GreenSage E-zine 01/2008

Collaboration Amongst Agencies - Surely You Jest!

Just as the nature and participants of philanthropy are changing, so is the war on Climate Change.

A recent article in the NYT gives a fair appraisal of the importance being placed on the threat of Global Warming and Climate Change.

Not only are mega corporations joining in the effort, but they are joining with the likes of Dow Chemical, Yale, and the Universities of Arizona, California, North Carolina, Pittsburgh and the Rochester Institute of Technology to address the issues which cross many disciplines and areas of jurisdictions.

For probably one of the first times turf protection is thrown aside for the benefit of the commons. While many organizations like BP Oil, Chevron, Wells Fargo and Bank of America are funding different areas of research into bio-fuels, the outcome has been more cooperation on solutions instead of holding on to information for turf aggrandizement and profit.

Realizing that there is no U.S. leadership on such as critical issue as climate change; states, universities, municipalities and NGO's are taking up the cause to offset the threat.

Most educated and intelligent people can see that huge moisture drops, or the other side-draughts, coupled with hurricanes, tornados, cyclones and other weather related phenomena can cause food shortages, bee colony loss syndrome, loss of topsoil or desertification as well as high tidal storm surges which are all caused by climate change or unpredictable weather patterns.

The problem of sustainability cuts across economics, social elements, engineering, everything. The immensity of the problem simply cannot be solved by one discipline, or even by integrating two disciplines.

BP Oil (now beyond Petroleum) gave several million dollars to the University of California for cellulosic enzyme research, Chevron a similar amount, Dow just awarded a $10 Million grant for a sustainability center at Berkeley.

Don't believe for an instant that this is an altruistic effort. The reality is that there is a great deal of money to be made from the technology to solve global warming from low carbon fuels to carbon sequestering science. Those companies and universities that can license that technology will have plenty of money. Also don't forget that it is cheaper for a company to contribute to a university than to fund the entire research project themselves.

Those schools that had the foresight to launch colleges for the environment should now reap the benefits of across the board teaming with industry and governments to reap the rewards and provide careers for their students.

Scoop the whole article here! www.nytimes.com