Cleantech & The Wizard of Oz

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I was recently invited (twice) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to enter an article in the 2012 IUCN-Thomson Reuters Environmental Media Award competition. The winner will go to South Korea to attend the 2012 IUCN World Conservation Congress (6-15 September), the world’s most important conservation event,… with all expenses covered! That would be awesome, of course. However, I’m not exactly expecting to win — it looks like I need to get at least a few thousand votes on my submission (“Cleantech & The Wizard of Oz”) on the IUCN Facebook page by next Friday in order to win (yes, a vote or more would be appreciated).

Anyway, while I could submit a previously written article to the competition, the opportunity got me thinking a bit, and I decided to write this piece for it instead:

Cleantech & The Wizard of Oz

wizard of oz
The lion’s courage, the tin man’s heart, and the scarecrow’s brain were critical to Dorothy and the gang reaching their goal in The Wizard of Oz. However, as you might remember, the lion’s courage, the tin man’s heart, and the scarecrow’s brain were supposedly nonexistent at the beginning of the story. It wasn’t until the end that it was acknowledged by these characters that they had these qualities and essential organs in them all along. Importantly, however, when needed throughout the course of the story, these characters’ hearts, brains, and courage were used to move the team forward.

Where’s the connection to cleantech? Well, it’s more than clear at this point that: 1) there is a massive effort by those in fossil fuel industries or strongly connected to them (i.e. certain political leaders) to undermine and stop (or slow) a cleantech revolution; 2) many still incorrectly think and claim that cleantech isn’t capable of solving the global warming, water, and numerous related crises we are facing; 3) the public and the ‘good’ political leaders we have are yet to show that they care enough about these crises to cut fossil fuel subsidies and push cleantech into the position it is set to take.

Cleantech is critical to solving our global warming crisis, our growing water crisis, and the many, many related wildlife and environment crises we are facing.

At this point, all we really need is the courage to stand up to the rich fossil fuel industries; the brains to realize that cleantech is the most crucial element in stopping global warming (that it really could power the world) and is also critical to addressing our growing water shortages; and the heart to care enough about humanity and the rest of nature to take action before it is too late.

The challenge is not small. But what good story is without a challenge?

The goal is attainable. And we actually do have all we need in order to reach our important destination. (Of course, Dorothy and her red shoes could also be of some help — I’ll let you decide what they represent.)

Image Credit: garlandcannon


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

Zachary Shahan has 7317 posts and counting. See all posts by Zachary Shahan