Jonathan Koomey

23 Feb 2012 • 1 min read

Can entrepreneurs save the climate?

That’s the question Dan Lashof of NRDC leads with in his review of Cold Cash, Cool Climate. Lashof has published extensively on climate science and policy, so I was happy he chose to review the book. Here are the first few paragraphs of the review: “Entrepreneurs have to be

23 Feb 2012 • 1 min read

My podcast interview with Allyson Klein of Intel about Cold Cash, Cool Climate

Intel’s chip chat podcast recently featured an interview with me that focuses in part on the book Cold Cash, Cool Climate, and the implications of that book for entrepreneurial innovation in information technology (IT). In that interview I summarize the three areas where IT can help us reduce emissions,

16 Feb 2012 • 1 min read

Why Entrepreneurs Offer the Best Hope as Climate Heroes

Matt Wheeland of Greenbiz.com did a thoughtful Q&A with me about my new book that was posted yesterday. I reproduce the first question and answer below. Why entrepreneurs offer the best hope as climate heroes Matthew Wheeland: Why are entrepreneurs the best hope for this scale of

15 Feb 2012 • 6 min read

My latest book, Cold Cash, Cool Climate, comes out TODAY! Here's a summary of the argument

This blog post summarizes the overall argument in Jonathan Koomey’s latest book, Cold Cash, Cool Climate: Science-based Advice for Ecological Entrepreneurs, released today (February 15, 2012) by Analytics Press. Written for entrepreneurs and investors, this book describes how to profit from tackling climate change, one of this century’s

14 Feb 2012 • 6 min read

Property rights and the climate

In discussions about the climate issue, I’ve often heard the argument that no one, including the government, has a right to interfere in the disposition of private property. In essence, supporters of this view believe in unrestricted property rights and place great faith in their sanctity. This position is

14 Feb 2012 • 4 min read

The central problem of governance

I’ve worked with my friend Stephen Decanio, an economics professor emeritus at UC Santa Barbara, for many years. He’s an economist who, like me, has a deep skepticism about the computer models used to analyze the economics of climate change. He’s also a keen observer of the

14 Feb 2012 • 3 min read

What kind of government do we want?

Imagine a company where the CEO says “We’ll never raise prices, borrow money, or increase our expenses under any circumstances, nor will we act to expand existing or create new markets when we have a competitive advantage in doing so”. You’d think that CEO was loony. But this

14 Feb 2012 • 3 min read

Climate scientists and money

One commonly expressed belief among those who deny climate change is that the scientists are “in it for the money”. Texas governor Rick Perry stated this point of view bluntly (but inarticulately) on Aug. 17, 2011: “I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized. I think

31 Jan 2012 • 1 min read

Finally, someone in the mainstream media applies sensible analysis to claims about who created the national debt

While I don’t agree with all the details, the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein has taken a decent first crack at the question of who’s responsible for the increase in the national debt these past few years. As I pointed out last August, it’s incumbent on people

31 Jan 2012 • 1 min read

Why "drain America first" is not a jobs policy

Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations did a useful analysis last fall of the jobs the US could expect from drastically reducing oversight and expanding oil and gas drilling, both on and offshore. There are a few important insights from this work, the main one being that advocates

18 Jan 2012 • 1 min read

Scientists slowly adopting new web tools to promote rapid innovation

The NY Times had an article Monday 16 January 2012 discussing how new technologies are challenging the role of traditional journals in science. Having free and open access to scientific results is one way to accelerate technological change . The old model of closed Journals for which people and institutions pay

18 Jan 2012 • 2 min read

The false tradeoff between economy and environment

Climate progress today once again summarizes the reasons why the alleged tradeoff between economic growth and environmental protection is really a false choice. This is a story that cannot be told enough times, given how plausible and pervasive people mistakenly think this tradeoff is. Here’s the beginning few paragraphs

16 Jan 2012 • 1 min read

My post giving "Four reasons why cloud computing is efficient" was #3 on the GigaOM list of top ten green stories of 2011

Back on Dec 23rd, 2011, Katie Fehrenbacher of GigaOM wrote about their top ten green stories of 2011 (as measured by number of clicks) and my post giving “Four reasons why cloud computing is efficient” was #3, which ain’t bad. The original post was published on July 24, 2011.

16 Jan 2012 • 1 min read

Brilliant 1 minute video explaining the difference between weather and climate

Climate progress points to a wonderful video showing the difference between climate and weather. Watch:

12 Jan 2012 • 1 min read

Interesting use of video games for educating the public about climate science

Climate Progress reports on Al Gore’s recent work promoting the use of video games to educate the public about climate science. This is yet another example of how information technology can be a game changer, and we’re only at the beginning of learning how to use it for