Still believe we can change course

I’m always hoping things will turn out better than they appear to be headed.

Take our future as a species as an example. Climate change and the polluting of our air, soil and water suggests that catastrophe is bearing down on us, and it doesn’t look like we’re willing to do anything about it.

But wait, there are still reasons to believe we can survive this mess. I’ve written about one of them already — a company called Carbon Engineering, which is developing a chemical process to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, thereby creating the possibility we can begin to reverse climate change.

And now, “60 Minutes” has introduced us to another hopeful development, stemming from the work of an extraordinary man with no formal science training — but in possession of a “beautiful mind. “

It sounds contrived but I think it’s appropriate that his story starts at Massachusetts’ Walden Pond, where other monumental inspirations were born.

Marshall Medoff said that’s where he got his idea to extract the sugars hidden deep inside plant life and convert it to usable energy. For 15 years, he buried himself in study and research, not at Walden Pond but in an old warehouse he had acquired, and apparently figured out how to do it.

So he hired an MIT chemistry graduate, who led the construction of a laboratory where they could implement Medoff’s ideas. Somewhere in there Medoff founded Xyleco, a privately held company, to lead the charge in the manufacturing of a variety of products through his methods and patents.

Read what Medoff, who is still Xyleco’s board chair and CEO, says on the company’s website:

“For several decades, I have dedicated my energy to the vision of increasing the world’s available resources by reaching the sugars in biomass and using them to inexpensively house, feed, medicate, clothe and provide clean energy, and the other necessaries; all to be produced in a 21st century sustainable industrial revolution.

“I am overwhelmed and filled with joy that I have been able to achieve my vision.”

Bold talk, but something we should be able to verify soon enough. The “60 Minutes” segment gave us a glimpse of the products they are preparing for the marketplace: A new, cleaner form of fuel for our cars, a new and healthier form of sugar for human and animal consumption, a biodegradable substitution for plastics.

Go ahead, be skeptical; in fact, I would encourage it. But don’t let cynicism or fatalism lead you into thinking that we can’t change course and find ways to reverse the dismal direction we’re now headed.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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