KEI Network - Issue #52 - Climate Change - the final word ? and Rise of the Entrepreneur

Issue #52

August 16th, 2021

Join us - share and network, discover and learn

Climate Change - the final word ? and Rise of the Entrepreneur

Next Public WEBINAR - Rise of the Entrepreneur

Friday, August 20th 4PM

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85896241732

Former recorded webinars are accessible

HERE

Send comments to Perry@PerryKinkaide.com

Rise of the Entrepreneur

Always passionate, often without credentials, is the entrepreneur. We are witnessing on a global scale the rise and relevance of this strange character. Full of ideas - hell bent on their expression. Thirsting for capital to make it happen.

Several years ago I was alerted by a wise futurist that growth in the number of research institutions in the 20th century would cause an explosion of new, often disruptive discoveries, but that it would take the rise of entrepreneurship in the 21st century to make an "innovation" - the commercial success of research discoveries.

This Friday's webinar 4:00-5:30pm MT August 20 has been designed to explore the character and keys to success for entrepreneurs. Join us.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85896241732

Host and interviewer - Perry Kinkaide

Guest - Werner Biegler

Co-Founder and CEO, Varafy Corporation. on-line learning support. Successfully exited to Chegg.

Start-up founder & CEO who has been spent his entire life in technology, from my early days in Corporate Finance, through to customer technical support, large enterprise sales and on to COO at a family run +$100 million IT company through to President of a publicly traded company and finally as entrepreneur co-founding and leading Varafy - the 2nd love of my life.

I'm a no bullshit entrepreneur, founder and product builder who tells it like it is.

Response Panel

Tony Briggs

Dr. Tony Briggs is an Executive Professor in the Department of Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Management and the Executive Director of the Technology Commercialization Centre at the Alberta School of Business. Tony co-founded eHUB, the entrepreneurship centre for University of Alberta students, is the founding advisory board member for Threshold Impact Venture Mentoring Service and a founding board member of the Edmonton Screen Industries Office.

Tony's commercialization experience includes patent licensing at Harvard Medical School, technology consulting with U.S. SBIR-grant companies and as a co-founder of early-stage platform companies in digital health and novel therapeutics. Tony's research interests are at the intersection of innovation and entrepreneurship including pitching, deal making, patents, and innovation ecosystems. Tony holds a Doctorate in Information Systems from Boston University, an MS from MIT Sloan, an MBA in Finance from UBC and a B.Sc. Hons in Biochemistry from the University of Alberta.

Debra Greig

Debra is a champion of life-long learning and has a passion for working with tech entrepreneurs to realize their business goals. As an entrepreneur and corporate manager for nearly four decades, she brings a fair amount of entrepreneurial and business expertise to her endeavours.

She has a BSc in Computer Science and an MBA, both from the University of Alberta. In 2000, armed with the knowledge and experience she had gained, she launched her first technology company. ShirWin Knowledge & Learning Systems fused educational methods with gaming technologies to create simulated learning environments for post-secondary students in a number of professional domains. It was important work but it is her latest entrepreneurial endeavour that she feels she is finally able to marry her business experiences with her growing knowledge of how a business grows and succeeds. TransforMana uses a variety of software and face-to-face techniques to strengthen and improve business knowledge for the leaders of small technology-based companies.

Climate Change - the final word ?

Climate change is real and serious! The final word is respect the environment. Beware of doomsday alarmists. And Nuclear may save us all. Three weeks ago I dared to step into the debate between: the non-believers fearful that climate data was being manipulated and falsely concluding that the end is near warranting unacceptable authoritarian measures to save the planet and the believers, fearful of global warming and crusading to save mankind. Now here in Issue #52 we welcome THE definitive UN IPCC assessment Report released last week that climate change is caused by human activities and is so well advanced that it may be too late to avoid the associated weather and oceanic catastrophes some of which are already apparent.

https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/09/climate-crisis-unequivocally-caused-by-human-activities-says-ipcc-report

My "intent" has been to present a sober, equally credible, perspective on THE issue of climate change/ global warming and highlight the implications for the earth's survival given mankind's appetite for consuming carbon for energy. (Please do not share this with children as they are already petrified of the future.) The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sixth assessment report now serves as "proof" that not only has mankind poisoned the atmosphere and that the end is near but that mankind is to blame at every level:

People - are reluctant to quell consumption of carbon or unite to halt its production
Industries - can't afford to halt production or the costly transition to renewables
Technology - is inadequate and as for nuclear: fission is unacceptable and fusion won't be realized in time
Governments - are reluctant to regulate the halt of production and powerless to terminate consumption
Leadership - to unite has failed and trust is fading.

In summary, mankind is doomed; well maybe not doomed, but must wake up as it is never too late. We must be afraid, that is, to fear enough to unite and act regardless.

Technocrats believe that knowledge discovered and applied is at the foundation of progress. That research and science, engineering and entrepreneurship, plus government, working together is the elixir for solving big problems - even climate change. Well...they may be right. Two events erupted this past week to shape the newsletter's content. One cited above and most likely familiar to the Network, is IPCC's assessment report reaffirming the existential threat of climate change and the dim prospects for mankind given the broad reluctance of people, industry, and governments to unify and act. The other event is notice of the continuing advance in fusion technology that may trump the techno skeptics.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/general-fusion-takes-aim-at-practical-fusion-power

As you are likely aware, fusion is the holy grail for energy; a source of electricity with no harmful emissions. It is plentiful and expected to be affordable. The issue has been in achieving sustainable ignition. There are several approaches being employed in the international race to achieve a commercially viable option. Progress is evident, breakthroughs may be imminent.

The implications are profound. On the plus side, fusion is fueled by deuterium and tritium derived from water. (Canada has international expertise in sourcing both.) Also, base-load generating plants can be located safely within population centres. Fusion will expedite the electrification of heating and transportation. Better yet fusion requires no retooling of the energy distribution infrastructure as it produces electricity by converting heat to steam to electricity. Fusion can also be employed to consume radioactive nuclear waste.

The negatives are in the socio-economics. The "discovery" of fusion will be disruptive to most other forms of commercial energy, residential and industrial. Muting the disruption is the "transition" already underway to renewables away from fossil fuels. Fusion for energy will compete with investing in renewables including hydrogen, sequestration, and expedite the transition of usage of coal fired power plants most of which in North America are ageing anyway and will close by mid-century

As a concluding note, skeptics have typically dismissed fusion as but a pipedream, that the engineering was too complex and/or that it would not be achieved in time to contain global warming. They appear to have been wrong. Stay tuned as we introduce our "Nuclear Watch" column and a fall webinar.