Greenhouse gas is not worth anything, it’s simply waste. But, as with any waste – once it piles up in tons and tons and tons it becomes a threat to the producers of the waste. And around the waste a market for waste management starts to grow.

Greenhouse gas, and CO2 in particular, is different from most other types of waste:
A: It can be turned into valuable material, wood in particular, in combination with other resources. And
B: It moves freely across borders, from nation to nation and even over continents.

While I and many with me believe that technology will actually prevail, and save us from burning up, the “CO2 Reactor” will not work for decades. We need to capture this gas now, and we need to use proven “technology” to do it. Well here’s some news: There is a great, working process called Photosynthesis that has been around for a couple of billion years, and that actually works!

To capture and store CO2 NOW all we have to do is to beef up the planets photosynthesis capacity, harvest the captured CO2 and keep it on the ground!

Capturing and storing CO2 is slowly becoming a new business opportunity for many third world countries. The social and economic effects are many and quite amazing:

• Get paid to plant a forest: The main thing to grow if you want to capture CO2 is trees. Forests are emerging, particularly in Africa, as pure CO2 capturing ventures. The execution cannot be digitalized or outsourced, it is done by the locals.
• Get shadow and water: The trees will provide shadow and the root systems will make the ground water level raise considerably. A forest landscape on the edge of the Sahara will lower the temperature at the surface with as much as 6 centigrade!
• Introduce forest agriculture: There is forestry, meaning growing a forest, and forest agriculture, meaning growing crops in the forest between the trees. Yes, with shadow and moist in the ground it is possible to grow wheat and other stuff within the forest – on places where agriculture was impossible before.
• Commercialize Biochar: Forestry and forest agriculture produce tons of biologic waste, containing tons of captured CO2 that naturally decompose back into CO2. There is a way, called biochar, of permanently keeping this CO2 out of the atmosphere for thousands of years, and it has been known for thousands of years. Why is it not exploited? – It could be a billion $ biz…
• And so much more: Forests hold the main natural recourses for medical production. Forests do NOT consume clean water, they PRODUCE clean water (anyone saying anything different is lying!). Forests are housing the richest animal life on the planet, providing us with ecosystems, in turn providing food, protein-sources, tourism, good TV, and much more.

We need to look seriously upon the possibility and opportunity to make the entire area around the equator between the north and the south polar circles into a green zone. I’m not kidding…

For whatever it is worth – I wanna send my best wishes and thoughts to all struggling startup entrepreneurs out there. Remember to judge yourself based on your business and your execution. Valuations, cash-droughts, withdrawing VCs and deal-breakers (the bad kind). This is all bullshit and has nothing to do with you. Take as little shit as you can, but take all the money you can. Forget all the usual rules, and most importantly – don’t forget who you are. I might sound a little dramatic. But right now a lot of dreams are squashed and promises broken.

Friends; I’m not bitter nor in much trouble. I’m just a little sad. The people who take the biggest risks; building and developing our economy and wealth; are the first to be sacrificed and to loose everything in this madness. Right now finance-people hate startups. What are they thinking… ?

When I get out on the other side. I will be different. Better.

Love,
/Linus

“We’re aiming to reach one billion people, more than 1000 cities, all joining together in a global effort to show that its possible to take action on global warming.”

Earth Hour 2009 by WWF – Sign up for Earth Hour!

Let me give you my definitions of the words change and 2.0:

Change: Defines the moment when something seize to exist in its current form and enters a new, or previous (i.e. “change back”), form.

2.0: Basically this would just mean second version of something. But the symbolic value of the 2.0 version number is beginning to take over that definition, and would rather mean “by sharing” or “by socialicing”; simply “by collaborating”.

Change 2.0 = A new reality by collaboration.

Web 2.0 is old news. More interesting is the new Obamaian model Government 2.0.

Well, with that said… What do I want to say, really… ? Hm…

Don’t know. I just think that what’s going on in the big white house over there, and the growing movement for citizen governance is of greater historical dimensions then we actually realize. I am very happy and a bit proud to have been following the process closely since before Obama was even an official candidate.

I’m really looking forward to USA 2.0.

I have gone from being a super-naive entrepreneur to become an almost-as-super-naive entrepreneur AND CEO of a VC funded Internet startup with, for the time being,  the world’s greatest web-technology under its wing.

Internet World gave me a 12th place at their hot-list for 2008, next year I’m hoping to climb the list! Please?

I’ve also moved with my family to Gothenburg and moved my HQ to Gårdatorget 1. A bit painful but even more a fruitful activity.

