Physicist Daniel Kammen is the founder of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at UC Berkeley and an expert on climate change. Before participating in a panel on California’s solar gold rush, he sat down in the green room to talk about what energy inefficiency makes him feel guilty, why he’d like to be a whale, and when he’ll get a chance to play with his daughters.
Q. How do you get your caffeine, if at all?
A. Green tea.
Q. What makes you feel guilty?
A. Long, hot showers and airplane flights. And I flew here.
Q. What’s the last thing that inspired you?
A. My daughters. They’re 15 and nine, and they have a very different environmental consciousness than people of my generation do.
Q. If you could be any animal, what would you be?
A. A whale. Because they get to explore incredible places and distances, and they’re also unfortunately painfully aware of environmental changes, since they travel from some of the warmest, shallowest lagoons to some of the deepest, coldest Arctic waters.
Q. Where and when do you read?
A. I read non-stop. In bed, on the plane, before class, sometimes during class, on the beach …
Q. Who do you go to for advice?
A. I go to my wife most often for advice. And then I go to Amory Lovins, energy efficiency guru, and Mary Nichols, the head of California’s Air Resources Board.
Q. What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?
A. Time.
Q. Ask yourself a question then answer it.
A. [Laughs.] When’s the next time I’ll have a long break to play with my kids? That better be this weekend, since I’m planning on it.
Q. What’s your favorite thing about L.A.?
A. The food, since I lived here for three years and loved eating here.
Q. What teacher or professor, if any, changed your life?
A. My fifth grade teacher, Mr. DeMayo, because he saw the big picture before the big picture was particularly popular, and he made us think about the big picture. And for a fifth grader, seeing the big picture is pretty far away.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.