Brave new world -- if you can keep up, that is...

Above, a must-see item. Britain's Prince Charles had this video made to publicize the rainforest's importance in climate change, ahead of the Copenhagen Conference.

My visit earlier this year to a DC meeting where a hundred senior university scientists got to hear from the heads of the various national science foundations and federal agency science shops, confirmed for me that the various Holdren's, Chu's, Lubchenko's, and Jackson's, et al, of this brave nation were determined to do exactly what they should...

...which is to stop climate change by investing billions of dollars of public money in renewable energy, energy efficiency, cleaner sources of conventional energy, and even, the elusive silver bullet, some kind of "transformational" technology, such as nuclear fusion.

This is the WW2-style mobilization of American industry that I've been talking about in class for years now. The theory, which isn't mine but is quite popular in the climate wonk world, is that despite what people think, it is actually possible to turn the global economy around, to switch from fossil fuel to clean energy. All you need to do is apply the same principles that were applied during WW2, when 50% of US industry was switched from production of peacetime goods to war materiel in less than 100 weeks.

There's a scene in "Band of Brothers" episode eight, where one of the characters, "Webster," is yelling at foot-sore captured German prisoners from the back of an Army truck. "What were you thinking," he yells. "General Motors!" "Ford!" How did you expect to win, taking on the world's foremost industrial power with a largely horse-powered army?

I was convinced, at that meeting in DC, that this would happen now, if it could be made to happen at all. The science heads seemed very serious. Regular readers may remember how I was able to question Pat Dehmer, head of science at DOE, about what they intended to do about the various nay-sayers, denialists, NIMBYs and BANANAs they would encounter. Dehmer's answer was essentially that she thought the new generation of Americans coming up would think very differently about all this. I was skeptical, mostly because I see nay-saying almost every working day, both in the more conservative of my students and in the community groups I work with on community-owned wind power projects.

But I was also interested and pleased, if challenged, by what she had to say.

Fast forward to now. Today's Guardian Environment section (my regular over-coffee morning fare) is filled with articles highlighting intitatives that are the result, or a partial result, of the new theory of the economy that this team of science wonks is putting into action.

Here's Steve Chu visiting with Prince Charles and a hundred other luminaries for an invitation-only "what do we do about the future"-ama. I hope they get to see the video, a special screening courtesy of HRH.

While China, since Holdren's secret climate policy visit, just announced a major solar retrofit campaign of massive scale.

Then there's an energy retrofit for public housing worth four billion.

In PA, steelworkers are becoming wind plant workers to enthusiastic union applause.

Finally, a whole herd of famous western actors were rounded up to make the video above, which highlights the importance of rainforest conservation in climate change. Americans may not understand that one role of the British monarchy is this troop-rallying, consensus-forming role. When a government policy is beyond political debate, the monarchy is used as a national figurehead for that policy. This may mean leading from the front, as when the future Elizabeth II drove an ambulance in WW2 London, or when Andrew flew Sea Kings during the Falklands War. Charles is not risking much more than ridicule for this video, but the sly, self-depracating humor works quite well for me.

The totality of this, even the stupid frog thing, is definitely the work of some very brave and visionary people.

The west is rallying. When this happens, we usually win.

All of this, I believe, will make for a very different reception for Obama and the Obamites at the Copenhagen conference coming up, than the Bushies had in their time.

There are always a few Father Coughlins, though. Rush, as always, comes to mind.

Even in my home town of Jackson, Maine, we have some folks who would say pretty much anything, true or not, in context or out, to end the community discussion of a wind power plant. Accusations of corruption, of double dealing, dramatic embellishment of the negative impacts, statements taken out of context, the whole armament of the propagandist is being put to work in a planning battle in a small town in Maine. We've become a microcosm for the NIMBY debate, and the nay-sayers, everywhere.

I find this very sad. In particular, I feel sorry for the Planning Board who are definitely right in the firing line. But the Planning Board has to make the best decision for the whole Town, not just a small group.

Despite this, community discussion is beginning slowly to shift from talk of what to do about a very commercial and somewhat exploitative proposal, to whether or not the community should own it's own wind turbines.

I wonder what Pat Dehmer would advise.

After all, if the Town goes for turbines, especially if they are well planned and sized to match both the local environment, power demand and distribution, and locally owned, a true "Smart Grid" project, then we will be doing pretty much what the administration wants us to do.

Maybe she should come here and lead a transactive planning process to help us get out of the mess we're in.