June 9th, 2010
BP Oil Spill creates Sacrifice Zone
We have created a sacrifice zone in the Gulf of Mexico. We were willing to accept the risk of a huge disaster. However, since most of us are busy doing their own things day in day out, we did not give it much thought. We get up in the morning. We drive to where ever we have to go. We fly to a business speaker conference. We go home. We know that we are totally reliant on dirty, dangerous energy sources. But we get a tall mocha and go on with our day.
Now we see what happens when we create a sacrifice zone. So the question is: should we identify other sacrifice zones and accept that they may one day be destroyed, too. We need to feed our economy, our appetite for luxury and our need to travel. We can’t do that without oil.
We never thought much about wells in the Arabian Desert leaking or burning, or water sources and wildlife habitat in Nigeria being destroyed for ever by our oil businesses. But we have already sacrificed these places. Do we even know we might miss them?
Now we have sacrificed the Gulf of Mexico and maybe more.
Do we make this our policy and our practice? It is our unstated policy now, isn’t it?
Tags: bp, gulf of mexico, luxury, oil spill, sacrifice, Travel
Posted in Travel, alternative energy, business speaker | No Comments »
April 29th, 2010
On of the things a business speaker likes to talk about is the moment when someone changes his or her mind. We all have opinions. Some are better informed than others. Some are just other people’s opinions that we regurgitate. But if we are lucky, we come across a time in our lives when we look at an opinion and realize that it is “off”. If we stand strong, we change our mind.
I am not so interested in the little changes, like when you might decide you really do like guacamole after having avoided it for years. I am more interested in the big changes, like when you decided that the invasion of Iraq really was a stupid thing, or when you decided that acquiring more parks and open space really are good things to do for the next generations.
It sounds like Governor Crist of Florida has had one of those moments. After taking an airplane tour over the massive oil spill that is uncontrollably taking over the Gulf of Mexico and after thinking about the people who died in the explosion, he said that he had changed his mind about off shore drilling. Crist is now convinced Florida does not need it or want it. After seeing how much damage can come from an accident, he has set aside one of his party’s biggest mantras: “Drill, baby, drill!”
Now Crist might be heard saying, “No drilling near Florida!”
As a business speaker, I would find a way to use this turnaround in a speech about leadership. Sometimes you have to take the right stance, even if it is opposite of the mantra of the day.
Tags: crist, drilling, florida, gulf of mexico, oil spill
Posted in Management, Travel, alternative energy, business speaker, history, people, personal growth, politics | No Comments »
January 28th, 2010
As a business speaker, I am always looking for great businesses to speak about. I saw a great program on Modern Marvels about cars that are powered by compressed air. Rather than using the internal combustion to move the pistons in the engine, a blast of compressed air does the job. It is incredible.
MDI is the name of the company and they have cars on the road now and available. Their business model includes building boutique factories close to the markets they plan to sell in to keep costs down and keep community involvement high. Great concepts.
compressed air cars
Posted in alternative energy, business speaker, marketing, people, sales | 3 Comments »
October 9th, 2009
It was not that long ago when people in rural parts of the United States had no night-time light, other than candles, kerosene lamps or wood fire. It was not that big a deal if you lived in the northern or eastern forests where there was a seemingly unending supply of fire wood. Actually there is something very comforting about the light cast from a wood fire at night. When electricity began to appear in rural areas, things changed dramatically. Economies were created around all the things one could now do, now that you could see enough to do things after the sun went down.
This is the situation developing in wide areas of the world where there is either no electricity, or very sporadic electricity. However there is a big difference. Most of these areas are over populated and under forested, meaning each day that people go without electricity, the de-forestation of the earth increases. EEEK.
You can’t build coal fired power plants to create this electricity. That would be a disaster. You can’t use diesel or gasoline. There is no huge slush fund to build nuclear plants everywhere. Oh DUH… the sun shines everywhere!
Who needs power plants, when you can have personal power in the form of a lamp that charges from the sun during the day and lights your tasks at night. D.Light Design markets such a lamp now, called the Comet.
This is a huge financial opportunity. If D.Light can sell enough of these, it can bring the price down a little more and sell even more of them. This creates jobs for the people who build the lamps and supply the materials to build the lamps. This creates light for business or pleasure for people who would not otherwise have access to light.
This is also earth friendly. We live on a pretty good planet and we do not have any replacement planets anywhere near-by, so we might as well take better care of it, don’t you think?
As a professional speaker, I think we should all be speaking about shifting our economy to an earth-friendly economy, where local small business can thrive.
Let the sun shine at night and let the economy boom.
Tags: alternative energy, india
Posted in Management, alternative energy, marketing | 5 Comments »
October 2nd, 2009
Where is the next boom of wealth coming from. I think it is blowing in the wind. I know a lot of people are very excited about solar power. I am one of them. But the idea of a personal windmill on the roof of your home, creating more than enough energy, is intriguing. I have heard people scoff at the idea and say that only mega-monster wind projects are feasible. I am not so sure about that. I would not be surprised if you see a whole new generation of wind mills popping up that can create big wattage from even a tiny breeze. Once those are a reality, you could put them on your car and produce all the electricity your car needs while rolling down the road. You can call me a dreamer. Fine. Let’s get to living the dream. Go to the energy fair in your home town and check out the possibilities.
Tags: alternative energy, solar power, wind mills
Posted in alternative energy | 4 Comments »
