An inconvenient truth

Yesterday I went and saw "An inconvenient truth" by Al Gore. At times I wasn't quite sure whether the movie was about global warming or him getting ready to run for president again. I did like the style of him presenting facts and consequences on global warming and in between seeing clips about him and his life to create credibility - he should have left out the one clip about him loosing the presidency.

There is a tremendous amount of FUD out there on the topic of global warming. And the die-hards will continue making arguments against it. But I do believe this movie makes a strong argument that global warming is a fact, created by human beings and has tremendous impacts on the environment and our lives in the years to come. The sad thing being that our society has the technology to solve this problem but so far has not acted on it. We as individuals, corporations or governments have choices and our choice so far is to ignore this problem conveniently.

American politicians are making the argument that being part of the Kyoto treaty will destroy the American economy. Personally it is hard to believe the most advanced nation is using this argument. At the same time we hear arguments that innovation and being technologically advanced is our best way to compete against outsourcing, low-cost countries, etc. At the same time the American car industry is lagging behind and in financial troubles while for example some Japanese car makers have record sales numbers. Well, because their cars are superior, uhm, more technical advanced?

Great progress has been made in the last 20 years on the Ozone layer problem. I am sure similar arguments where made back then - oh this is going to destroy our economy. Well, it didn't.

Personally I am a strong believer in innovation and technological advancement. Look at how much our lives changed in the last 100 years. Agreed, not everything is for the good but overall this has improved our life styles and even prolonged our lives. I also believe strongly that the nation - or maybe economic-block - who invests in technology saving this problem can take away huge gains. Imagine gas prices going up tremendously and there being a single car maker who can provide a hydro-car for a reasonable price. That car maker is poised in a single swoop to destroy the auto industry and dominate the market in the next decade. Imagine heat-waves to come year after year and them getting hotter and hotter (a trend which appears to have started already) and electricity prices to go up. Now imagine someone is able to provide air-conditioners which are 30% more efficient. Well, that company can dominate that market over-night.

Money is always the strongest motivator and consumers will be demanding and shortly be forced to make choices. Governments, countries and corporations which continue to ignore this inconvenient truth will be hurt economically and not the other way around as the American government tries to convince us. I applaud Al Gore for the fact that he is picking up the topic of global warming and makes us think about this. As the movie ends, we all have choices. Go to http://climatecrisis.org/.

Is America loosing it?

There is an ongoing debate in the media and in the industry whether America is loosing its competitiveness. This discussion has intensified recently. No wonder with all the recent developments of outsourcing, offshoring, layoffs while companies have record profits, etc. There is a recent series of articles which have highlighted this debate:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13123358/site/newsweek/ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13117432/site/newsweek/ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13117440/site/newsweek/

The irony being that America is seen as the main driver for globalization and its effects. Much of today's global interconnectedness exists because of America. And today it is feared by American citizens like nowhere else - well maybe Europe is fearing it even more. The irony being that in the dot-com boom it let in thousands from India, helped to build their experience and then in the dot-com bust laid many of them off which forced them to go back to India. Back in India they helped to fuel the offshoring craze and lure contracts worth billions of dollars to India. Irony being many who are now competing with America on a global base went to American schools and universities. Irony being America helped educate in one way or the other the very same people which are now competing with them. Irony being that many who want to come to America and work and live there - help to make America prosperous - are no longer allowed in so they now stay at home and compete with Americans. There is no simple answer to this, even so we continue to search for one. Maybe the answer lies in what we try to invest in the least - education. Most western countries are cutting back funding in schools, funding in research projects and funding in training their employees. America and Europe is busy becoming a knowledge based economy while doing everything we can to make it as hard as possible to gain knowledge and experience. We can only compete on the basis of knowledge and experience. We can not compete by producing product cheaper. But we can compete on invention, by creating ever more sophisticated but at the same time easier to use products.

Unfortunately this problem is not owned by a single group or person. Governments need to own this problem as much as corporations and individuals. And by getting protective we are just making the problem worse. This will get worse till America lets go of its short-sighted profit drive, short-sighted fix-the-problem and the short-sighted let me make as much money as I can. Europe's perspective which is much more on the long-run has much higher chance of succeeding.