Energy blindness precludes strategic decision-making | Environmental Business

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I have an embarrassing confession to make: I’ve been advocating for climate solutions for the past 12 years, but I’m only just starting to understand what energy really is and why it’s important. I didn’t realize how ignorant I was about this topic until about eight months ago, when I started developing the program for our upcoming Climate Solutions Summit. Several months prior, we had chosen the theme Energy = the Ability to Do Work, because that scientific definition of energy connected nicely with the interest in clean energy jobs and workforce development that local leaders were expressing. But once I started digging into the details, I discovered that energy is much more interesting than I had initially assumed!

Energy is one of those words that is used in different ways by different people. Historically, I have thought about energy primarily in terms of (1) the utility bills we pay to keep the heat and lights on in our home, (2) how that heat and light are generated — either from fossil fuels or renewables, and (3) how tired or awake I feel in any given moment. Though I learned about the laws of thermodynamics back in high school, vaguely knew that calories are a unit of energy, and had heard about chakras, qi, and the balance of yin and yang from several yoga teachers, I never connected these concepts to each other or to my climate-focused work. Now I know better, though the line between real information about energy and woo-woo nonsense can be difficult to discern, in part because the process of scientific discovery on this topic is incomplete and ongoing. In other words, no one — including “the experts” — fully understands energy yet.

The Great Simplification podcast has been a particularly useful resource for expanding and deepening my understanding of what energy is and how it shapes our economic, social and environmental systems. This podcast introduced me to the term “energy blindness,” which refers to the widespread lack of awareness about energy sources and consumption that causes us to take energy for granted and fail to consider the energy implications of our activities and choices. This oversight inevitably leads to poor decision-making. As someone who is in the process of recovering from energy blindness, I am beginning to see how often I fall into this trap.

For example, I recently met with some friends at a local coffee shop and suggested we try to identify all the energy sources that made the beverages we were drinking possible. (Mine was a latte.) We ended up with a list of energy inputs that included the sun, the labor of the farmers who grew the coffee beans, the energy used to produce whatever chemical pesticides and fertilizers those farmers used, the energy used to process the beans and transport them to New York from some warm far-away place, the labor of the barista, the energy used in the coffee shop to grind the beans and heat the water, the energy used in the factory where the ceramic mug was made (in part to generate very high heat in a kiln), not to mention all the energy that went into producing the milk and other ingredients that our drinks contained.

As we reflected on how those energy inputs compared to the small amount of calories (and pleasure) that we were getting in return, our beverage choices seemed rather absurd and unsustainable. And though we couldn’t know for sure, we agreed that much of the energy we were consuming probably came from burning fossil fuels that cause climate change, so that also struck us as foolish and short-sighted.

That doesn’t mean I’ll never drink coffee again, but it does make coffee less appealing and increases my interest in less energy-intensive beverages that still provide the calories and pleasure I need to live well. So on my next visit to that neighborhood coffee shop, I’ll probably order the locally produced kombucha instead.

Becoming more energy-aware is also helping me be more strategic and discerning about what work I spend time on and what I say no to. As humans, our time and energy are obviously finite. Given the many threats and challenges we currently face, I’d say we have a lot of important work to do, as well as myriad sources of distraction that could prevent us from getting that work done. I’ve realized that I need to cultivate the capacity to intentionally regulate and direct my energy, so I don’t inadvertently squander it. However, there’s an interesting paradox here, because part of the work that needs doing in our fast-paced culture at this point in history is to figure out how to responsibly slow down, self-soothe, and divest our time, money, attention, and other resources from energy-intensive systems and activities. In other words, the process of learning to use less energy and use energy more wisely will require work/energy!

Now to be clear, that doesn’t mean we should start letting AI do all our work for us, because AI is ridiculously energy-intensive and not appropriately governed, so whatever ease and efficiency it creates in the short term will likely come back to haunt us over the longer term. At our upcoming summit, we’ll have lots of opportunities to discuss this current and important energy issue!

Interestingly, the scientific definition of power is the rate of flow of energy over time, which actually explains a lot about what’s happening in our political and economic contexts right now. For example, wealthy individuals and corporations are able to hire many people to do work for them and/or purchase huge quantities of computing power, meaning that more energy flows more quickly toward accomplishing their goals than toward the goals of someone with fewer resources. Grassroots organizers, such as myself, may be able to hire a handful of people and/or recruit volunteers to do work that pushes back on the wealthy entity’s goals, but if we can’t sustain the same flow of energy over time, because we have fewer energy resources, we will be overpowered. As I see it, the only way to overcome this imbalance is for many, many people to effectively work together to counter the power of the wealthy entity, but in our highly fractured, polarized society, developing that collective power is easier said than done.

For the past 12 years, I’ve been working at an unsustainable pace, so my energy is significantly depleted. I’ve still got some juice left in me, and I intend to deploy it strategically to build the power of our local environmental movement, but unless a lot more people make the choice to direct their energy toward implementing climate solutions and developing a regenerative economy, the powerful fossil fuel industry and other extractive industries will make our planet unlivable. Unfortunately, we’re already further down that path than most of us would like to admit.

However, a better future is possible if we channel our energy into the process of creating it. This will require us to live and work differently, in significant ways, but thinking of that change as a sacrifice is misguided. Personally, I have found that reducing my energy consumption and working on behalf of the greater good actually increases my joy and peace.

According to science, energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be transformed. Life is the product of organized, balanced energy, and when energy is wasted, entropy and chaos ensue. These aren’t just theoretical or philosophical concepts. Rather, they have real world implications and applications for every single person who eats food, uses electricity, and does some kind of work, whether paid or unpaid. If that describes you, I hope you will attend our upcoming summit and work with us to make wise, strategic decisions about our region’s energy future.

Abigail McHugh-Grifa, Ph.D. is executive director of Climate Solutions Accelerator. Contact her at [email protected]. Go to climateglf.org/summit to learn more about the Climate Solutions Summit.