Ameri-cans not Ameri-canTs

Much of our history is inspiring. For me, the WWII transformation of the US consumer-based economies to wartime production stands out. 

Within 9 months of Pearl Harbor we were on track to bury the combined effort of the German and Japanese powerhouses with our nimble and massive production. The assembly lines of Ford and GM went from cars to tanks and airplanes. Men from industry, enlisting to fight, were quickly replaced by women eager to work.

The 4/26/2020 60 minutes focused on the four-week mobilization of Ford and GM to produce masks, PPE, and ventilators. I felt a sense of pride and hope as science, education, entrepreneurial spirit, and American Teamwork were shining again. It was probably always shining; I just couldn’t see it. Climate activists have been telling us our pride and determination is still there. If we can tap the spirit, we will heal the climate.

Over ten years ago, Citizens Climate Lobby was aware of the climate crisis and looked to economists to create a macro-solution to bend the economic engine, world-wide, towards clean energy. CCL did, and we continue to, promote a carbon pollution fee to deter burning fossil fuels. We also encourage all money collected from the fee to be returned to the citizen via a dividend reward. Economic studies tell us this Carbon-Fee and Dividend will spur the transition to clean energy while simultaneously creating jobs.

Unfortunately, something unforeseen has developed in the last 10 years. Scientists, and anybody tracking global weather, knows the climate is becoming unstable at a dangerously unpredicted and accelerating pace. Will the carbon fee and dividend be enough, soon enough? And, if not, do we have more paths to success we can exploit?

Articles in the Scientific American and Wired Magazine, April editions, line out paths to success. These are tried and proven paths we have relied on before. 

 Before examining these let’s poke a few holes in some myths. Unguided private sector money, called Venture Capital will not meet the challenge by itself. There is an incredible amount of money out there looking for ways to make more money. Unfortunately, private money is not always up to noble pursuits such as serving the well-being of mankind. In fact, American Venture capital has often become “Shark Capital” dismembering companies, leveraging what was left, paying off “investors” and eventually driving the acquired companies into bankruptcy.

But there are still venture capital heroes like Bill and Melinda Gates who sponsor Energy Ventures, and Jeff Bezos Earth Fund who are willing to invest billions of dollars to save the planet.

There are also noble and cutting edge, science focused organizations like Arati Prabhakar’s Actuate who are pressing forward with research.  The “Engine” and the “Green Capital Fund” are not looking for easy quick ways to make money. They are pushing the envelope of science knowledge forward with the long game of survival in mind.

As much capital as these mega-investors are dedicating to save the earth their combined engines of progress may not be enough.

There is a much bigger engine that sits idle as I write. It is our Federal Government. Federal Research and Development funding is at a 60-year low. Leadership and vision at the top of our government is non-existent, as was painfully demonstrated by our leader’s day late, a dollar short response to COVID-19.

What are the institutions in our Federal Government that we can fire up? Inside DOD, the Department of Defense, is DARPA the Defense Advanced Research Projects and within the DOE, Department of Energy is ARPA-E the Advanced Research Projects-Energy division.  

Both organizations take on challenges most private venture capitalists do not have the stomach for. This is the pursuit of technology with potential economic high reward, but too long term and too high-risk for most venture capitalists. 

With intelligent visionary leadership in Washington, these agencies can bring promising technologies to fruition quickly. ARPA with its 17 national labs, and DARPA, the agency with the proven expertise to scale technology, are a potential winning combination.

Since our current administration is sticking with ancient polluting fossil fuels, these agencies are only spinning their wheels when they could be guiding us to a safe future.

What have these agencies brought us before? How about computers, advanced biomedicine, sophisticated power and aircraft turbines, the internet, Wi-Fi, GPS, robotics, nuclear power, solar photovoltaics, Apache Helicopter blades, super-computers, voice recognition, laptops, and they helped NASA send Americans to the moon. 

These agencies and other Federal Agencies have played a role in all of these and more. Do you know who made all of this happen? You. Progress is American. It should be a source of enormous pride, yet we do not even know we are the key element. 

When I watched the workers and CEOs beam with pride at their contribution fighting the CORONA VIRUS I, too, felt pride. These are Americans and American Institutions with grit and determination.

This pandemic is awful, but it is small potatoes compared to a climate destroyed. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general science organization, sent out an Earth Day appeal telling us, despite the horrors of the pandemic, do not lose sight of the bigger threat, climate change.

The April issue of Wired magazine was titled, “We have one Earth—and the technology to save it. Go!” So, what is holding us back? In summary by Wired: “The Cold War institutions of Darpa and Arapa-E, the DOD, national labs, and even green sources of green capital are more shovel-ready than the mind of the American voter.” 

Hmmm….are they right? Let’s prove them wrong.

Greyson Morrow