The Next Industrial Revolution, aka the Clean Revolution
“The Stone Age did not end because the world ran out of stones, and the Oil Age will not end because we run out of oil.” — Ahmed Zaki Yamani, former Minister of Oil for Saudi Arabia
Throughout history, the resources and technologies of the period ultimately describe the evolution of humanity: stone, bronze, iron, and the first and second industrial revolutions (powered by fossil fuels).
I open my book EcoShot by laying out that society is undergoing the Third Industrial Revolution, which I call the Clean Revolution. Transportation is getting electrified, which will be powered by clean energy, such as solar and wind. Climate change could be a major economic disaster, but it will definitely be a major economic opportunity for the countries that lead in clean technologies. As I like to say, eco now means “eco”-nomic opportunity.
To emphasize this point, I’d like to share a quote in the book by Jim McDermott, who is the Managing Director of US Renewables Group and founder/former CEO of the publicly-traded company Stamps.com:
“Absolute fortunes are going to be made here. I think people still think it’s the domain of the Birkenstock crowd. I got into this because I believe we still have to do something. And we’re talking about the global energy industry — there’s so much money to be made. The people who get this are the people in Texas — the red state Republicans get it, and they’re piling in.”
My prediction and hope is that soon enough climate change will no longer be a “red” or “blue” issue in America, but a “red, white, and blue” issue. America can either lead this Clean Revolution or continue to let China retain the innovative edge in this multi-trillion dollar opportunity. We need to change the political conversation around climate change, from a climate disaster to an economic opportunity.
I also believe that this Clean Revolution will happen at an exponential rate, because solar, wind, and batteries are “exponential technologies,” as described in the first chapter:
Exponential advancements in various technologies are moving society toward the Clean Revolution. With computer chips, we see Moore’s Law — the doubling of computer power every eighteen months — has drastically reduced the costs of advanced computers. In the past decade, we have seen similar trends in solar cells, wind turbines, and battery technology. Swanson’s Law holds for solar: the cost of solar drops 20 percent for every doubling of production, so the more solar we put on our roofs and land, the quicker the costs will come down to benefit our society. Having the right policies, support, and messaging by our government leaders locally and nationally will encourage private sector investments to accelerate this cost curve down.
The more and more we implement these clean technologies, the faster the costs will drop, and therefore the faster we will implement these technologies.
The question remains: will China continue to be the leader of these exponential technologies, or can the US achieve a moonshot effort to regain leadership in clean innovation?
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If you’re interested in reading EcoShot: How America Can Win The Industrial Revolution Against China, you can order it now on Amazon! Also, if you’re passionate about climate change and cleantech, let’s connect on Twitter, and you can follow me here on Medium. I’d love to have feedback, so leave a comment.
