Breakthrough

Google.org's Larry Brilliant said something at Davos '08 that proves he deserves his surname:

"Find a way to make electricity - not to cut back on it but to have more of it than you ever dreamed of."

Yes. Google's panel with Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Brilliant was all about what we can do and not about what we shouldn't do. That's the inspiring mantra behind Google's renewable-power-cheaper-than-coal initiative, through which they are investing in solar-thermal, deep geothermal, and high-altitude wind.

But Google can't "fix the world," Page said, and he called for the next president to fund research on transmission to get clean energy on the same playing ground as dirty energy - because even when the technology is there, lots of regulation adds costs to its deployment.

Google should be applauded for its take on the issue, which deviates from the standard environmentalist drone to consume less. As Michael and Ted argue in "Break Through," what will solve global warming is not - as Al Gore argued at the preceding panel - simply putting a price on carbon. Rather, we need a substantial government investment in building a new energy infrastructure: more akin to building the railroads or the Internet than fixing the ozone hole or fighting acid rain.

But the enviros and "Father Al" (as Bono referred to him during their panel) are still pushing a rhetoric of smallness that is anti-growth and all about limits. Google, on the other hand, has a positive message about the potential for change through technology. And their eyes are on the prize; when Jeff Jarvis asked how they planned to get their message out, Page responded that success is the best message - three-cent power will get the message out for them.