Earth Days Page #9

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to various positions of power.

Well, you know,

I'm an activist.

I think when we have problem

like air pollution

or kids who can't read,

we do something about it.

Instead of sitting around

just talking,

I think we ought to do whatever

the governmental process

can accomplish within the limits

of the budget.

Governor Brown had an office

of appropriate technology,

which I wound up being part of.

We brought in people like

the astronaut Rusty Schweickart,

who was totally in a

counter-cultural frame of reference,

even though he was

an astronaut.

At that time,

I was growing a moustache

and growing my hair long,

you know, and so...

Um, you know, I was

the astronaut hippie.

Well, you know, Jerry Brown,

here he is,

a student of Rachel Carson,

and people like Paul Ehrlich

and, you know,

everybody who's

a part of this revolution.

My principals are simple:

protect the Earth,

serve the people

and explore the universe.

So, I'm among friends.

I ultimately became the chairman

of the California

Energy Commission.

It fits right in.

I mean, the biggest impact

on the environment

is the way in which

we use energy.

The California Energy Commission

led the way

into that revolution

in improving the efficiency

with which we control and use

and generate energy.

The Department of Energy

in California

has been the most intelligent

energy conserving,

I think, governmental body

probably in the world.

They set in motion

the ability for people

who had solar collectors

or wind generators

to run their meter backwards

and put their locally made

electricity

back into the grid

and get paid for it,

uh, very early on,

this is mid-1970s.

Jimmy Carter

had a terrific energy policy.

It had the goal

of getting at least 20%

of the nation's energy

from renewable energy resources

by the year 2000.

And a series of proposed

policies that,

had they been implemented,

actually would have

gotten us there.

He had solar water heaters

installed

on the White House roof.

A generation from now,

this solar heater

can either be a curiosity,

a museum piece,

an example of a road not taken,

or it can be just a small part

of one of the greatest

ventures ever undertaken

by the American people.

He gave me the best job

of my life,

running the Federal Solar Energy

Research Institute.

And a budget that increased

and doubled every year

that I was there

and the opportunity

to really do

some important things.

The energy crisis has

not yet overwhelmed us,

but it will

if we do not act quickly.

It's a problem that we will not

be able to solve

in the next few years.

It's likely to get

progressively worse

through the rest

of this century.

We must not be selfish or timid

if we hope to have

a decent world

for our children

and our grandchildren.

We simply must balance

our demand for energy

with our rapidly

shrinking resources.

By acting now,

we can control our future

instead of letting

the future control us.

Carter, I think,

made a fundamental mistake.

Which was he saw the transition

as one of constraint

and as of one of privation,

and of giving up,

and of lowered lifestyle.

In a period from 1973 to 1980,

the price of oil went from

four dollars to $30 a barrel.

And that clearly was enough

to cause the public

to support things like

fuel efficiency standards

for automobiles and other things

that would have been

inconceivable

unless you'd had a crisis.

I'm Jack Lemmon

for the Sierra Club.

America's Energy Crisis is much

more than just a fuel shortage.

Believe me, today we all

have to do our bit

to conserve energy.

It just can't be wasted.

You know, at the rate the world

is using its oil,

we'd have to discover

a new Alaska or Texas

every six months.

The energy problems we face

are real and they're serious.

And they are not going to get

any better unless we all help.

Energy conservation is not just

a Band-Aid solution.

It is the only means

that we have

to keep our economy

and environment healthy.

They tell us we must learn

to live with less,

and teach our children

that their lives

will be less full and prosperous

than ours have been,

that the America of the coming

years will be a place where,

because of our past excesses,

it will be impossible

to dream and make

those dreams come true.

I don't believe that.

And I don't believe

you do, either.

That's why I'm seeking

the presidency.

I cannot and will not stand by

and see this great country

destroy itself.

Our leaders attempt

to blame their failures

on circumstances

beyond their control,

on false estimates by unknown,

unidentifiable experts,

who rewrite modern history

in an attempt to convince us

our high standard of living--

the result

of thrift and hard work-- is

somehow selfish extravagance,

which we must renounce

as we join in sharing scarcity.

I am, I am much more aware now

than I was earlier

of the role of personalities.

Who you elect as president

of the United States,

and frankly president of a dozen

other countries, really matters.

With the right president

and the right policies

cued up and ready to be

put into place,

we could have done

something significant.

It was a major failure

of my generation

that we didn't get that done.

There you go again.

For reasons that I just

cannot begin to comprehend,

Reagan did his very best

to completely shut down

the renewable energy effort.

Uh, in the instance

of the institute that I led,

he reduced our budget

by more the 80%,

fired half of the staff

and fired all

of our contractors,

two of whom subsequently

went on to win Nobel Prizes.

It was just devastating.

But for one year,

we did have within it

an element

of a very good energy policy.

It's morning again in America.

And under the leadership

of President Reagan,

our country is prouder

and stronger and better.

Why would we ever want to return

to where we were?

The Reagan White House

has finally dismantled

the last vestiges

of the Carter Administration.

Workmen have now taken down

the solar water heating system

installed on the White House

roof in 1979.

We lost 30 years.

We lost 30 years

because both sides

ossified into their ideologies.

And if we've learned anything,

it's that we're in this

together.

We still have a lot of options,

if we haven't passed

the tipping point.

And this is where the science

starts getting a little scary.

No external force is

imposing these environmental

problems on us.

They have arisen

because every morning

six billion people get up

and have breakfast

and go to work

and do their thing

and come home at night,

you know?

Environmental problems emerge

out of daily life

and the solutions

for the environmental problems

are also rooted in daily life.

We need six billion people

to get up

and have a different

consciousness

and do things differently.

Is that realistic?

Probably not.

But it is at least the hope,

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