Watching the wonderful Climate March in New York last Sunday, one felt battered by companion storms of hope and fear. Hope that with so many young people on board, we could turn the tide. Fear that with so many politicians owned by iron-hearted corporations, the movement to save the earth would founder.
For comfort, consult history. And think of the struggle against climate change as the Third World War.
During the Second World War, patriotic American car companies turned from automotive production to war production in 5 years. General Motors stopped making auto bodies and churned out Sherman tanks. Chevy plants rolled out aircraft engines. The Midwestern grain colossus, Cargill, produced warships. Sure they came out of the war controlling what President Eisenhower called a huge, dangerous "military industrial complex." Sure they made fortunes. But they always make fortunes. And without corporate muscle, the war would never have been won.
Fast forward to now.
Imagine if the leaders of today's energy giants could see that our nation is fighting a monstrous enemy bent on our destruction, that the enemy is earth-heating carbon, that they have a patriotic duty to abandon fossil fuels and turn their vast power to developing solar, wind, hydrogen batteries. Imagine if we could somehow plug into that elusive reservoir of patriotism and instigate a change of heart. Then we might actually have a shot at winning the Third World War.
THE COMMONS, my new novel, fast forwards to the 22nd century, when corporate domination of research and innovation is so complete that one company has literally become the government. And the fate of the nation still depends on one corporate leader changing his heart and behaving like a patriot.
For comfort, consult history. And think of the struggle against climate change as the Third World War.
During the Second World War, patriotic American car companies turned from automotive production to war production in 5 years. General Motors stopped making auto bodies and churned out Sherman tanks. Chevy plants rolled out aircraft engines. The Midwestern grain colossus, Cargill, produced warships. Sure they came out of the war controlling what President Eisenhower called a huge, dangerous "military industrial complex." Sure they made fortunes. But they always make fortunes. And without corporate muscle, the war would never have been won.
Fast forward to now.
Imagine if the leaders of today's energy giants could see that our nation is fighting a monstrous enemy bent on our destruction, that the enemy is earth-heating carbon, that they have a patriotic duty to abandon fossil fuels and turn their vast power to developing solar, wind, hydrogen batteries. Imagine if we could somehow plug into that elusive reservoir of patriotism and instigate a change of heart. Then we might actually have a shot at winning the Third World War.
THE COMMONS, my new novel, fast forwards to the 22nd century, when corporate domination of research and innovation is so complete that one company has literally become the government. And the fate of the nation still depends on one corporate leader changing his heart and behaving like a patriot.