrophic changes in climate.
The missing alternative is adequate early stage financial support for individual inventors and small firms. Our neighbor to the North has shown one promising solution by creating a remarkable funding agency: Sustainable Technology Development Canada, (see www.sdtc.ca). Inventors and companies can partner with Canadian organizations, to receive timely funding on generous terms. This is a relatively new, quite unusual organization. It is designed to stimulate the presently lacking, and urgently needed, seed capital private investment -- from the bottom up.
It would seem worthy of rapidly imitation in every country, (and large states such as California), that is genuinely concerned with the problems of accelerating the commercialization of promising, ground-breaking, alternatives to the fossil fuels.
Of course, Angel investors can support deserving work directly and without delay.
Magnetic Power Inc. is currently testing generators that show promise of becoming cost-effective and fuel-free. Apparently, a handful of other firms and laboratories are achieving promising results as well. All appear to be struggling to obtain an adequate minimum level of funding.
Perhaps, with modest, but sufficient, support, 2004 will herald the dawn of an age that can provide practical technology, capable of superseding the need for fossil or uranium fuels.
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