If you can’t picture yourself driving an electric car in 10 years, then it’s time to start rethinking your vision of energy in this nation.
On July 17, former Vice President Al Gore delivered a groundbreaking challenge to America, calling on us to commit to producing 100 percent of our energy through clean, carbon-free sources within 10 years. That’s right ““ 10 years.
By improving efficiency, developing our existing renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar and geothermal, and investing in a “Unified National Grid” so we can distribute this power from one corner of the nation to the other, Gore asserts that we can end our dependence on expensive carbon-based fuels ““ fuels that currently cost the country over $100 billion per year and lie at the root of many of our problems.
Gore’s challenge is unlike anything the environmental and political communities have seen before, and it is just what this country needs to snap us out of our complacency about climate change. This is a call to action, and students at UCLA are poised to play a role in this challenge.
“This is a generational moment,” Gore said. “A moment when we decide our own path and our own collective fate. I’m asking you ““ each of you ““ to join me and build this future.”
But as college students, how are we supposed to affect an issue as huge as climate change, especially when that issue seems so dependent upon big changes in Washington? The answer lies in an unlikely parallel: an internship.
This summer, I, like many college students before me, have a job as an intern. My tasks are varied and inconsistent, my time is spent staring at a computer screen and the fruits of my efforts often seem inconsequential. I have seen my work brushed aside on a number of occasions after hours of research. I guess it comes with the job description.
But along with this sense of irrelevance, I’ve noticed something more important. When we interns are prescribed these seemingly menial tasks, we enable others working above us to concentrate on the greater issue, allowing decisions to flow smoother and .more quickly And when the executives place a little trust in the interns and we come together to work on a project that needs to be done, we can accomplish something grander. Together we make a more tangible imprint on the organization.
In a way, each and every one of us is like an intern working on a solution to the climate crisis. Individually, it seems that we can achieve very little ““ change will not come because one college student spoke out or signed a petition.
But if we can realize how single actions coming together with the actions of many can become a movement, then we can begin to see that we hold more power than we think.
As the interns of the planet, we can put our heart into the little things with the knowledge that they add up. We can sign up at wecansolveit.org and add our names to the more than one million people who have also taken the first step. We can sign petitions and write letters to our congressional representatives. We can call our utility companies and demand more renewable energy. These are the individual tasks that we “interns” must take upon our shoulders, for they will help to create a speedier transition to renewable energy.
But when we come together, we play a vastly more important role. We can change the status quo.
“Our success depends upon our willingness as a people to undertake this journey and to complete it within 10 years,” Gore said. Indeed, our willingness to meet this challenge will determine its outcome, and it is here that we, as college students and as “planetary employees,” can effect the most necessary change: a change of heart.
We must believe that this goal can be accomplished. We must release our skepticism and throw ourselves behind the cause. If we change what we believe, in 10 years our goal will be accomplished within our own hearts, and we can work to change that vision in the hearts of others. Then and only then can we meet this call to action. This challenge is achievable, but it is up to us to meet it.
So let’s change the way we think about energy in America. Let’s envision a nation free from carbon-based fuels and the economic, environmental and national security crises that are spawned from them. Let’s believe that the wind blowing across this nation will bring both energy and change and that the sunshine will illuminate both new solar cells and a new mindset for all Americans. And let’s picture ourselves driving an electric car in 10 years, because if we can envision it, then it can be done.
E-mail Fitzpatrick at cfitzpatrick@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.