A cluster of articles have recently highlighted the growing trend for clean tech investing. Certainly the sector attracts significantly more funding than nanotech, so its no surprise we are starting to see rash of companies claiming to be doing environmental nanotechnology.
If you thought nanotech was tricky to pin down, this could be even worse to figure out. After all, wasnt the whole idea of molecular nanotechnology that things would be made from the bottom up, like we are, rather than digging raw materials out of a hole in Africa and refining and polluting and using a lot of energy which is how we currently do things.
In our recent work on a variety of environmental issues the message we hear loud and clear from the green camp is dont throw the baby out with the bath water!
While it is right to be concerned about the uncontrolled release of any new material into the environment, whether nano or not, that material may be, if properly handled, instrumental in reducing pollution of tipping the economic balance in favour of renewable energy.