Is Google the new Hippie?

I was thinking earlier this month, that hippies need to get in the game, and realize that you can’t prevent climate change by making people ride bikes. I was thinking this after yet another encounter with a stubborn professor who thinks that electric cars and bio fuels, are a part of the problem, not the solution. Yes, our habits regarding the use of cars needs to be improved a lot, but replacing the SUV with a steel horse isn’t the answer. And then I found this article: Google Invests in Shweeb’s Pedal-Powered Bike Monorail. Yes, $ 1.05milion dollars are going into ‘research and development to build a showcase transit system in the northern hemispher’.

Now, being an eco geek, a resident of Copenhagen and a bicycle lover, you might think that I would like this idea. If you knew about my hatred for most kinds of public transportation, you might even think that I would love it. But honestly, I think it’s stupid. A friend of mine commented that she liked it, it would keep her dry. I resent biking in the rain as much as the next person, but I don’t think a pedal powered mono-capsule is going to be a thing. You still have very limited mobility. You can’t just decide to get off, you can’t use it for transporting goods ie. when shopping, and worst of all: You can’t just cut of the slow person in front of you. It’s like public transportation in a bubble, were you can’t transport stuff, and you’re doing all the work yourself. And then there’s the infrastructure. Monorails don’t build or maintain themselves, and they require lot of materials, which of course come from natural recourses, such as oil.

But this isn’t about the monorail. It’s about the strange change we see in the way international corporations engage in the public discourse, and actively try to influence it in the direction of a more sustainable world. Google has a partnership with the United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP. Bil Gates donated $700.000 to preserve the California Global Warming Solutions Act, that aims to fight climate change and lower California’s air pollution and Pepsico has developed a web based crop management tool called i-crop to 'help farmers accurately calculate water use and carbon emissions’.


These are all examples of businesses, who don’t directly gain from investing in sustainability or public information, but do it anyway. How come the big businesses are taking the lead as our green salvation? Is it the demand of the consumer that ‘something must be done’? Or is it simply in fashion for big businesses to have a green conscience? And shouldn’t governments be paying attention to this trend? Why isn't the state the driving force in securing a future for its citizens, in aiming for a fosil fuel independent economy and in cutting CO2 emissions?

Maybe I asked the wrong question I my header. Maybe it should have read: Is Google the new state?