Cisco CEO
John Chambers has joined the ranks of Silicon Valley tech executives worried about the planet's environmental future.
Chambers reportedly said at today's Connected Urban Development Conference in San Francisco that he believed in the existence of climate change and that, if society doesn't acknowledge the problem, there will be dire consequences. "There is no doubt in hardly any of the well-educated minds that if we don't act quickly, we are going to have a tremendous problem on our hands," he said.
Other Silicon Valley notables have also jumped on the green bandwagon. Leading venture capitalist John Doerr broke down in tears onstage at last year's TED conference while talking about the climate crisis. Fellow VC Vinod Khosla is big on biofuels. Even Apple CEO Steve Jobs is touting the eco-friendly aspects of his company's products.
While Chambers's speech at the conference could be dismissed as posturing to a eco-friendly crowd, it seems that the regent of routers isn't just emitting hot air. A story in last week's San Jose Mercury News points out that the CEO has promised neighbors that he'll plant over 360 trees on his new property in the Palo Alto foothills. While the neighbors are more excited that the new forest will obscure the 15,000-square foot mansion's imposing presence on the landscape than they are about the trees' ability to mitigate environmental impacts, we would like to think that Chambers is taking a strong look into green technology.
