Editor’s note: This commentary is by Jeffrey Reel, of Lyndon Center, who is the general manager of Natural Provisions in St. Johnsbury, and the former sustainability manager of the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York.
[I] moved to the bucolic Northeast Kingdom several months ago and have enjoyed being educated to the region through the information provided by VTDigger. I have noticed in these pages the back-and-forth opinions regarding renewables vs. fossil fuels and the technology required, and desired, to carry us into the 21st century. The way I see it, we don’t even drive technology. Technology drives us.
Evolution (or God, if you prefer. The two seem indistinguishable.) has always provided us with the knowledge and tools we need to progress, at the exact time we need it. This extends out to include all natural phenomenon. An example:
During its first weeks of formation, a chick is provided with all the nutrition it requires inside its shell. As it develops, though, it eventually exhausts its supply of nourishment – or fuel – and begins pecking feverishly in search for more, thus creating an opening in its shell and giving birth to itself. This is what Buckminster Fuller describes as “precession” when animals – seemingly inadvertently, but by nature’s design – are provided for in all stages of development to ensure not only their individual survival but the survival of the species.
Humans, too, are included in this elegant design. Like that chick, we also find ourselves inside our shell with dwindling resources: specifically, centuries-old combustion-based technologies that have not only outlived their usefulness but today degrade all forms of life. And, like that chick, we have been led – again seemingly inadvertently, but by nature’s design – to the next stage of our evolution: the discovery and development of unlimited, clean sources of power. (I refer you to National Renewable Energy Laboratory Technical Report No. NREL/TP-840-40665. The study on geothermal energy, at a depth reached by today’s fracking technology, is approximately 3 million quads, or enough energy to power the United States for the next 30,000 years. (1 quad of energy = 10 quadrillion BTUs, or 8 billion gallons of gas, or 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, or 25 million tons of oil. The United States uses about 100 quads/year).)
But unlike that chick, we are not compelled to leave our shell and embrace this next stage of growth. We can actually choose to remain inside with dwindling resources. Why? I suspect it is because of our semi-divine nature: that is, we are blessed and cursed with the ability to exercise free will. Humans find themselves operating at a level of consciousness above that of the lowest forms of life – which live out their lives in predictable and easily recognizable fashion – but well below what R.J. Campbell describes as “the spontaneous exuberance of the angels.” What this means, among other things, is that of the 1,250,000 species of animals on this planet, we are the only one capable of making self-destructive choices. We’re that smart. We’re that clever.
This freedom to act, even on our worst impulses, is a condition necessary for our personal and social growth, and we rise and fall by it daily, as individuals and as a society. The environmental challenges set squarely before us today are not technological in nature but, rather, social, and spiritual.
We need to forgive ourselves for the environmental mess we’ve created. After all, it was easier to burn a piece of coal than it was to understand the science behind it, and its side effects. Nonetheless, humanity has arrived at its most important moment, and faces the inevitable test of whether we can evolve beyond our self-imposed social and environmental pressures, or become fossilized evidence of yet one more species that could not. This opportunity for unprecedented technological change and prosperity presents itself to us courtesy of evolution. It has created an opening in our shell.
It’s done its part. Now we must do ours.