And, I could tell you a million other ego-centric stuff. But frankly, who cares…

We are breeding a future biz-superstar, this guy is hot! 10% young, 10% naive (i.e. fearless), 10% know-how, 10% French, 10% Swedish, 50% drive. Add 100% cool. Check back in 2009 to read more about Arnaud and the rest of the growing team!

Thanks everyone who made 2008 a fantastic year!

Now – come 2009! Fuck the financial crisis, the world is changing and we are going to be change-makers more than ever. A cash-drought is just a lack of paper and guts, don’t listen to all that economy-BS. When the world experience a lack of good people and opportunities then I will listen. But now!? No way! There are literally millions of opps out there, millions of talented people and new ways to blend the two like the world has never seen before.

Have no fear, 2009 will be fenomenal! Happy New Year!

Now…

Fasten Your Seat Belts – We Gonna Kick Ass!

Yeah right… I’m so fed up with all the BS of this global crisis… Let me tell you a couple of things -strait from the heart of a naive entrepreneur like myself:

The Money:
There is just as much cash money in the world today as one year ago, so it can’t really be about cash?

The Politics:
Same conflicts, same states, same laws, taxes and alliances as a year ago, basically. Can’t really be about politics either?

Natural Resources:
Same good old oil BS as always, the rock is still solid, the forests are still growing, the wind is blowing and the water is flowing. No, can’t be about natural resources.

People:
People work just as hard as they did a year ago, and in addition a new generation of bright and strong ‘kids’ born in the 80s bring new energy to the global workforce. Ok, it’s not a worker-crisis.

Technology:
The Internet is still there (apparently) and still growing, same thing with the mobile coverage and services. Technology is in fact getting better and better all the time.

Consumers:
No, they have not left the face of the earth.

What are we missing!? I’m not sure, everything I need to do my thing and make my vision come true and change real, it’s all there like it was a year ago. Speaking of vision – Remember that financials; that’s just something (pretty annoying) you need to reach your goals. Vision has nothing to do with how big a loan the bank is willing to give you or how much the VC is willing to pay for a stake in your company. Vision may be about money, sure, but if it’s about credit then you have a big problem…

My solution:
Ban credit. Play the game with cash. Finance your ventures with cash. Sure, that may be in the form of credit. But stay far away from credits based on credit, and credits based on credits based on credit and… If you use up money and there’s risk involved then make sure that you don’t destroy the world around you if all goes wrong. IT IS THAT FUCKING SIMPLE! It’s the rule of responsible spending and economics whether you risk a million or a billion.

I don’t know where I’m going with this so don’t take it too serious. I’m just annoyed and I don’t care much about money really. My business is progress and change. Much love.

Nothing has changed, all the molecules are there, right? Yet everything has changed…

• A tree will absorb about 2 metric tons of CO2 in it’s lifetime, most of it during the first 50-100 years depending on the kind of tree. Let’s calculate with an average of 20kg per year. (Note: Some scientists claim that a tree can absorbe 1 ton of CO2 per year, but that doesn’t make sense, does it?)
• A tree needs space to grow. For the sake of simplicity, let’s say 20 square meters.
• The Sahara, Arabian, Gobi, Patagonian, Great Victoria, Great Basin, Chihuahuan, and Great Sandy deserts together take up 15 trillion 400 billion square meters of land, absorbing zero CO2 in its natural state.
• That’s enough space for about 770 billion trees absorbing about 1kg of CO2 per square meter and year.
• The world’s countries are polluting the atmosphere with about 27 trillion kg of CO2 annually.

See, I’m on my way to save the world here! This tree-planting activity would take care of more than half of the world’s CO2 emissions, create millions of opportunities for developing countries and turn dead land into productive soil.

If we could only figure out a way to effectively, sustainably and responsively water the deserts…

Get some perspective:

The calculated cost to eliminate starvation and malnutrition globally: 19 billion dollars.

The calculated cost to provide education for every kid on earth: 12 billion dollars.

The calcutated cost to provide access to water and sanitation globally: 15 billion dollars.

The calculated cost to reverse the spread of AIDS and Malaria: 23 billion dollars.

Put together: 69 billion dollars, or about 7% of the money spent on the war in Iraq.

I just thought you should know.

Calculating the cost, monetary and environmentally, of fuel used to power the boat we find that it will in a near future surpass the cost of a full time employee. Think one step further and; putting a sail on the boat and hiring one more guy to deal with the sailing will pay of as a good investment.

What used to be the old will soon be the new in many businesses surrounding us.

I choose to see todays exotic botanic find as a sign of luck and many more happy days to come!