So you're looking at global warming and your stock portfolio, neither one is too pretty. I'll kill two birds with one stone, you decide. How about investing in green technology?! Great idea, but now where do you start? Try looking in a mirror. History is the best way to see what ideas will boom, and which ones will bust.
Put yourself in front of a large mirror, with your back towards it. Now crane your head around, and look into the mirror, then start walking forwards. By looking backwards into that mirror you can avoid the obstacles in front of you. That's how history works. Look behind, to see ahead. It isn't easy, and you might get a cramp in you neck, but it's your life savings. You might want to take the cramp in your neck, and not your wallet.
There are two basic green ideas currently being developed. One is ethanol, which most people know about and are investing in. The other, less popular, is hydrogen. Ethanol is basically corn fuel. It is very clean burning and cheap. The problem with it is that it's also unreliable. Corn is a food staple to much of the world. They will eat their corn. But say there is a drought in the American Midwest, where much of this corn is grown. You will have people needing their corn, and cars wanting theirs.
All it takes is one year, one drought, and the whole system goes haywire. Contrary to popular opinion there is still enough corn being produced to feed people, and experiment with ethanol fuel at the same time, but if a few a million cars start running solely on this clean fuel, then the balance won't hold. Farmers will begin turning up their traditional crops in order to make money of the need for corn food and fuel, but that will result in bean shortages, beet shortages, onion, potato, tomato you get the idea. The one possible idea that could resolve this difficulty is a type of grass that could possibly substitute for corn in the ethanol fuel.
But who will convince a farmer to plant weeds on his land? And then you still have the whole food shortage possibility. The other main idea hydrogen fuel, a clean burning fuel taken right out of the air. Hydrogen is a naturally occurring chemical found in our atmosphere and separated for fuel by scientific process. Its only bi-product when it burns is a little bit of water that would drip out of an exhaust pipe much like carbon monoxide already does.
The problem with hydrogen is its chemical reactions. Anybody remember learning about the Hindenburg? That was a hydrogen fueled aircraft much like a hot air balloon that had a massive explosion when it came into land. You're thinking great, now every time we have an accident on the freeway we get this massive explosion. Wrong. Most people, not just conspiracy theorists, believe that the Hindenburg was sabotaged in protest of Hitler's pre WWII policies. Again, pre WWII. Technology has developed quite a bit since then, and hydrogen fuel safety is no exception.
So which to invest in, ethanol or hydrogen. Well, this is where the whole history part comes in to play. The pony express was the greatest thing of its time prior to the telegraph which came along a year or two later. The glider of the 1920's was amazing, until the jet fighter of the 1940's showed up. We are talking about things that were great, and then became suddenly obsolete. That's what will happen to ethanol. It will burst onto the scene in a big way, for a year or two, and then here comes big brother hydrogen.
Let me explain to you one more thing; hydrogen is closer to being developed than most people realize. No gas company or car company wants to be left out, so they are all working together on developing the cars and fuel. There are already experimental hydrogen cars being driven, but the cars are not yet fully developed. So it's hydrogen ofrethanol, my advice is go with the hydrogen; it's the better, more practical technology.