The Big G's Ten Year Renewable Energy Call To Action

Al Gore gave an extremely courageous speech this past Sunday. He called for America to move to a 100% renewable energy economy within the next ten years. Such an audacious goal can easily be dismissed as naïve and impractical. But the more I think about it, the more I inevitably feel that what he’s calling for is what I want to see happen. And even if it sounds impractical wouldn’t you want it to happen? Who wouldn’t? I want it to happen. Now. So I’m speaking up. I really want our government and our country to mobilize behind the big G’s call to action.

The key to consider is that unless you and I have our voices heard nothing is going to happen. If we wait for our political leaders to lead on this issue we’ll wait too long. The reason is that politicians rarely lead. They follow.

So if you dig the big G’s message and you’d like to see the country engage in a massive mobilization to change the course of our destiny and set us on a path to a clean and abundant future, then it’s really up to you to speak up. But let’s be clear, the change the big G is calling for is already happening. You can see it in the thousands of solar power jobs moving into Toledo, Ohio and in the wind turbine factories dotting the plains of Iowa in towns like Fort Madison. The movement to renew and revitalize America through renewable energy is well-underway. What’s most critical to fully understand is that the more we participate in the movement, the more we accelerate it. Because while the solutions are here and happening, what we don’t have is unlimited time to scale them up. That has to happen now, which is why the time to be heard is now.

Moreover, the more we embrace the 10 year plan, the more we’ll create a future that we’re actually going to get excited about. Those solar jobs in Toledo and wind manufacturing jobs in Iowa pay well. They provide good benefits too.

We’re living in a hyper-competitive world. Jobs that are here today can easily be outsourced tomorrow. Not just manufacturing jobs either. There are doctors in India who are reading Xrays of patients in America. There are designers in China who are diagramming next-generation Boeing aircraft wings. Blue collar or white collar, in the globalized world that Thomas Friedman calls "flat" our best chance to keep America thriving is to don green collars and work for green-minded companies that recognize that the greatest opportunities of the 21st century lay in building a clean, abundant economy that operates in balance with nature.

The beauty is that we don't have to start from scratch. Just look at where the smartest investors in America – like the Venture Capitalists in Silicon Valley who funded companies like Google, eBay, and Amazon.com – are placing their financial bets. By 2006, these investors were already funneling more start-up capital into companies that are using silicon for solar panels than are using it for computer chips. The shift to a green American economy has begun. It can go all the way. Fast too. This is not some eco-utopian pipe dream emerging from a groovy night of acid tripping on a mountaintop in the high hills of Sedona. It’s a vision of the future that many of the most successful and entrepreneurial minds in this country are already actively engaged in manifesting. Now it needs you. Sign the Clean Energy Petition at Wecansolveit.org

-- Josh