Reinvigorating the American Brand Part 2 of 20

Global Resources

I’m taking this one right from teachings of Thomas Freedman http://tinyurl.com/6ynn26. He visited Portland recently to discuss the “environmental/green” movement. Something that really resonated with me was how this was being defined in America. He said that by calling it the “green” movement we make the whole thing elusive and unfocussed. It’s a good point. What does green really mean? Recycling? Car Pooling? Localization? In his world travels one of the things that scared him most was that more and more people around the world are consuming resources like American’s. We know there are finite resources and this is unsustainable in the long run—it will cause political struggle and environmental impact in massive ways. What really matters is who leads the charge in renewable energy. The country that makes it efficient and affordable will become a global leader well into the future. It will be our next economic bull run and its reach will be global. This is an area where we need focus. Our entire system is based on petroleum right now. Every car, every product moved and every e-mail sent. Fluctuations in petroleum price cause fluctuations in our entire economy. If we find renewable energy EVERYTHING as we know it will advance rapidly. We will be able to travel further, compute more—everybody globally gets more. The social, economic and political impact of this one thing would far outweigh any other single thing we can do in the “green/sustainability/environmental” space. It’s very important that we continue to keep pressure on our representatives to move scientific investment dollars into the area—we need to be loud about this. This doesn’t mean we need to stop focusing on other environmental issues but we need to ensure this issue stays 100% in focus and prioritized. The country that figures this out will advance beyond all of our wildest dreams. We want that to be America.

Coming Next-Part Three: American Jobs