Global Goal 07: Affordable & Clean Energy (Fossil fuels aren’t all bad)

#myNorm: Collaboration — Can we appreciate what fossil fuels have given us while pushing towards the future?

Whether it’s solar, wind, or the elusive dream of recreating the process that powers the sun with nuclear fusion, I’m a huge fan of renewable energy. While I love the environmental benefits, I really just nerd out over the fact that these large scale science projects are the closest thing that we have to perpetual motion machines/free energy.

After watching a video about poverty in coal country due to the decline of their industry, it opened my eyes to the fact that a relentless pursuit for new breakthroughs in science and technology can also have a lot of negative side effects for real people. I’m not advocating we continue our current “burn rate” of fossil fuels, but I do believe we should remember what helped get us to this point and ensure we don’t have to leave people behind as we charge towards the future.

In 2018, norm will be focused on sustainability, so one of our biggest concerns will be cleaner energy sources. How can we empower the largest oil and gas companies to fully embrace the shift to cleaner energy sources? Rather than shutting down coal fired plants, can we work on transitioning them into solar or wind farms? Can they become research facilities for breakthroughs in new forms of carbon capture?

We admittedly don’t have the answers to these questions, but do believe that encouraging collaboration of energy companies of all types will help spur the types of creative solutions needed to ensure we reach this goal by 2030.

Global Goal 07 — Affordable & Clean Energy: #whatsYourNorm?

My perspective on why I believe fossil fuels need to be a bigger part of the conversation for Affordable & Clean Energy. (Global Goal 07 was developed as a part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We centered norm around these goals after reading Issue 05 of CONSCIOUS Magazine)