For a while I’ve been saying that once we actually get going on doing something about global warming, we’ll come up with new ideas that will cascade in the same way as computing did. Trust Bob Metcalfe to be on about the same idea:

The trick, if you want actually to solve Global Warming, is to keep clear the paths of people I’ll call “techies” – scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists (including me). Techies are the people who just took 30 years to build the Internet and who will take about the same time to solve Global Warming. They will solve Global Warming mostly by developing technologies that deliver cheap and clean energy. And they will do it SOONER if we can keep alarmists and deniers out of their way, and let FOCACA ring.

Viridian Note 00485: Metcalfe on Enertech, by Bruce Sterling, 8 Jan 2007

What’s FOCACA? "Freedom of choice among competing alternatives." Metcalfe reminds us that that’s what brought us cellphones, Ethernet, and the Internet.