I have said before that I don’t consider myself an environmentalist. You might be saying, “What is this kid doing at a think tank which is so clearly ecologically concerned if he doesn’t think he is an environmentalist? Wham-bam thank you ma’am, you ARE an environmentalist.” Well, let me explain what I mean. Some of my friends went to Powershift, and I stayed on campus to pursue other interests. I started going to Student for Environmental Action (SEA) meetings on my campus to increase my social connections. It was at SEA that a friend lent me Break Through, which made it clear that climate change is an existential crisis. If it is not stopped, climate change poses a direct threat to our country, our society, our world, and our ability to help everyone on this earth—by improving the lives of those in this country, by creating the conditions for modernization abroad, by helping governments discover their ability and responsibility to lift their citizens out of poverty, by empowering people everywhere.
I see that our civilization’s great strides towards global prosperity are taking a toll on our planet—but it doesn’t have to be this way. In the end, I see that these two problems—the ability to give every person the right to life, quality of life and life choices, and the ability to treat our Earth responsibly are linked. This link is energy: how we use it, where we get it from, how we think about it. The existential crisis of climate change is so exhilarating and momentous because, in solving this crisis, we have the opportunity to create a society that both treats the planet responsibly and allows for universal well-being for all people.
When I first realized this, and when I first realized that the climate crisis and the push for a clean energy economy had the potential to create responsible global prosperity, I turned to the environmental movement. At the time, the environmental movement seemed ready to advocate for sustainable global energy equity. But if I am wrong, then I am wrong. Traction has not picked up, and the environmental movement has made a messiah out of pricing carbon when this has been shown time and again to not be the solution.
If the environmental movement is not ready to advocate for large scale public and private investment into a clean energy economy, I see no reason for myself, and many others out there, to affiliate with the movement. We might identify with aspects of their thought and cause, but we are fundamentally fighting a new and more complex fight. I see the environmental movement, like any movement, as a means to achieving goals and not an end in itself. If the environmental movement wants to continue advocating for clean air, less pesticides, more land conservation, then I think those are all good things, but they are not why I had thrown my lot in with the environmental movement, and I suspect a growing number of my peers would agree.
So maybe it’s time we divorce ourselves from the environmental movement. Maybe it’s time to say we are part of an energy movement, not an environmental movement. For me, the idea of an “energy movement” captures a lot more of what I believe:
- Because physics tells us that energy is one of the fundamental building blocks of everything (energy is matter, matter is energy), it connotes knowledge of the physical world and ecological awareness
- Because the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink are all part of the vast energy system that is the human body, “energy movement” manages to encapsulate a concern for people’s well being and livelihood
- Because the correlation between energy use and standard of living has been measured time and again, energy equity also means that an energy movement would care intrinsically about sustainably lifting every person in the world to a secure standard of living
So come join the new energy movement, because it is charged with pushing for large scale investment into clean energy technology and implementation so that we can all live lives of security and well being on a secure and well cared for earth. Come join the new energy movement, because it is dedicated to a clean energy society that allows for sustainable global prosperity. Come join the new energy movement, because it is dedicated to worldwide energy equity in which all people are entitled to life, quality of life, and life choices. Come join the energy movement, because it is time to get things done.
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Photo from www.bam.gov
