Green Chemistry: the Magic Potion

Sometimes the answer is right in front of us. If the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is the enemy in global warming, why not capture it and turn it into something useful?

That's just what a few green chemists plan to do, according to CNET. A professor at Yale University figured out how to use carbon dioxide as a feedstock to make other products, such as environmentally benign building insulation. Meanwhile, a start-up just got funding to commercialize the process of using CO2 to make biodegradable plastics.

The first Green Chemistry Business Summit met recently to unite industrial leaders, scientists and financiers. Behind almost every industry lie chemicals – electronics, pharmaceuticals, biofuels, bioplastics, water purification, green building, etc. With former vice president Al Gore joining a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that funds new ways to prevent global warming, and numerous stories of VCs and start-ups loving green tech, has technology and business surpassed governmental policy in innovation that could help save the environment?