"World's growing dependence on coal leaving a trail of environmental devastation"
...it's time we stopped shooting ourselves in the foot.

There was a time when our actions had little impact on our neighbors. 100 years ago the global population was 1/3 of today's 6.6 billion people and the economy was 1/20 the size. At that time, most of our environmental impacts were local, and the biosphere could absorb, clean up or camouflage those waste products.

Not today. Billions of people are striving for a better life, growing a global supply chain and the resultant pollution that knows no boundaries. With 10% GDP growth rates, India and China are straining to develop new energy generation. Yet they are following the same development path — burning coal. Their new found wealth is coming at a horrible price. The locals are choking on the sooty emissions — and the trade winds transport CO₂ and acidic pollutants globally.

If you had a friend who was bleeding from a cut, you would instinctively stop the bleeding — since continuous loss of blood will cause death. A planetary doctor would prescribe that we stop the most damaging impacts by humans. You'll read that we are already killing ourselves in many countries — from coal-fired power plants across the oceans. Their pollution is ours — their problems are ours — and ours are theirs. We need to solve them together.

I wish I knew how to get smart people to stop doing dumb things. We do have the "new magic solution" mentioned in the enclosed article. Simply stated — link the abundant local and remote renewable energy resources into the electric grid so that all of us can have access to clean electricity. Until we can sequester CO₂, it's time to say "no" to new coal-fired generation and to offer cleaner, reliable energy solutions for our growing world.

In partnership,

Peter Meisen

President

p.s. Starting on March 11^th, GENI is sponsoring a teleseminar with 6 leading business and thought leaders who studied with Buckminster Fuller. You can hear them free at: ??? My request: please share this link with your networks.

p.p.s. Please consider renewing your GENI pledge. It will make a real difference in our work.