Image of dry earth

Los emprendedores frente a lo desconocido

By Howard Frederick
Author own content / Biosphere & Sustainability / es-Español-Spanish

Abrochen sus cinturones. Estás en una montaña rusa. Este libro comienza con una información alarmante y usted puede preguntarse lo que significa para los emprendedores.

Star Jet roller coaster after Hurricane Sandy
La obra maestra del empresario de la montaña rusa Carl Miler, destruida por el aumento del nivel del mar después del calentamiento global inducido por el huracán Sandy (EE. UU.)

Vamos a empezar por mirar uno de las montañas rusas de estados unidos creadas por empresarios, Carl Miler y su brillante idea que le hizo millones – la montaña rusa de portátil. Relató:

El mercado de montañas rusas es una empresa financiera bastante aventurada; Supongo que la cosa es un fracaso, ¿qué haces con él?

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The grandfather of geoengineering entrepreneurship: Russ George Ocean Hacker

By entreVersity
Biosphere & Sustainability / Social & Ethical / Transformative innovation

[See also my Climate change entrepreneurship as if the planet mattered ]

Geoengineering has been much in the news lately as our Planet struggles with the Climate Crisis.  Climate-change skeptics, politicians, and some environmentalists hate the idea, but one pioneering entrepreneur saw huge opportunities.[1] 

Russ George image
Russ George restoring Haida ocean pasture summer 2012 http://russgeorge.net/me/

More than ten years ago, Russ George, ‘geoengineering entrepreneur’, decided to take the planet’s rescue into his own hands.  He is best known for his firm San Francisco-based start-up Planktos Inc., which claims to ‘restore ecosystems and slow climate change [by] removing CO2 from our oceans and atmosphere by healing the seas, growing new climate forests, and erasing carbon footprints’.  His mantra: ‘Save the world and make a little money on the side’.… Read the rest

Climate change entrepreneurship as if the planet mattered

By Howard Frederick
Author own content / Biosphere & Sustainability / entreVersity

Keywords: climate change, climate change entrepreneurship, biophysical and socio-economic stressors, undermine earth’s capacity

There is narrowing scope for entrepreneurial action as the biophysical and socio-economic stressors reduce Earth’s resilience and our collective capacity to help the planet recover.  We are talking about ‘climate change entrepreneurship’.For centuries, entrepreneurs have acted with impunity to plunder the biosphere without returning value to it.  They must now learn not to undermine Earth’s capacity to meet present and future needs of humanity.[1]

Why does the earth matter to entrepreneurs? 

Sea Ice Patterns
Melting of the Sea Ice off Greenland portends a rise in sea levels around the globe

There’s no avoiding it.  Our planet is suffering in many ways:

  • Climate change due to the increase in green-house gases
  • Fluorocarbons depleting the ozone layer
  • Acid rain and air pollutants
  • Shortages of fresh-water resources
  • Overfishing, habitat destruction and pollution in the marine environment
  • Crop loss and grazing depletion due to desertification and erosion
  • Cutting down the world’s tropical forests, leading to erosion and flooding
  • Mass extinction of species and the associated loss of genetic resources
  • Threats to human health from exposures to chemicals in production processes, products, consumption activities
  • Rapid population growth and migration, burgeoning mega-cities, and ecological refugees

Entrepreneurs are partially responsible for the climate crisis

Henry Ford and the electric light bulb
Henry Ford and the electric light bulb
Henry Ford
Entrepreneur Henry Ford was the greatest contributor to global heating.
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macquarie-penguin-oil

Entrepreneurial ecocide

By Howard Frederick
Author own content / Biosphere & Sustainability / Global / Social & Ethical

For thousands of years, entrepreneurs have raped and pillaged the environment with impunity. Today we might call it entrepreneurial ecocide, namely large-scale environmentally catastrophic business activities by an entrepreneur. Ecocide is also a term for killing a species in an ecosystem to disrupt its structure and function. However, it has only recently been classified as a crime. For centuries people admired the entrepreneurial spirit that launched such ecocidal industries as whaling, the felling of indigenous forests, and the harvesting of coral reefs. In New Zealand, both Europeans and Indigenous Polynesians, the Māori, carried out mass exterminations of species in the name of enterprise.… Read the rest