Produced in 1987, the message of this video, L'homme qui Plantait des Arbres, or The Man Who Planted Trees, is even more important today (runtime - 28 minutes).  The narrator is Christopher Plummer.

Jean Giono, the author of the short story upon which the movie is based, wrote the story after American editors in 1953 asked him to write a few pages about an unforgettable character. They intended him to write about a real unforgettable character, but he created the fictional Elezeard Bouffier. When the editors objected that no Bouffier had died in Banon, he donated the story to all humanity. It was soon after published by Vogue in 1954. Many people have assumed that Bouffier is a real person.

The ETC Green Staff has surveyed and developed dozens of Green Energy Managed Sites (GEMS) over the past 2 years.  We are initially attracted by the site's resources and sometimes later excited and inspired by the site's history and character.  A few times we have been motivated to stop our regular operations and efforts to raise a flag.  It is simply the right thing to do at the time.  Semper Fi!

Norman E. Borlaug, the plant scientist who did more than anyone else in the 20th century to teach the world to feed itself and whose work was credited with saving hundreds of millions of lives, died Saturday night. He was 95 and lived in Dallas.

The cause was complications from cancer, said Kathleen Phillips, a spokeswoman for Texas A&M University, where Dr. Borlaug had served on the faculty since 1984.  Dr. Borlaug’s advances in plant breeding led to spectacular success in increasing food production in Latin America and Asia and brought him international acclaim. In 1970, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

He was widely described as the father of the broad agricultural movement called the Green Revolution, though decidedly reluctant to accept the title. “A miserable term,” he said, characteristically shrugging off any air of self-importance.  Yet his work had a far-reaching impact on the lives of millions of people in developing countries. His breeding of high-yielding crop varieties helped to avert mass famines that were widely predicted in the 1960s, altering the course of history.

Largely because of his work, countries that had been food deficient, like Mexico and India, became self-sufficient in producing cereal grains. “More than any other single person of this age, he has helped provide bread for a hungry world,” the Nobel committee said in presenting him with the Peace Prize. “We have made this choice in the hope that providing bread will also give the world peace.”

The day the award was announced, Dr. Borlaug, vigorous and slender at 56, was working in a wheat field outside Mexico City when his wife, Margaret, drove up to tell him the news. “Someone’s pulling your leg,” he replied, according to one of his biographers, Leon Hesser. Assured that it was true, he kept on working, saying he would celebrate later.

ETC Green was an exhibitor at the 2009 National Clean Energy Summit 2.0 (NCES).  We enjoyed meeting the several hundred people who passed through our booth and we have already built new relationships with dozens of individuals and businesses as the result of this event.

We were very interested to hear the opinions and directions of the Energy Panel and Summit Speakers assembled by Senator Reid.  However, the statements and suggested solutions were as diverse as found in the press most everyday.  General Clark was even promoting an increase in Ethanol production and Public Administrative Policy to raise the current Ethanol limit from 10% to 15% at the pumps.  Many of these solutions are in opposition to one another and without more focus, there cannot be success.

The price of petroleum sourced fuel in Europe has been x2 the price of petroleum sourced fuel in the US for over a decade.  The Europeans have responded to this challenge with cleaner diesel standards, biodiesel blends and extremely efficient CRD/TDI engines.  Yet no one with a microphone suggested clean diesel, biodiesel and eventually syndiesel as the common sense and attainable solution for US transportation needs.

Following the "smart money" investors such as Bill Gates, several top Venture Capital firms, Exxon, Chevron, Shell Oil, GM, Toyota, Daimler, etc., have all made a committment to bio-sourced synthetic diesel as the primary fuel for the transportation sector (road, rail, air and sea) in the near future.  There seems to be a communication disconnect between government and these top research firms.

There was a great deal of discussion about EV's throughout the day, but Dr. Chu must be aware there is not sufficient mineral reserves on the planet to produce more than a few hundred million cars therefore EV vehicles are not sustainable.  The proverbial Hydrogen Economy was effectively put on hold in recent weeks with the elimination of the funding when the US National Labs reported the technology is too expensive and too many years away to justify the immediate expense. 

Now the US government has taken on the multi-$B R&D burden to help fund emerging battery technologies and is hoping they will be developed in time to be able to mass produce EV cars in larger quantities.  This is a huge gamble and even if such batteries become available in the next 3-5 years, the energy density of liquid fuel is many times that of a solid rechargeable battery and the manufacture and recycling of batteries is simply far from being Green.  Hybrids have far more issues in that they have 2 propulsion systems.  When shopping for a new car, ask the price for battery replacement, transmission repair or even a diagnostics test for the electronics.  The response costs will be twice or even three times that of a clean diesel.

As a side note... we were surprised to notice many of the other NCES exhibitors were using halogen technology light bulbs to brighten their booths.  It was not difficult for us to find LED powered spot lights for our booth and banner illumination.