California's green dream

America is waking up to the reality of peak oil and climate change. In California there are very different responses to the crisis: some pin their hopes on new technology, while others advocate a radical change of lifestyle
The dream of endless supplies of “green gold” remains some way off. But these green start-ups have no time to waste: their investors want results. Everyone agrees that the days of cheap oil are over. In 2005 the Hirsch Report by SAIC (Science Applications International Corporation), commissioned by the US department of energy, recommended preparing for the transition to other sources of energy before oil production peaks and declines (Peaking of world oil production: impacts, mitigation, & risk management (PDF)). The 21st century will not enjoy the same abundance of energy as the 20th did. Faced with this reality, it is left to the miracle of technology to replace nature’s bounty. Silicon Valley sees itself as a future Saudi Arabia, transforming cellulose into ethanol and algae into oil.

The psychology of Californians veers between technological optimism and a sense of doom. The San Andreas fault line runs right across California: a major earthquake partially destroyed San Francisco in 1906, and the state suffers regularly from huge forest fires and drought.

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