Author: Terry Tamminen

What’s trending in Q1 of 2012? Three things that will cost more going forward and one that will definitely be heading down – – and the causes behind all four are the same.
 

In recent months, Japan and China have blustered over disputed islands that don’t appear to have any real economic or territorial benefits for either nation. Jets have scrambled and radars locked on opposing vessels, all signs of increasing tension. But the two Asian powerhouses have now begun to argue over a shared threat that actually does have impacts on the health and future of their respective populations – – air pollution.
 

After numerous trips to India and discussions with the leaders of many businesses (large and small), two things are clear. There is already a US-sized market here and it’s very green.

Every state capital in the nation is struggling with massive budget deficits – – over $20 billion in states like California and Texas and comparable red ink everywhere else. States and cities are exploring bankruptcy to get out from under crushing debt and pension obligations, but there’s actually a better solution. Close all public schools.

It’s that time of year when someone at a holiday gathering inevitably asks about your resolutions for 2012. Feel free to plagiarize mine.

“This obsession with a legally binding treaty [to tackle climate change] is an obstacle for countries achieving targets they have committed to,” declared Paul Bledsoe, a climate change advisor to President Clinton. “What we need is national will to reach stated goals.”

In the Broadway hit musical, “Book of Mormon,” a woman from Uganda envisions paradise as a place where warlords are benevolent and the Red Cross hands out as much flour as you can eat.

In other words, the things that inspire hope and gratitude in any part of the world are in the eye of the beholder.

The crystal balls of carbon policy are working overtime to interpret the results of the mid-term elections.

Fossil fuel providers have been gleeful as most soothsayers suggest a cloudy future for clean energy, energy independence, and any progress on reducing carbon pollution.

Leaves fall and the air begins to bite. Time for the annual ritual of Halloween frights. Here are five of the scariest things on earth – – that is, if we hope for a sustainable economic future.
 

Reading tributes to the fallen tech hero, Steve Jobs, from around the globe, two things are clear to me – – his successor is likely to be in the clean energy sector and working somewhere other than the U.S.