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September/October 2004 Featured Stories
New Energy: The People’s Movement

by Joel Garbon

"Does my vote count?" "Is my voice heard?" "Can I make a difference?" As the November elections draw closer, it is natural for us American citizens to pause and give a little thought to our personal involvement in the shaping of our nation’s policies. We’ve all had some doubts about our ability to influence our nation’s direction. Perhaps better questions are "What kind of world do I really want?" "What obstacles do I allow to block the realization of the world I want?" With these questions, we acknowledge our power, and also choose whether we will exercise it or keep it dormant.

Energy - What world do we have now?

Right now, the United States comprises about 4% of the global population, a very small fraction, yet consumes a whopping and disproportionate 25% of the world’s energy. With America’s standard of living and consumption patterns held up as the gold standard for developing countries to emulate, and with the vast majority of the human population living in these same countries, the stage is set for an unprecedented crisis in resource allocation. Add to that the specter of devastating pollution and climate change…steep price increases…economic disaster…widespread hunger…increased radioactive waste…more oil wars and terrorism… This is the grim picture that will confront us, unless we change.

The courage to change

When we ask the question, "What kind of world do I want?", for most sane people the above scenario does not fit the bill. So what does? How about a world free of pollution, with clean air, water and healthy soil across our precious planet? How about abundance and prosperity for all our nation’s citizens, and for all people in all nations? And what about a civilization practicing agriculture and industry in a clean and sustainable manner? And why not a world where even the thought of war over resources is repulsive to us, since we finally learned to apply globally that most basic lesson we try to teach our children – sharing?

Such a world is not out of our reach. It is simply a choice. A choice that requires the courage to change how we view our planet, what we hold as our priorities, and what we believe about our power to bring about the kind of world we want. We do have the power. And that power increases as we share it.

Ideas strengthen when they are shared

Recently, a group of citizens deeply concerned about the state of our planet came together to discuss how to avert the disaster toward which human civilization is headed. This group of people included a well-known physicist, an investigative journalist, a visionary eco-engineer, an accountant, an energy researcher/journalist, a science-based peace worker, a sustainable community entrepreneur, and a technical consultant to the paper and chemical industries. They realized that the most high-leveraged opportunity to solve complex global problems lie in a transformation in the way human civilization generates and utilizes energy. They also were aware that the new energy technologies that could catapult us toward realization of a clean, healthy, abundantly vibrant, and peaceful world do indeed exist. But for the most part, these revolutionary energy technologies have been kept obscure, starved for R&D funding, and even actively suppressed.

These citizens envisioned mobilizing the concerned public into a grassroots movement whose purpose would be to lead the way to a new energy economy. This new economy would be based on clean, safe, and sustainable technologies. The New Energy Movement was born. Knowing that ideas are strengthened when they are shared, the New Energy Movement seeks first to get people thinking and talking about the relationships between energy policy, energy technology, and the health of the planet’s ecosystems. With this heightened awareness, citizens are then encouraged and motivated to get involved. What could we do? Many things…. ranging from demanding that politicians adopt aggressive and progressive energy policies which focus on the new clean technologies, to encouraging philanthropists to fund new energy research.

New Energy Movement will be launched on September 25-26 in a public forum in Portland, Oregon, with the theme "New Energy: The Courage to Change." (see website at www.newenergymovement.org for event details). This is the first public conference devoted to the impacts of new energy on society. The dialogue between new energy pioneers and other citizens will highlight topics such as

• The state of the art of new energy technologies;
• Overcoming the suppression of new energy technologies;
• Strategies for transitioning to new energy;
• How to select the best new energy options;
• Public oversight vs. privatization of the development and distribution of new energy technologies.

Why should you attend this forum? To have a say in how this vital movement progresses. The use of energy influences virtually every aspect of our lives. I’m talking about the kind of energy that powers the mechanical aspects of our lives – the gasoline and diesel fuel that powers our vehicles and the electricity and natural gas that powers our buildings, appliances, and equipment. Modern life is unthinkable without access to plentiful energy. But what is the real cost of our current forms of energy generation? Certainly it is much higher than what we shell out at the gas pump or pay for our monthly utility bills.

Fossil fuels are those fuels which are extracted from the earth and burned to produce energy. These include coal, oil, and natural gas, and the oil derivatives gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel (kerosene). When burned, these fuels produce the desirable mechanical power and heat used to drive our vehicle engines, warm our buildings, and drive the power plant turbines which produce most of our electricity. The undesirable consequences of extracting and burning fossil fuels include enormous amounts of harmful air and water pollution, and release of tremendous quantities of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a so-called "greenhouse gas", meaning it traps solar radiation within the earth’s atmosphere, producing a warming effect on the planet.

The vast majority of planetary scientists believe the evidence is overwhelming that burning of fossil fuels is a significant, if not the major, cause of global climate changes the earth is now experiencing. Recently, even chairman Ron Oxburgh of the giant oil conglomerate Royal Dutch Shell said, "No one can be comfortable at the prospect of continuing to pump out the amounts of carbon dioxide that we are pumping out at present, with consequences that we really can’t predict but are probably not good." The threat of catastrophic global climate change makes him "really very worried for the planet". Certainly Oxburgh’s comments have executives at other oil companies upset and squirming in their seats. For too long and too often the fossil fuel companies, and their strong government allies, have downplayed the scientific evidence for human-induced climate change as "inconclusive", or denied the link altogether.

Nuclear power plants use radioactive materials such as uranium and plutonium to produce heat in a controlled manner, which ultimately is used to generate electricity. The negative consequences of these fission-type nuclear reactors include the production of highly toxic and radioactive wastes, which can remain deadly for tens of thousands of years, and pollute air, soil, and water. The issues of waste transport and disposal, and security of power plants which are potentially vulnerable to catastrophic accidents or sabotage, are deadly serious challenges to nations which have nuclear power plants, and to other nations which border on them. Yet despite these considerations, and the fact that no new nuclear power plants have been built in the United States since the 1970’s, there are powerful lobbies in Washington pushing for construction of new nuclear power plants as a partial solution to our unrelenting thirst for oil.

There is much talk about "peak oil" and its implications. In a nutshell, peak oil means that the global production of oil begins to decline. Most petroleum industry geologists believe that time will occur within the next ten years, and many believe that we are already at peak oil production. This is in the face of greatly accelerating demand for oil, especially from China and Southeast Asia, as those nations rapidly power up their economies. As billions of people seek the western standard of living, and more and more of them become greater consumers of coal and oil, clouds of pollution darken the skies over more cities on our planet. Without a rapid and dramatic change of course, human civilization faces a dire future.

The New Energy Movement is the intervention. Millions of citizens must be mobilized. Is there a worthier cause on Earth? Please count yourself among those with the Courage to Change.

The two-day conference "New Energy: The Courage to Change" will be held on Sept. 25 at Reed College and Sept. 26 at Portland State University. Phone 1- 866-585-2344 or see the website www.newenergymovement.org for details.