I saw this video today, KTVA Live Post of March for Science, Anchorage. I was running logistics for the event, and was not able to really listen to the speakers, so I was excited to catch some of what I'd missed. Let me first say, this is a great opportunity to hear Mayor Ethan Burkowtiz's speech. It is worth listening too.
However, I found myself getting frustrated while listening to Eric Ruble interview the crowd. First, he fed a couple people the line, "you are here because of Trump." Trump was just riding the wave, he is a figurehead. We are fighting so more than just him. It is a nice tool to feed people the line you want them to parrot back at you, but I am glad to say it didn't work. They spoke their own words.
Another thing that irritated me was a question he asked a few times about choosing between environmental concerns and jobs. People had a hard time stating why they felt the environment was "more important." One person stated that we could have both. I was glad to hear that, but wanted to hear so much more. It can be hard to think on the spot, I have avoided many interviews this year because of my fear of getting it wrong on video. However, on paper I can be very clear.
To be asked to choose between jobs and environment doesn't make sense. It is a false equivalence. We are being fed the line of equivalence in too many places, and too many people are swallowing it. Even if it were an honest question, there could be better compromise than what the current administration is offering.
It is not an either-or issue. It never has been. Either/or is a talking point, which is about an agenda of making certain corporations richer. Either/or is about dividing our country. It is scam being played on us, it's not real.
I am frustrated that people don't know that solar power employs more people than coal, natural gas, and oil combined in our country. That is not an alternative fact.
I say again: Solar power employs more people than coal, natural gas, and oil combined.
That can become the reality here in Alaska as well. We have wind, sun, and tidal flow to draw on here. We need to change the narrative that we are an extraction state. We don't have to be. We can be so much more. We are so much more.
The biggest employer in the state is Providence. Our largest oil production company, BP, doesn’t even show up on the list until number seven of the top 50 employers in the state. Of the top 50, there are only 8 that are extraction resource based, and that includes the service companies. BP and Conoco employ about 3500 employers directly in our state economy. What percentage of those even live and spend money here?
We don't need to be shaking in our boots that they are going to leave or desert us. Yes we are currently dependent, but we don't have to stay dependent.
Renewable energy technology is completely functional and working right now in forward thinking communities all over the world. It's getting better all the time. And what are we doing? We are doubling down on yesterdays answers. Keeping our feet in this magical past where America was great. It is a devastating mistake. The future of energy production is renewables, period.
Other countries are going to beat us into the ground in renewable technologies. They know we are killing ourselves, poisoning ourselves, because of our dependence on the dole of the oil companies. They will have no competition from us. We are cutting off the knees of renewable energy companies, and literally paying the fossil fuel industry to stay and continue with their destructive technologies. We are paying the 1% to keep getting richer.
We have the technology to make money with cleaner energy sources, we just have to choose the make the switch. There will be a hell of a lot of jobs involved in this.
Unfortunately we are reluctant to change from what we know. We are reticent to act to protect future generations. We are left standing in obstinance, and fear which are predicated on false nostalgia of our country's past. We are doing the opposite of making America great. We are dragging ourselves backwards instead of moving forward. We are doubling down on a worn out bet, making ourselves more dependent on a failing system.
We are the country of the first car, the first plane, the first humans on the moon, pc's, Apple, and the internet. We have done so much in the past, and we can do more.
We must look beyond this idyllic falsified idea of greatness that has us standing still in time, or trying to turn back. Let's turn away from that past, and move on to an amazing future. We have the technology to harness the energy of the sun, the moon, and movement. We already employ more people in these technologies then in extraction technologies. Lets keep moving forward.
Move, change, learn, work, grow, work some more; then accept the gifts that will come.
The future is bright and clear if we make the choices to make it so. The options are out there.
Get educated on renewable's. They are the science and economy of the future, if we want a future.
I want that future, and I am fighting for it.
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