Alexis Madrigal of Wired has come up with a new historical metaphor for the greentech market.

It's the Manifest Destiny of the 21st Century.

Manifest Destiny, of course, was the all-encompassing term for the settling and/or conquest of the North American continent. Immigrants and unemployed Americans swept out of New Jersey and Missouri to build farms and cities in the west. The process involved sweeping away Native American tribes, virgin forests and the Mexican government, but 100 years later we were very apologetic. (I don't mean to make light of it. It was a very dark time for many people. But let's face it: There are few people who would be willing to give it back.)

He's got a point. The U.S. is at a point where we could colonize industries like solar, wind and biofuels. At the same time, we could "colonize" desert land for algae farms and solar fields.

Like me, he's no fan of the Apollo analogy. That just involved sending a few guys to the moon. (He sprung the analogy at a panel we were on this morning spnosored by the W2Group.)

Manifest Destiny isn't perfect. A lot of people will be offended and many others won't recall what it is. Plus, the visuals that would go with a Manhattan Project analogy are easier to grasp. Everyone recognizes a mushroom cloud. Few people could spot Franklin Pierce out of a lineup of 19th Century luminaries.

Personally, I still prefer the New Deal analogy. Those social programs amounted to the largest construction project in U.S. history. But Manifest Destiny has a lot to offer.