I’M AT THE POPULAR MECHANICS BREAKTHROUGH CONFERENCE, and Amory Lovins is talking about how the whales were saved by technological innovators and profit-maximizing capitalists. He also says — and I agree — that it doesn’t matter whether you believe “peak oil” catastrophe scenarios because you ought to be doing the same thing anyway. Likewise the global warming debate, which I also agree with. “The debate about energy conservation is about costs, but it’s not about costs — everybody who saves energy makes money on it.”

That’s Lovins on the right, and Popular Mechanics editor Jim Meigs on the left Some nice thoughts on non-hairshirt environmentalism, something I’ve mentioned before.

UPDATE: Below, Lovins talks afterward about how we’re nowhere near the feasible limits of improving efficiency in, well, nearly everything we do.