The Correct Reaction is Panic

John Doerr is the world's best known venture capitalist. He helped Google, Compaq, Netscape, Amazon, Intuit, and Sun. The man is a visionary, and his vision is clearly on climate change. He gave the most amazing TED talk this morning.

"I'm scared", he said. "I don't think we are going to make it." He told us how after hearing Al Gore at TED last year he decided to make climate change one of his priorities. He's spent a year looking at the problem very hard and he showcased some really big successes. WalMart, for example, is now one of the leading green companies. They are making huge cuts in their energy use and are spending a lot of effort on green technologies.

But John said that it isn't enough. He said that all of these efforts are dwarfed by the size of the problem. We need 50-80% reductions in the next 10-15 years to avoid catastrophe ( loss of 50% of species on the planet). We need a miracle.

His talk walk emotional and moving. He basically asked the community to help because he said he didn't know what to do any more. He left the stage in tears. He got a standing ovation. Needless to say, I'll be going to the breakfast tomorrow to see what can be done.