Darwin must have been looking the other way that day because the car I hit was parked. I came away from my first crash with only a broken arm and a bike that never really ran the same. While this incident did not deter me from several other near-fatal stunts in my youth, it made me understand that even the coolest idea can have a downside. That's why I was standing behind a blast shield a couple of years later when my half-pound home-built match head rocket rapidly rearranged itself into a cloud of high-velocity shrapnel.

Those lessons stuck with, and even haunt me now as an adult and an EE. Much as I love the technologies I write about, I see many sad examples of their short-sighted application with no regard to the consequences. Whether it's the thousands of toxic waste sites spawned by our industrial age, the mountains of consumer waste we generate every day, or our cars that pollute and may be warming our climate, I'm often convinced that we're blissfully cruising along at breakneck speed toward a big Ouch!

That's why I'm so glad to be starting this column on environmentally responsible engineering, here in my favorite electronics newspaper. While irresponsible use of technology has certainly contributed to the deterioration of our home planet, I believe we can also use most of these same technologies to create products and businesses that are not only not harmful, but actually improve the quality of life for our children's children. And if you think I'm some kind of granola-munching Luddite, I'd suggest you tell that to folks like Agere, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, STMicro, Sony and dozens of other high-tech firms who are finding out that adding environmental considerations to their business model can actually improve profits.

In the coming months, this column will be filled with news, opinions and gossip about the technologies, products and strategies that are at the cutting edge of the green technology movement. I hope you can come along for the ride, and perhaps even let me know about any exciting green tidbits you pick up along the way. Together, perhaps we can figure out how to keep our pretty kites in the air with at least one eye on the road ahead.

Lee Goldberg (lgoldberg@greenelectronics.com) writes about technology, society and the environment at 'The Citizen Engineer' section of Chipcenter (www.chipcenter.com/eexpert/lgoldberg2/main.html).