the green skeptic

My sons, Jasper & Walker, in Alaska, July 2008…

Snowflakes were melting all over the Internet. The sky was falling and people forgot all about secret messages encoded in typos from the Tweeter-in-Chief.…

Should we stay or should we go?…

My son Walker, then 2, in his "one square yard."…

The Green Skeptic back at the helm.…

The Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, an organization I co-founded with Kevin Brown of Hobbes & Towne, is hosting its 7th annual energy technology forum, once again in partnership this year with the law firm of Pepper Hamilton. More details to come, but I…

Back in 2006, I published this email from Santa, which arrived on the night before the night before Christmas. Readers had so much fun with it, it's become an annual tradition. Enjoy!Happy Holidays!…

My son Jasper tagging a saltwater croc,Mexico, January 2005. Photo by the author.…

This post originally appeared on The Green Skeptic in March 2008, when I was about to speak at the Aspen Environment Forum. It was a pivotal time for conservation and I think some of the strides that my former organization, The Nature Conservancy, and others…

Back in 2011, disruption was very much on my mind -- personally, professionally, and economically. Reading that post now -- in the wake of the current social unrest and new revelations about the banking system -- I wonder if plummeting down the same cliff. The…

It was 34 years ago today John Lennon was shot to death outside his home on West 72nd Street and Central Park West in New York. Here's a post that I wrote on the 25th Anniversary of that horrible event in 2005:…

Letchworth Gorge by J. Stephen Conn, used by permission.…

Back in November 2009, Lou Rappaport of Blank Rome asked me a disturbing question at the MAC Alliance Conference in Philadelphia.Here's the post I wrote in response to his question:On the face of it, Lou's question was a simple one:"What keeps you up at…

Back in October 2007, I had an exchange with my friend Lucy Bernholz about philanthropy as an agent of change in the environmental sphere (I was still working for The Nature Conservany). Lucy, as it happened, introduced me to my (then future) wife, Samantha,…

Here's another favorite from the past decade. I did a deep dive on two cleantech companies for the IMPACT investor conference back in 2011. I looked at the examples of Solyndra and CPower and examined why one failed and the other succeeded. This post included…

I've long been concerned by the exclusiveness of the environmental movement and was especially struck by the suspicions aroused in the deep greens when the Christian right started getting interested in climate change and the environment, as if the environment…

In recognition of The Green Skeptic's 10th Annivesary, I'm hand-picking ten of my personal favorite posts from the last decade. Here's the first, from 2008, a post about a visit I made to Ashoka-fellow Kalyan Paul in the Indian Himalayas. --SEAKalyan and…

Today is the 10th Anniversary of The Green Skeptic blog. Whether you've been with me for ten years (and please do let me know if you have) or recently came across my blog for the first time I want to say THANK YOU! Hard to believe I've been doing this --…

My pal Nat Bullard of Bloomberg New Energy Finance kicked off EY's 4th annual Cleantech CEO Retreat, which I hosted a couple of weeks ago, with a look back.Here is his post from his Sparklines email newsletter, reprinted with his permission:Four moments in…

Two years ago tonight, Superstorm Sandy hit New York with a vengeance. Whatever you call her: hurricane, superstorm, Frankenstorm, Sandy was a massive, monster storm. …

"This is an invitation to change everything."…

Here's My Top 5 reasons cleantech is alive and well:  1.) China. China finally seems poised to address its outrageous pollution problem. The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection estimates it will cost China upwards of $800 billion to clean…

(Note: This is reposted from my friends at Pepper Hamiliton LLP, co-hosts of the Mid-Atlantic Energy Technology Forum with the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, of which I am co-founder.)…

Six years. We've been running these cleantech and energy tech investment forums for six years. And by "we" I mean my co-founder of the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, Kevin Brown of Hobbs & Towne, and me, along with our pal Tom Dwyer, who was part of the…

"There's more optimism than ever for cleantech,"according to Raj Atluru of SilverLake Kraftwerk. Atluru was speaking at the Cleantech Innovation Summit in Newport Beach, California last week.His was not the only optimism to be heard on the dais, in the…