By Gregg Early

In southeastern Switzerland, near the Austrian and Italian borders, in the canton of Graub??nden, there was hardly any snow this winter. Thousands of feet above the gorges of the Landwasser River, the Swiss Alps are bare.

At any other alpine ski resort that wouldn't be international news, but as world leaders gazed up at massive formations of granite and gneiss during the 2007 World Economic Forum in Davos recently, the bare Alps served as a blunt reminder of this year's hottest issue: Global Climate Change.

Global warming has simmered as a key point of discussion in the past but exploded during this year?’s conference, appropriately titled; "Shaping the Global Agenda, The Shifting Power Equation.?” Some of the most powerful names of Big Oil were on display, like BP's John Browne and Shell's Jeroen van der Veer, as well as automobile industry heavyweights like Carlos Ghosn of Nissan and Renault.

Much of the world, including Wall Street, watches the annual summit in Davos very closely to identify investment trends and measure the shape of economic things to come.

Modern History of Environmental Movement

The environmental movement in the United States is often dated to the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring. This seminal description by an articulate scientist on the dangers of the chemical era to the environment and to human health struck a responsive chord with the general public and among opinion leaders.

It tapped into a perhaps inbred human belief of the sanctity of air, water and soil, as well as an atavistic human concern about insidious and unknown poisons. The widespread success of the first "Earth Day," in 1969, revealed the environment to be a potent political issue as well.

This led to the formation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in 1969, and to a wide range of laws to control existing and potential threats to the environment.

Odds are, you?’ve been wondering how you can help our precious environment, but you may feel overwhelmed (even the experts do!).

Yes, the news is bad: Everyone?’s been consuming increasing amounts of energy-using a whole lot of electronic stuff, burning lights, you name it-and guzzling gas. This means that more carbon dioxide, one of the main culprits behind global warming, ends up in the air. In fact, driving a typical car for a year produces 95,000 pounds of global-warming pollution.

Is it a coincidence that 2006 was the hottest year ever in the United States? Scientists think not.

Profitable Principles

Whether you agree with the environmental movement or believe in global climate change and the resulting ramifications or not, there is an undeniable green trend taking place. This powerful undercurrent is fast becoming the single greatest investment opportunity of the 21st Century.

Recycling and switching to florescent light bulbs are great, but perhaps our own unique contribution to saving our society and our planet will come through providing equity capital to those companies engaged in green.

Growing astounding wealth for generations to come while simultaneously channeling resources toward philanthropic issues is certainly not a new concept. From Andrew Carnegie during the Industrial Revolution to Bill Gates and Warren Buffet more recently, the practice is actually quite common.

For a select few investors, lucrative green investment opportunities will turn to gold!

Nanotechnology: Leading The Green Revolution

Green technology is no longer on the virtuous fringes of the economy. It's big business, and moguls are seeing the potential for big profits. From radical pollution-free fuel cells to smog-eating nanocoatings, nanotechnology is making some startling advances on the green frontier.

John Doerr knows a good investment when he sees it. He bet on firms like Netscape, Amazon.com, and Google, before they became household names, and built a multi-billion dollar venture capital business. So what does John Doerr see as the next big thing?

His VC firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is pumping $100 million into technologies that help provide cleaner energy, transportation, air and water.

But that's peanuts compared to what Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page announced earlier this summer with their plans to invest in what will be the world's largest solar cell production plant. The project, by the nanotechnology whiz kids at NanoSolar, will triple the country's solar cell production capacity when it comes on line in 2007.

What this means is that green technology is no longer on the virtuous fringes of the economy. It's big business. And moguls like Doerr, Brin and Page see big profits.

But for investors and consumers alike, embracing green tech may not be easy. Technology, after all, has spent the last fifty years playing the bad guy, ruining the planet for us and the generations to follow. Technology, however, is not the cause of our environmental problems, simply a powerful tool we've misused to create them. Now, as we recognize our mistakes and perhaps begin to correct them, we have the opportunity to use the power of technology to repair the harm we have done.

Nowhere is the vision of technology in the service of sustainability more promising than in the field of nanotechnology. This emerging science, which deals with matter at the scale of a billionth of a meter, is revolutionizing industries from energy to automotive, from cosmetics to agriculture.

The National Science Foundation estimates that by 2015, nanotechnology will have a $1 trillion impact on the global economy. And the Interagency Working Group on Nanoscience, Engineering and Technology says, "Nanotechnology is likely to change the way almost everything-from vaccines to computers to automobile tires to objects not yet imagined-is designed and made."

In fact, it is already transforming these industries, and there is every indication that the transformation is a green one. From radical pollution-free fuel cells to smog-eating nanocoatings, nanotechnology is making some startling advances on the green frontier.

