Archinect Op-Ed: A green lining to our financial crisis clouds

by Barry Lehrman

Beyond the Malthusian gloom and doom that pervades most of the discussion about climate change and the current economic outlook, I am optimistic about the unique opportunity we have to change our behavior to preserve the environment and our future. Our consumer culture needs to shift towards living off of nature’s income and not nature’s capital. With the shreds of financial deregulations burning down our house of debt - we have become a nation that can no longer feed our material addiction. Maybe, just maybe, we have reached a tipping point where it is easier to change our behavior then maintain the Gordon Gecko greed and wonton consumption of the last 30 years. If we are to tackle the inconvenient truth of climate change and environmental degradation before its too late, we must act.

Thom Friedman, and others are starting to focus on making lemonade out of the bailout and recession. As citizens of the world, we all can seize this moment to shape the future. That is just one pro-active aspect of American ingenuity that does make us the best country on around. But we also need to redefine how we live as necessity forces a return to our roots of thrift and frugality.

If we can rebuild our financial institutions and economy to care about the triple bottom line and the well-being of our world - the $700b will have been well spent.

If we can rebuild our government to serve the people and not wealth - the $700b will have been well spent.

If we can spark innovation and pay for basic science research to create a new green economy - the $700b will have been well spent.

If we can replace and repair our neglected infrastructure with state-of-the-art green pipes and systems - the $700b will have been well spent.

If we can teach our children, parents, and peers that the conservation of energy and resources is the simplest step to pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps - then the $700b will have been well spent.

If we take this moment to do right, to care about those without, to share our love and happiness, to appreciate life a little more – then there is hope.

At least I know that with this economic melt down, as the average american struggles to fill the tank of their SUV, we’ve gained a little more time before the polar bears drown or that we suffocate in the sauna of CO2 and mercury released from Chinese power plants. Yes, the its going to be painful - but our grandchildren and the entire planet will be significantly better off if we take the opportunity that this crisis offers.

Will you?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

great editorial! it's time for a new Public Works Administration to step up--this time with a green agenda. it's promising that in the wake of the financial turmoil funding for amtrak and other rail and mass transit projects has finally materialized out of a system that has focused on auto-mobility for so long. let's hope this trend continues.

it's also time to think how we as architects and designers can influence the conversation and decisions being made--what is our agenda and what tools are we equipped with to bring our ideas to the public? i think that can be an important thing for us to consider.

it seems like the rising popularity of designers like Mitchell Joachim is one path--with recent publications in Wired, Popular Science, and other popular media he is getting the eco-design message out there. Maybe we should try to publish these op-eds beyond the confines of archinect and try to get them into the mass-media.

not to get picky but (as a non-american) this statement gets on my nerves:

"That is just one pro-active aspect of American ingenuity that does make us the best country on around."

...perhaps this attitude might also change as a result of the financial crisis.

go editorial...i'm spending more time in my garden making stuff from it, as people should.

just random note from an article i remember: $700bn a year is used for our defense budget, that is 14 times second place, like Russia or France, and China is in 3rd.

no Becker, that attitude is essential to American behavior...it's what gets into trouble and its what gets us out of trouble.

the can-do american dream just had to be re-guided as barry points out.

from someone who genuinely would like to know more: what specific parallels do you see with the 'internet technology' boom of the 90s and this potential 'energy technology' boom?

the internet revolution was such a paradigmatic shift because it facilitated commerce and communication. my hesitation with this energy technology or green movement is that it is a much harder sell, or as you and al gore mention, is an inconvenient truth. in other words, how do you convince china to go green?

Great one Barry,
And Dot to answer your question.
I don't think the Chinese or anyone else need convincing that it needs to be done.
The challenge is in the price point. That is some make the argument is made that we (the US) need to move which will allow us to lower the price point. By lower the cost (here) through the creation of a mass market for such tech and then overseas by exporting our tech and experience.
Also, some argue we need to directly subsidize the sale of such tech to countries such as China.
I think the issue is simply that no one wants to shoulder the entire (and very large costs) on their own. Which is why or how it is the perfect opportunity for American leadership.

nam, that 's an interesting explanation. i am also optimistic, but still have questions. to me there are many technologies already available, but require a lot of initial investments in public infrastructure, which the US is economically ill equipped to shoulder right now, and also requires a lot of political capital. to me, the internet was able to take off because there was relatively minimal investment in infrastructure and it was largely apolitical (i could be wrong). perhaps in order for me to see the connection, there would have to be some accessible technology that consumers can get behind, rather than waiting on the government to make moves. in other words, what technology do you see as being the equivelant to the pc in this revolution?

Wow, great editorial Barry. Amazing. I was thinking along some of these very same lines you spoke of just the other night while driving home. What an amazing oppotunity we, this global society, could have with all the green innovations out there and/or even waiting for us to discover if we just embraced it. Thanks so much for sharing your input and insight.

the key here is encouraging open-source intellectual exchange of "green" technologies - and finding ways of translating this knowledge into easy implementation and accessibility (think the DIY movement, except at a larger scale). This would require a changing of green tech patents to allow for open-source individual and public usage - something which is somewhat antithetical to how our current system operates. We also need to include the home-brewers and garage-tinkerers - not just academics and industry - someone needs to invent "green kits."

just think, if DIY computer kits didn't exist, and some kids from California weren't messing around with them in a parent's garage in the 70s, we wouldn't be sitting in our offices or living rooms or coffee shops exchanging these ideas.

The revolution will not start at the infrastructure scale - it will start in some guy's basement.

Here's the important thing: "Our consumer culture needs to shift towards living off of nature’s income and not nature’s capital."

Our species cannot do this with thirteen billion mouths and a 20 year doubling rate. All this enlightened teaching, rebuilding, and greenness is token at best until we recognize that environmental crisis is a population crisis.