"As a parallel, the core of the "super-empowered hopeful individual" (SEHI) argument is that these technologies may also enable individuals or small groups to carry out socially beneficial actions at a scale that would have required the resources of a large NGO or business in decades past. They would rebuild towns or villages after a natural disaster, or provide health care to refugees; they would clean up environmental toxins, or build renewable energy systems. The Millennium Development Goals would be their checklist. They would carry out the kinds of projects that humanitarian organizations do today, but be able to do so with smaller numbers, greater speed, and a far larger impact."

But evidence is emerging that while brokers stand to make enormous profits, least developed nations, especially in Africa, will get next to nothing -- raising questions over whether Kyoto is fulfilling its social as well as environmental goals.

"Blowback is an apt term for the unexpected consequences of the investments that Western companies have made in emerging markets. Since first entering them several decades ago, and to a remarkable extent today, these companies have tended to view them in what Kenneth Lieberthal and C. K. Prahalad1 call "imperialistic" terms: as a beguiling mix of increasingly prosperous consumers and limitless pools of low-cost labor. Here, the thinking goes, companies can expect to harvest the fruits of the R&D and innovation skills painstakingly developed in their home countries. That view is dangerously complacent. The very presence of Western intruders and the competition they create have inspired the emerging world's companies to raise their game in response. Far from being easy targets for exploitation, emerging markets are generating a wave of disruptive product and process innovations that are helping established companies and a new generation of entrepreneurs to achieve new price-performance levels for a range of globally traded goods and services. Eventually, such companies may capture significant market share in Europe and the United States."

"If you want to know what enviro startups Silicon Valley movers and shakers think could be the next big green thing, the California Clean Tech Open is a good leading indicator. Last night in San Francisco the Open named six winners in its second annual startup competition. Each winner receives a $100,000 "startup in a box" package that includes $50,000 in cash from such sponsors as Google (GOOG), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Lexus (TM) and California's Big Three utilities - PG&E (PCG), Southern California Edison (EIX) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SRE). The winners also get $50k worth of legal, marketing, accounting and public relations services from such heavyweights as Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The opportunity to mingle with the entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and potential clients who judge the contest probably represents the biggest win of all for these startups."

"I think we'll see a lot more of this type of technology in the future," said O'Connor. "Sustainable development and clean production through white biotechnology is the way forward. Not only bacteria to clean up the mess we make -- as in oil-eating bacteria -- but to prevent the mess in the first place."

"Here, we study this network of relatedness between products, or "product space," finding that more-sophisticated products are located in a densely connected core whereas less-sophisticated products occupy a less-connected periphery."

A great summary of recent movement in the world of Green Chemistry...July of 2007. "Currently there is little more than a trickle-down of green chemistry knowledge between companies, governments, NGOs, and universities. Companies' chemical information is proprietary, and many environmental impacts have never been measured, much less publicized. Some universities and government agencies have data on a few specific chemicals, but lack a centralized clearinghouse of information. MBDC may have the best database of chemical environmental data, but it is private and expensive information. Opening up the faucets of these knowledge flows, and getting them all in one tub big enough to splash in, may be the most important step for the industry right now. Several groups are trying to crank the taps."

"MicroVest Capital Management and Lehman Brothers are pleased to announce the successful closing of MicroAccess Trust 2007 (the "Trust"), constituting the first Collateralized Loan Obligation (CLO) for MicroVest. MicroVest originated and services the US$39mm portfolio of unsecured loans to microfinance institutions (MFIs) around the world. The Trust was arranged by the global investment bank Lehman Brothers."

"OrganiTech's goal is to be a world’s leading provider of Hydroponics solutions and systems to the Agriculture and Bio-Tech industries and to change the Agriculture into an industry."

"TR: You've written that chemistry "will likely play the most central role of all the sciences" in addressing energy problems. How would you summarize the role of chemistry? DN: For game changers, it's really easy. There's three. Make photovoltaics cheap, which is a lot of chemistry. It's inventing new materials to make PV cheap. Replace noble metals--things like platinum--with abundant metals. Because there's not enough stuff. When you're talking about this much scale, you better be using things like iron and manganese. You better look at your book that says what are the most abundant elements on the face of the earth. TR: And this is for fuel cells, and also for photovoltaics. DN: Photovoltaics--everything. That's the real technology issue that you have to keep in your mind. Not something that's so great, it's 100 percent efficient--and oh, by the way, I'm using ruthenium. I can use ruthenium now to teach me a principle, but ruthenium's below iron [on the periodic table]. So I better figure out, how can I take everything I'm learning with ruthenium and apply it to iron? TR: And the third game changer? DN: Split water with light. You do those three things, and you have a full new energy economy. It's hard for me to say exactly what that technology will look like, because the science is missing. But at the beginning of the 1900s, we built an entire society based on a new energy system. And I believe, once solar is in place, with help from biofuel, with a little help from wind, we will invent our society again from a new energy source."