Submitted on September 18th, 2008 by Bill Reichert (not verified)
Gang:
The first rule of keynote speeches is to say something controversial. Schwartz is a very smart guy, and he actually does understand the points you make above. He attacked a straw man ("The earth is running out of oil") to make the somewhat obvious point that we won't run out of oil, it will just get more expensive. I don't want to defend his particular wording, but I get his point: Long before we "run out of oil" we will have to solve the fossil fuel problem. Again, not a deeply insightful or particularly novel point of view, but his main point seems to be that we are not taking a particularly sensible approach to solving the problem.
As a nation, and as a global community, all we have done about the fossil fuel problem for most of the last 25 years is talk about it -- and subsidize corn farmers. But thanks to the George Bush Energy Policy (raise oil prices by screwing up the Middle East), the venture capital community has been mobilized to invest a significant portion of venture capital into some interesting energy technologies -- most of which will take longer and cost more than anyone hopes or expects, if they work at all. This has always been true of venture capital investments. But some of these investments will work out spectacularly, and we will forget about the stupid investments. Still, even if we invest 100% of the venture capital available into brilliant cleantech investments, it won't solve the fossil fuel problem. We need intelligent public policy initiatives and more effective individual and collective action.
If you really think that the fossil fuel problem is serious, as Peter Schwartz certainly does, you would be ranting and raving at the idiocy of our governments and at ourselves as the people who elected them, not at Peter Schwartz.
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Submitted on September 18th, 2008 by Bill Reichert (not verified)Gang:
The first rule of keynote speeches is to say something controversial. Schwartz is a very smart guy, and he actually does understand the points you make above. He attacked a straw man ("The earth is running out of oil") to make the somewhat obvious point that we won't run out of oil, it will just get more expensive. I don't want to defend his particular wording, but I get his point: Long before we "run out of oil" we will have to solve the fossil fuel problem. Again, not a deeply insightful or particularly novel point of view, but his main point seems to be that we are not taking a particularly sensible approach to solving the problem.
As a nation, and as a global community, all we have done about the fossil fuel problem for most of the last 25 years is talk about it -- and subsidize corn farmers. But thanks to the George Bush Energy Policy (raise oil prices by screwing up the Middle East), the venture capital community has been mobilized to invest a significant portion of venture capital into some interesting energy technologies -- most of which will take longer and cost more than anyone hopes or expects, if they work at all. This has always been true of venture capital investments. But some of these investments will work out spectacularly, and we will forget about the stupid investments. Still, even if we invest 100% of the venture capital available into brilliant cleantech investments, it won't solve the fossil fuel problem. We need intelligent public policy initiatives and more effective individual and collective action.
If you really think that the fossil fuel problem is serious, as Peter Schwartz certainly does, you would be ranting and raving at the idiocy of our governments and at ourselves as the people who elected them, not at Peter Schwartz.