There has been a lot of investment in the field of energy production in the past couple years with a huge increase in the renewable energy sector. The Economist magazine wonders why this is. They openly state that this trend is good for society, but not so good for money.
My copy of the magazine arrived in the mail, and I noticed that the main article is not available on their site, thus no direct link. You may have to take my word that the Economist is unsurprisingly skeptical of renewable energy, apparently British economists are afraid of change. The Economist does provide a different angle than what I’m used to when thinking of renewable energy – the profit motive.
As a die-hard Economist-fan (probably the best news magazine in the world) and a Environmentalist (organic food, no car, clean energy), I think that you are mistaking the overall notion of this special survey: My understandign is, that the Economist is plainly telling people to be cautious, when “green business” is sold as the “next big thing.” In the end, if the “green bubble” bursted like the dot-com-bubble did, it would be even worse for the Environment?
Recomended for further reading is the special Economist issue on Climate Change (not sure if this link works: http://www.economist.com/surveys/displayStory.cfm?story_id=7852924)
where the conclusion seems to be, hey let’s rather invest a little bit now, than having to clean up all the mess in a few decades.
Nick, thanks a lot for clearing that up!
Upon re-reading my entry that comment about fear of change didn’t read as funny as I wanted to 🙁