To keep tabs on the green nanotech movement, hook in to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' GreenNano series. The series aims to advance development of clean technologies using nanotechnology, to minimize potential environmental and human health risks associated with the manufacture and use of nanotechnology products, and to encourage replacement of existing products with new nano products that are more environmentally friendly throughout their lifecycle. The Center's webcasts offer a rich introduction to green nanotech.

If John Doerr is right, and green technology proves to be the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century, it will be nanotechnology that leads the revolution.

Winning Over The White House

If you watched the Academy Awards, you might have seen former Vice President Al Gore and his three-decade cause figure prominently in the night?’s proceedings, including basking in the spotlight as star of the Oscar-winning Best Documentary, ?“An Inconvenient Truth.?”

But preceding the green Academy Awards show was a pre-emptive strike from the White House that was of much more interest to me. President George Bush had two electric vehicles on display on the South Lawn this past Friday in a photo op regarding his commitment to transitioning the country from fossil fuels to alternative energy for motive uses.

What?’s impressive to me is that, of the many companies with vehicles that could have been featured-GM, Toyota, Ford, DaimlerChrysler-President Bush picked two nanotechnology-centered firms. And of the pair, one has been a favorite investment of mine for a long time.

This is serious visibility and a powerful affirmation for one of my top stock picks. The amount of vetting that goes on before you get the president of the most-powerful nation on the planet to ride around in your car is enormous. And to have a boutique electric automaker get the nod is very encouraging.

The company didn?’t get there with big money donations or political favors; it got there with its ground-breaking technology.

The Only Government-Backed Stocks On Wall Street

What if you find an industry where select common stocks and double-digit profits were guaranteed by Uncle Sam?

It would be like getting tomorrow?’s Wall Street Journal today?…?…?…the perfect, secret-remedy for investors afflicted by lackluster returns.

When President Bush signed the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, he essentially did just that, guaranteeing nanotechnology investors incredible profits for years to come!

The most startling breakthroughs in nanotechnology are owned by only a small handful of companies with government contracts, whose earnings are now poised for rapid expansion. Your returns from nanotech stocks could easily exceed those of the telecom and e-commerce boom of the late 1990s-without the meltdown that followed.

Meanwhile, private corporations have also been investing heavily in nanotech research. Of the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average, 19 have nanotechnology initiatives underway. Some 1,200 nanotech start-up companies have been launched worldwide. And in 2006, corporations are expected to spend more than $10 billion on nanotech R&D.

But what makes nanotechnology an incredible opportunity for investors like you is that it has now begun moving out of the laboratories and into consumer products. That means you can expect profits from nanotechnology to begin accelerating almost exponentially.

For example, in 2005, companies sold $13.5 billion worth of nanotech products. All together, researchers estimate that worldwide -sales of nanotech products could reach $292 billion during 2007, a 2,000% increase in just 2 years!

By 2014, nanotechnology is expected to be a $2.6 trillion industry. That would give nanotech sales a compound growth rate of 79% a year!

It's a lock that with this much growth, shares in the leading nanotech companies will skyrocket as well. (An investment that grows by 79% a year for 9 years turns $10,000 into $1.9 million!) It?’s this fantastic growth potential that makes nanotech a rare and fantastic investment opportunity.

There are few times in your investment career when you can get in on the ground floor of something truly big-something that can take you to a new level of financial success. Nanotechnology IS that sort of rare opportunity.

But to capture these profits, you need to find those leading companies. You need to separate those with real scientific breakthroughs and government contracts from all the ?“Pseudo-Nanotech stocks.?” That?’s where I can help...

Transform Your Investment Returns In 2007

For nearly 20 years, I have edited and written for award-winning investment publications, including Personal Finance, Utility Forecaster, and Wall Street Winners. I am currently Vice President of KCI Communications, recognized again-and-again as the industry leader in publishing unbiased investment advice.

Again and again, I?’ve delivered the goods. Whether it was recommending Corning at $38.50 and watching my loyal subscribers book a 200% profit, or urging investors to stay in cash and not try to catch a bottom as the tech bubble burst in 2000.

I have spent much of the past two decades researching and writing about technology. I have watched and waited as the industry grew from infancy to the point where it is now ready to begin rewarding investors with hefty returns.

Because I truly believe nanotechnology is the fastest way to increase your wealth over the next few years, I have put together a special niche investment newsletter for serious investors.

It?’s a way to discover which companies are fast becoming the giants in the nanotech sector-and to get in ahead of the crowd, so you can maximize your profits. If you?’re serious about making money, this could be the biggest break of your investing career.