In the good news department:
Bill Gates Launches $1 Billion Breakthrough Energy Investment Fund
Why is that good?
The cool things I see are they claim 1) a high tolerance for risk, and 2) long term thinking. They're looking at a 20 year investment window, which may be enough time to fund actual advances.
Gates wote:
"We need affordable and reliable energy that doesn't emit greenhouse gas to power the future—and to get it, we need a different model for investing in good ideas and moving them from the lab to the market."
The group has spelled out five "grand challenges" which it says are the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions around the world:
I hope these people do some good and I will be following their work. Seems like a concrete step for moving away from fossil fuels, as discussed at some length in A Christmas Miracle for Soylent News.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday December 28 2016, @09:55PM
And the people trolling the trollers will be marketing geniuses trying to greenwash dumb ideas that sound good, so the patents won't be worth anything or will boil down to
1. ....
2. Using the above, build a perpetual motion machine
3. Profit!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28 2016, @11:58PM
He and his buddy Warren Buffet already control huge swaths of energy shipping. You dont think those pipeline arguments are about the environment do you?