Inventors Save Planet
Now that just about everybody but Exxon has finally admitted that global warming is a reality, the opportunity to make money is obvious. From the labs of multinational corporations to suburban garages, inventors all over the globe are trying to find ways to rescue the world and get rich doing it.
Santa Barbara, which likes to think of itself as the birthplace of the environmental movement, is holding its own pretty well in this contest. The array of astonishing inventions pouring out of UCSB now includes film-thin photovoltaic cells as well as super-efficient LED lights. In the world beyond academia as well there is a groundswell of green innovators, and people eager to cultivate them.