Sustainability in a Crisis

"Investing in renewable energy technologies provides 10 times the job creation of investments in fossil or nuclear technologies."

Which Will Melt First, the Arctic or the Economy?

By L. Hunter Lovins

The National Snow and Ice Data Center recently said we may be witnessing the death spiral of the Arctic, which would leave the North Pole ice-free by 2013. But borrowing $2 billion a day to buy imported oil (and the rest of the accumulated weight of unsustainable business practices) might be melting financial stability even more quickly. As the stock market oscillates faster than
the world oil price, casual conversations turn to whether we are witnessing the start of a global economic collapse.

Given these twin perils, should a company or a government put its sustainability agenda on hold or drive forward?

Einstein once observed, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”

Debates about whether to drill faster miss the point. Oil, coal, and even nuclear power are the technologies of the last century. What both our financial future and the climate need is to unleash the new energy economy. Implementing aggressive climate protection programs that planetary survival requires will also set off the greatest wave of prosperity since World War II, create millions of jobs, and revitalize local communities. It will even offer very sweet investment opportunities for Wall Street.

(The article is here. L. Hunter Lovins, J.D., is president of Natural Capitalism Solutions in Eldorado Springs, CO.)