Page 33 - Green Builder Magazine Nov-Dec 2017 Issue

when managed by Internet technology.
The Third Industrial Revolution build-out is
particularly relevant for the poorer countries in
the developing world. We need to keep in mind
that 40 percent of the human race stills lives on
two dollars a day or less, in dire poverty, and
the vast majority have no electricity. Without
access to electricity they remain “powerless,”
literally and figuratively.
The single-most important factor in
raising hundreds of millions of people out
of poverty is having reliable and affordable
access to green electricity. All other economic
development is impossible in its absence.
The democratization of energy and universal
access to electricity is the indispensable
starting point for improving the lives of
the poorest populations of the world. The
extension of micro credit to generate micro
power is already beginning to transform
life across the developing nations, giving
potentially millions of people hope of
improving their economic situation.
There is no inevitability to the human
sojourn. History is riddled with examples
of great societies that collapsed, promising
social experiments that withered, and visions
CREDIT: JAAKKO HEIKKILA/ISTOCK This time, however, the situation is different.
of the future that never saw the light of day.
The stakes are higher. The possibility of utter
extinction is not something the human race

century. The prospect of proliferation of
Shining light. Electricity is a luxury for at least one-third of the world. The dropping cost ever had to consider before the past half-
weapons of mass destruction, coupled now
of solar panels promises a more comfortable life for millions.
with the looming climate crisis, has tipped the
The creation of a renewable energy regime, loaded by buildings, odds dangerously in favor of an endgame, not only for civilization
partially stored in the form of hydrogen, distributed via smart as we know it, but for our very species.
intergrids, and connected to plug-in, zero-emission transport, opens The Third Industrial Revolution offers the hope that we can
the door to a Third Industrial Revolution. The entire system is arrive at a sustainable post-carbon era by mid-century. We
interactive, integrated and seamless. When these five pillars come have the science, the technology and the game plan to make it
together, they make up an indivisible technological platform—an happen. Now it is a question of whether we will recognize the
emergent system whose properties and functions are qualitatively economic possibilities that lie ahead and muster the will to get
different from the sum of its parts. In other words, the synergies there in time. GB
between the pillars create a new economic paradigm that can Note: This article is an excerpt from The Third Industrial Revolution:
transform the world. How Lateral Power Is Transforming Energy, the Economy and the World,
explores how Internet technology and renewable energy are merging to
THE THIRD INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION’S NO. 1 IMPACT create a powerful “Third Industrial Revolution.”
To appreciate how disruptive the Third Industrial Revolution is to
the existing way we organize economic life, consider the profound Jeremy Rifkin is an economist, futurist and author.
changes that have taken place in just the past twenty years with He is a keynote speaker at Sustainability Symposium:
the introduction of the Internet revolution. The democratization Champions of Change on Jan. 8 in Orlando, Fla.
of information and communication has altered the very nature of To register, visit www.greenbuildermedia.com/
global commerce and social relations as significantly as the print champions-of-change-2018.
revolution in the early modern era. Now, imagine the impact that
the democratization of energy across all of society is likely to have

www.greenbuildermedia.com November/December 2017 GREEN BUILDER 31

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