The Cure for the Common Nadir

My Plan to Save the Economy, the Country, and the World With Green Utilities

By Jimmy Glenn

In the face global climate change and an ever-growing global economic pandemic, the increasingly partisan U.S. government and media seems to have no greater a plan than business as usual.

Yes, it seems that the people who are, arguably, the most influential and powerful in our country, and perhaps the world, have decided to continue to stand by and watch the chaos unfold instead of act. While I personally can’t say that I have never pointed fingers, criticized others, or chosen apathy instead of action, I also have never been in the position to govern, or influence public opinion, on the national scale. Be that as it may, if I were to continue this article by quoting (perhaps at times out of context): senators, congressmen, the president-elect, or the mainstream news media, I would be no better than those very same institutions I just complained about. In short, I’d be a hypocrite. So screw that, let’s just get right into my ideas for saving the world.

My plan can be summed up as “Green Utilities.” If American businesses were to package all available green technologies and provide them as one service, there is not only the potential for nationwide change, but also for a new addition to the American and global economy that could in and of it self provide an incalculable number of new jobs that could not be shipped over seas. As with the advent of the personal computer and the internet, these new businesses, or branches of existing corporations, would help accelerate America’s transition to green technologies, and would further the growth of the industry and its’ study.

Currently, America is sitting on numerous technologies and practices that are, not only environmentally friendly, but also cost effective. However, like any new technology, there is a hesitance nationwide, as we wonder what technologies will prevail, and how they will be implemented. It has become increasingly apparent, that no one technology will emerge to be the panacea to our global environmental problem. The only sensible and expedient answer is to provide all the available technology and tailor it to each individual commercial or domestic environment. Therefore, I believe the best step for our economy and our environment, is to package all these green technologies in the form of green utilities.

There is an overwhelming need, and opportunity, for businesses that would outfit and retro-fit buildings with green technology. These businesses would, and should, provide installation of everything from energy star appliances and florescent light bulbs, to major upgrades like solar panels, rain water cooling systems, and geo-thermal heating and cooling. Each client could decide to what extent they wanted their building outfitted.

Environmental efficiency is as only good as the relevance and physical condition of the technology that provides it. Green technology, like computer technology, will always be a dynamic and ever growing field. Therefore, the newly fitted buildings would require routine maintenance and upgrades to ensure their continued, and ever-growing, environmental efficiency. That fact, coupled with the nearly infinite number of environmentally inefficient buildings in America (and worldwide), would insure a growing market that would become a large and consistent part of the world economic system. Like telephone, cable and other domestic and commercial utilities, eco-efficient technology stands to become a huge market that would continue to evolve and improve as time goes on.

That fact alone would make these green utility companies not only an environmentally safe investment, but an economically sound one for America. The technology is readily available and in most cases could be tailored to nearly any building’s needs.

Current utility providers could expand and create entire new branches that provide layout and design, installation, and maintenance, for these new green utilities. This growth would create all-new, exclusively domestic jobs for American citizens. As I previously stated, due to the constant growth of technology, these new jobs would be a consistent addition to the American economic infrastructure. Furthermore, their proximity ensures that these jobs could never be shipped overseas.

In addition, as time goes on, the field of green technology would continue to grow and evolve. Therefore, green utility jobs would prove to become more and more specialized. This future specialization will ensure a continued expansion and growth of the over all industry. The future growth of green utility technology could spurn entire new areas of exploration in science and engineering. Therefore, we would need to create entirely new programs to teach and train these hypothetical courses of study. That would in turn, create more jobs within all facets of the educations system.

As a modest aside, I wanted to suggest, since skyscrapers have tons of spires containing all forms of antenna, can’t we scale down windmills and place them on top of our cities largest skyscrapers. I think it could create an entirely new avenue for wind power. Perhaps that’s an oversimplification of the technology, but it’s just a thought.

Anyway, I believe that packaging green technologies together as a green utility and adapting that utility to fit both commercial and domestic needs will ensure that green technology will grow and be implemented in the same way the internet has in recent decades. The global climate crisis necessitates a quick and universal action. Providing green utilities can meet that pace. Furthermore, green utilities provide a new sector ripe for expansion. Like other utilities, the need will never dissipate, and can constantly evolve and revise as America moves forward. Competition amongst developers would ensure continued growth and excellence in the technology. Likewise, providers would compete ensuring excellence in green utility implementation. Furthermore, that competition will create an environment in which implementation would flourish nationwide. Finally, green utilities would provide countless new jobs for Americans. The need for these jobs would continue to expand and specialize, as the field changes. The technology and need is there, as is the avenue for it to fit into America’s competitive economic system. America need only act, and act quickly.