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.
[W]hen throughout human history have humans not fully embraced, and run with, new safe technologies? The harnessing of fire? Stone, then metal, tools? The wheel? The cart? The horse and buggy, the train, airplane, radio, television, computer, smartphones …? In short: never. Then why has the United States, alone, been pushing back against the development of clean, renewable technologies? One of two major reasons is voters my age and older.
Let’s start with a quiz: Can you identify the following country? It must satisfy all – not just some – of the following criteria:
1. It is the world’s leading manufacturer and exporter of airplanes, automobiles, appliances, weapons and steel.
2. It not only produces enough oil to satisfy all of its own energy needs, it produces enough for export. In fact, it is the world’s leading exporter of oil, and this country alone determines the price of oil on the world market.
3. And finally, this country is not only a creditor nation, it is the leading creditor nation on the planet.
It is, in a sense, a trick question, because what country today can boast of such sweeping power and dominance? It’s almost mythical in scope. The answer, though, is the United States, from the early 1950s through the mid-1960s. By yesterday’s standards we are, today, unrecognizable.
Many people alive today directly experienced that time in our recent past. Many of them remain active voters in determining whose interests are represented in local, state and federal governments. And those same voters are nostalgic for those times, and they wish to return to those days of American hegemony. Can you blame them? Those were, after all, heady times. And they feel threatened that people like me wish to steal their version of the American dream. They’d be correct in that assumption because they are forever looking back over their shoulder, while evolution is unyielding in its progression through time.
But there is a new version of the American dream, one that shares economic and social justice with people beyond our national borders, and one that embraces renewable technologies that will not only create a wealth of new jobs but entirely new industries and exports and will, at the same time, reverse the decades-long destruction of our soil, water, air, food and personal health, which will reduce health care costs and improve overall quality of life, while curbing the emissions that have given rise to climate change, which, in turn – as the Pentagon has pointed out in two independent reports – will strengthen national security. The beauty of this is that not just one but a plurality of environmental, social, political and physical ills will respond favorably to the same corrective measures. It’s an American Renaissance and it waits only for our collective will to express itself socially and politically. It’s a gift – compliments of evolution – and one that we have yet to accept.
How challenging are technological fixes to create a course correction in climate change? Swift and comprehensive technological innovation is not without precedent. It was only two weeks after successfully launching astronaut Alan Shepherd on a 16-minute sub-orbital flight when President John F. Kennedy stood before a joint session of Congress and committed the nation’s resources to sending astronauts to the moon and back before the end of the decade. Everyone – even those test pilots who would eventually set foot on the surface of the moon – believed that the president’s goal was little more than a flight of fancy. The technology simply did not exist. But in the days that followed, 400,000 people in the public and private sectors worked toward a commonly shared goal, which required the invention of over a half-million new “artifacts,” and the president’s vision was not only realized, but accomplished ahead of schedule.
The technological obstacles at that time were far more challenging than what we face today, but the stakes today could not be higher. There was inspired vision and leadership at the top, and the excitement it generated was palpable. A similar effort is required today to transition away from a combustion-based economy to clean, infinitely-resourced renewable energy, and there must be a similar vision and commitment from the Vermont state Legislature. Every decision we make going forward – by individuals, town boards, state agencies and legislative bodies – and every resource dollar we spend on energy infrastructure, leads us toward either a more promising future or continued social and environmental decay. I have read on this website and in newspapers throughout the state, those critics who trivialize the contributions that Vermont could make in influencing a course correction in climate change. But, historically, the same could have been said for state initiatives like organic food standards (Vermont, Maine, California …) and same-sex marriage (Massachusetts, Vermont, California …). States pave the way with initiatives that eventually lead to national policy.
In his State of the State address, Gov. Phil Scott rightly emphasized the need to attract younger professionals and families into the state. But he risks grinding his aspirations into the dust when making flippant remarks about Vermont profiting from the misfortunes of climate change. The future belongs to those young professionals and families, and they stand squarely on the right side of history, and evolution, in their support of renewable and other 21st-century technologies. You want to reinvigorate the state? The best way to predict the future is to determine it: A master statewide energy strategy tied to a 21st-century education plan.
Investing in renewable technologies will promote the welfare of the state’s wage earners, and advance opportunities for profitable employment, including retraining those presently employed in our 19th-century combustion-based industries. And it will inevitably be tied in with the ever-swift development of artificial intelligence, computers, and robotics … we either lead or follow. What comes to mind are project-based schools, many offered by technology experts, from Holberton in San Francisco, to Wildflower School in Boston (founded by former Google executive Sep Kamvar),to Portfolio in New York. These schools set the stage for what future education will look like. We will rethink the way talent is developed and deployed, and prepare students for a lifetime of learning better paced to the rapid evolution of skills.
A new report on growth jobs and industries from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that roles taking care of an aging population, developing technology and servicing new energy sources are expected to see the biggest increases over the next 10 years. Swiftest job growth? Solarvoltaic installers and wind turbine service technicians (105.3 percent and 96.1 percent, respectively), home health aides (46.7 percent), and physicians assistants and nurse practitioners (37.4 percent). Slowest job growth nationwide? Administrative assistants and secretaries (loss of 164,800 jobs); team assemblers (-143,000); electrical and electronic equipment assemblers (-45,300); data entry (-43,000).
We can restructure our educational system to meet the challenges of the 21st century, including technical vocation to feed the growing demand in the renewable sector. And people will take notice. If that generation does decide to migrate to Vermont, it will be on their terms, not the governor’s. Build it, and they will come.
Mathematician and physicist Arthur Young believed that evolution, for it to progress, requires a current against which to swim. “The river of time carries us along,” he told me, “but it is only by our own effort that we evolve.” Let’s work together at the state level to provide the inertia to successfully lift this effort off of the launch pad.
