During my lifetime, there has always been an Internet. And for as long as I can remember, there have always been cellphones, too. For people of my generation, computers have always been small and powerful, and not that expensive. Innovation marches on, seemingly faster and faster, and this is a good thing because we need innovation to help meet the challenges that face our generation.
In fact, our future depends on it.
Unless we dramatically expand innovation to move quickly from reliance on fossil fuels to renewable energy, scientists tell us that conditions will become increasingly challenging for those of us who want to live a decent life over the next half century, let alone bring kids into the world to live beyond that.
The good news is that Ontario has both the know-how and the natural endowments necessary to dramatically scale up renewable energy quickly so that we can move away from expensive, polluting fossil fuels. Right now, Ontario is doing quite well competing for its share of the projected $2.3 trillion clean energy boom that is unfolding across the globe.
The bad news is that some of our political leaders seem to prefer obsolescence to innovation and are positioning themselves to stand in the way not only of Ontario staying current in the clean energy economy, but also of a decent future for our generation and the ones beyond.
Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, in particular, needs to join us in the present and in preparing for the future, instead of wanting to take Ontario backward by killing innovation in clean energy. He says that investing in clean energy is too expensive, but doesn’t admit that the alternatives are even more so. Our generation is still paying for billions in cost overruns for nuclear plants that the politicians of our grandparents’ time built.
The truth is that, like innovation in computers and cellphones, renewable energy is becoming more efficient and less costly. Wind energy, for example, is one-fifth less costly now than it was 30 years ago. Wind and solar are also more decentralized forms of power that allow citizens to play more of a role in the power grid — from community energy projects to rooftop solar panels and selling their own power.
Right now, Ontario is a real innovator in this sector thanks to the Green Energy Act and the incentives it gives to clean energy. Thousands of jobs are being created across the province building and installing wind and solar projects, and Ontario is looked to by others for its emerging clean energy expertise. This is the kind of leadership that people of our generation are proud of, particularly when you stack it up against the despair that can creep into our minds when we think about climate change.
Our problem, though, is that this issue has become politicized in a way that promotes cynicism among youth. Just because one party passed the Clean Energy Act, the other party has to be against it. That attitude won’t get us anywhere when you consider the years of sustained innovation that must occur over decades — much longer than the four-year election cycle.
So our message to Tim Hudak is this: If you really are about change, as you claim to be, then change politics in Ontario by admitting that not everything your opponent did was bad. The Green Energy Act is making Ontario a world leader in clean energy at exactly the time we need this to drive a new economy and move away from fossil fuels.
The alternative is obsolescence. Ontario could become the Commodore 64 of the world economy, sitting on the trash heap of history. That’s not a future we want. For us, that’s not a future at all.
James Biggar is executive director of Leadnow.ca, a youth-led advocacy organization.
* Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1015805--embrace-the-green-future
* color and emphasis added by the blogger
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