Growing and Going Green

It has been quite a while since I talked about the environmental and economic importance of growing a green economy.  With all that has been going on abroad and in DC (which is sometimes so disconnected from the plight of Americans that it may as well be abroad) I haven't had the time to focus on something that I am passionate about - going green.

But a recent NYTimes article about the lack of green growth in America makes it painfully obvious about how much America is doing to shoot ourselves in the foot in the next great realm of economic growth and sustainable energy.

As the article highlights, the United States is already woefully behind European and Asian countries in terms of investment in clean technology.  With that in mind, there is particularly appalling statement on which I would like to focus. First of all, much of the growth in Europe and Asia have come as a result of government policies that foster innovation and growth.  Much like we incentivize oil companies (why?), other governments incentivize clean tech.  So why are we not doing that? Sadly the answer lies in the article: Congress is "deeply divided over whether climate change is real."

There are so many things to say right now that I am overwhelmed.  But let's forget about the fact that half of the politicians in the nation are vehemently denying science.  Let's pretend that Republican ignorance and demagoguery isn't an impediment.  Shoot, we can even pretend that in some fantasy world, climate change isn't real because we still have to address the issue of sustainability.

Pretend for a moment that science deniers are not idiots.  Pretend that all the damage that we have done to our planet is not affecting weather patterns, ecosystems and crop growth (not to mention a plethora of other things).  Pretend for a minute that we can continue to pump oil and coal into the atmosphere indefinitely without doing a bit of harm.  Wait, don't pretend that we can do that because we can't, there is a limited supply of oil and coal.  Maybe we have enough oil and coal to last another 200 years, maybe just enough for another 30; I won't pretend to know when we are going to run out of fossil fuels.  But at some point we will so instead of waiting for that moment, why not get a head start of the future?  Why stay up until 4 AM writing our thesis the morning before it is due when we could have started chipping away at it months before?

Now step back to reality: we ARE destroying our planet.  I'm not going to go all Dr. Doom/Harold Camping on you and predict when mother nature is finally going to say enough, but it is going to happen.  Say we have 200 years worth of oil left, we absolutely do not have 200 years worth of polluting left.  So all fantasies about our impact on the environment aside, we have both an environmental and economic prerogative to go green.

This is America, with the right policies we can spur our own green revolution.  It is not too late, but it is still past time.  We have spent the last century importing energy from the Middle East.  If we don't get our act together soon we will spend the next century importing our energy from China and Europe.  With that in mind, it is hard to understand how Republicans - the party of the economy - is in denial of scientific facts that will undermine the American economy and American jobs. As if we can afford to increase the trade deficit with China, as if we can afford to lose more jobs overseas, as if we can afford to be importing the technology of the future instead of making it and selling it ourselves.

It is quite a travesty that there is an organized political movement willing to deny facts.  It is quite a travesty that their motivation for denying facts is to increase their political power.  And it is quite a travesty that by denying these facts they are causing irreparable harm to our world and unnecessary damage to our economic growth.

The rest of the world has seen the future and they are taking steps towards reaching it.  Many in America are ready to rise to the challenge, are ready to innovate, are ready to build, are ready to do what is best for the Earth and the American economy.  If only we could get Republicans on board.