Green Capitalism

Welcome to The Green Capitalist. Here I hope to be pragmatic more than prescriptive,practical rather than preachy. A huge amount of money is going to be spent combatting climate change and the Green Capitalist aims to look at ideas and companies which offer growth and profits. As the combined impacts of the dawning energy crisis really begin to hit home there is a space left for problem-solving technology. This 'crisis' is also a huge opportunity to develop the new energy technologies some of which will force us to change the way we look at the world. Such an idea is distributed generation, which means producing electricity near where it will be used. this,as a model. does not please the folk running the current model of centralised distribution since they lose 10-15% moving electrons around,just as waste heat,uselessly given off to the atmosphere. I'm generally in favour of essential utilities not being at the mercy of the market but here in Ireland the cosiness between the State and Regulator has resulted in the prices rising well above fuel inflation.And the EU competition rules which are designed to lower costs to the consumer uniquely led to an increase rather than a diminution of prices. This was encourage the private sector to invest in power gemeration. The State-owned ESB was too efficient Since we waste so much energy so casually nowadays and have had 300,000 + new houses built to an appallingly low insulation standard in the last 5 years, insulation will become an issue, as the ever increasing growth in monthly bills begins to be felt. The Green Investor will feature things which may seem oblique and odd,as takes my fancy. It is aimed at the small investor,people like me who can play with 2k,and for whom 2k is significant but it won't be wrist-slitting time if the share theb 2k is invested in tanks. If you can't afford to lose the 2k, put your money somewhere safe,like Google or Microsoft. Some of the ideas I will put forward here will fail;some because they fail to catch on, or were based on wrong thinking,others because they are ahead of their time.My target would be two choices out of three to produce a profit. But always remember that that smart green investing means risk,and more risk can mean spectacular gains. The first share I bought was Apple in April 05 and I persuaded a friend to share the investment with me if I did all the heavy lifting regarding organising it,and so we bought 71 shares for our 2k. And I checked on it several times a day,marvelling that I was now a voluntary capitalist,and even in profit! Friends tell me I was lucky; on the contrary I was way over-cautious,having followed Apple from $14 all the way to $37 before buying. Even after worst week for years they are $125 at the moment. But a lot of the luck might reflect the work I put in on research. I am willing to take a gamble on a company by buying a share in it; and many people believe that investing is like going to the bookies. The big difference is that you will still own shares which might be worth less they were this morning, whilst if your horse doesn't win you lose all you staked. This idea is not fully worked through and this is the first draft of proposed blog.