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April 18, 2007...On the heels of our outstanding BLUE 2007 Solid State Lighting Suppliers conference in Taiwan is the annual grand celebration called Earth Day, April 22nd. And the day after that, April 23rd, begins the USA's Department of Energy's annual Solid State Lighting Workshop in California, the state that's essentially leading the whole country, and possibly the world, towards a long overdue transition to energy efficient lighting. Just about everything compound semiconductors do relates to energy efficiency with the LED sector being the most noticeable. A celebration of Earth Day, and all it represents, provides us all with a tremendous public relations opportunity to call attention to what we bring to the energy saving party.

Color Kinetics appears to be the first in our compound semi (CS) and solid state lighting (SSL) industries to publicly call attention to this year's Earth Day. CK issued a press release on the 17th that we immediately covered in LIGHTimes and SSL Design. CK's VP of Innovation, Kevin Dowling, will make his 6th appearance as a featured presenter at DoE's SSL Workshop. (You'll recall that CK's George Mueller was co-chair of BLUE 2006 last year in Taiwan. And note also that Bob Steele of Strategies Unlimited and Ian Ashdown of TIR Systems will also be featured speakers at the SSL Workshop). Would that all the companies in the CS and SSL industries flooded us with such wonderful news. There's still time, PR people... start typing! I'd love to see this year's Earth Day really cause some worldwide excitement... again.

I say "again" because I had the pleasure of being intimately involved with the very first Earth Day celebration, way back in 1970. At 30 years old and living in Austin, Texas, the proclamation of the first Earth Day turned out to be a major turning point in my life. That first celebration sent a huge wakeup call to everyone that each of us occupying this fragile planet called Earth had better start doing whatever we could to give Mother Nature a hand instead of a slap on the face. Being a '60s activist, I found that a glorious notion and I was especially inspired by Denis Hayes who was then just 24 years old and national coordinator of that first Earth Day in 1970. He now serves as president of the Bullitt Foundation and Chairman of the Earth Day Network (EDN). In the '80s, Denis Hayes was a professor of engineering at Stanford University, and he also practiced law for several years in Silicon Valley. During President Jimmy Carter's administration, he served as Director of the DoE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). I bet Denis Hayes would love to hear more about what the compounds are contributing to the betterment of the planet.

As a writer and young mother, and a part-time student at the University of Texas in 1970, taking environmental and human ecology classes, my personal contribution to the cause was to create an environmental publication for schoolchildren. I not only scored funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which was in its infancy at the time, but I scored the full cooperation of the Austin School Board and the publication, Texas Trails, turned out to be a huge success. While not a profitable venture (nor was it meant to be) I got major do-gooder points and felt I was, indeed, doing my part. In doing my research for this column, I also ran across another familiar name from UT days, Jentai Yang, who also serves on the EDN board. We were environmental activists together at UT in the 1968-69 timeframe. Dr. Yang is now president of the advisory board of the US-China Association for Environmental Education and on the board of Global Village of Beijing, an EDN partner organization.

Talk about tie-ins with the CS and SSL industries, and our industries' varied interests in China, Jentai Yang is a native of mainland China, from Anhui province. He received a BS degree in engineering from Taiwan Cheng Kung University and Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Texas. From what I found, he's evidently contributed significantly since our days at UT. He served in the EPA for 26 years, 10 of which as the EPA’s senior program director for US/China bilateral environmental cooperation. He was the EPA’s architect and guardian for today's US-China environmental program and remains a widely recognized environmental expert in both China and the United States. He's also the recipient of several patents for wastewater treatment processes. I bet Jentai Yang would like to learn about our CS solar and UV-LED technologies that are targeting water treatment plants.

Although technologies have certainly evolved, the Earth Day cause and message is still basically the same as first created in the 1970s, when we thought we were making significant process and that an end to global warming was near. (Yes... the term isn't new). I'm still not sure if we just forgot the conservation message at that point, but the USA and far too many other countries are unnecessarily too dependent on fossil fuels. That should have been a dying cause by now. Hey world leaders! What part of "fossil" don't you understand? So now all you regular readers of my McDonald Report columns know why I get so excited about companies working on the true leading edge of energy efficient technologies. It's why I love championing our advanced solar and advanced LED technologies. These are the type modern day solutions to environmental problems that the world needs to know more about.

Here's what I propose. Over the next few days, focus some sincere energy and resources toward calling attention to Earth Day. Read up on it via www.earthday.net. Follow Color Kinetics' lead. Let the world know more about what your lab, your corporation, or your firm is doing to help the environment. At the very least, do something on an individual basis... like buy some CFL bulbs and curse that there aren't any LED-based replacement bulbs on the shelves yet. Consider how your own home or office might transition to solar energy and solid state lighting. As Al Gore said in his recent film... "You look at that river gently flowing by. You notice the leaves rustling with the wind. You hear the birds; you hear the tree frogs. In the distance you hear a cow. You feel the grass. The mud gives a little bit on the river bank. It's quiet; it's peaceful. And all of a sudden, it's a gear shift inside you. And it's like taking a deep breath and going, 'Oh yeah, I forgot about this.' "

Too many people have forgotten. They definitely need to shift gears. Let this year's Earth Day be your inspiration.

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