This Is Lateral Power

What happens when an Internet revolution merges with a renewable energy revolution? Jeremy Rifkin, author of 19 books on the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment and adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, speaks about a new Third Industrial Revolution - one based on a distributed, lateral power. The result may just be a sustainable world.

Footage provided by fellow advocates for a sustainable word:

HOME (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU&feature=watch-now-button&w...)

The Revolution Is Love (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRtc-k6dhgs)

Mike Myers Visits Occupy Wall Street (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGfUn7EZ69w&feature=related)

EARTH-One video you NEED to see (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thuViaxRd_w)

KONY 2012 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc)

BARAKA (http://www.spiritofbaraka.com/baraka)

TEAM BeauSoleil Takes First for Market Viability (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twvYpBbJbCg)

The Venus Project: Paradise or Oblivion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KphWsnhZ4Ag)

AREVA Energy Storage & Distribution Technology (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rxTDS0Wl04)

Sacred Economics (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEZkQv25uEs)

Cisco Smart Grid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGk13U_kgGM)

Double Tap demo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxniuiKrnFM)

Spring Is Here for OWS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s78RiYt0Lgk&feature=player_embedded

& of course: Jeremy Rifkin Speaks Out on behalf of the 99%http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5VA1g6yFS8

Sustainable Man logo and "Mickey Mouse" sustainability circle animations by Immanel Morales: http://www.movingartwork.net/

Music:
"Paradise" and "Paradise Instrumental" by Coldplay (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6ZWlDks0nQ)

FAIR USE NOTICE: This video may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes only. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 106A-117 of the US Copyright Law.

All over the world

millions of young people took to the streets.

and they were joined by their parents' generation

and their grandparents' generation.

and they spoke with a single voice

and what they said was clear and compelling:

"It's our turn. We're a new generation. We want a new vision for the future."

"There's something unfair in the way this world is organized."

Why is it there are no jobs for young people?

Why is it that the economy is collapsing?

Why is it that this beautiful planet that we live in is deteriorating

and we are now threatened as never before?

We are ending a great industrial era based on fossil fuels.

When oil went up to $147 dollars a barrel a few years ago on world markets

all the other prices in the world went up

because everything is made out of fossil fuels-

pesticides, fertilizers, construction materials,

power, transport, heat, light-all of it.

First we need to understand that the second industrial revolution based on fossil fuels

is now sunsetting.

The energies are getting too expensive- coal, oil, gas, uranium-

and now the technologies based on those energies, they're very old

They have no multiply effect.

The entire infrastructure of this civilization based on these carbon fuels

is now on life support.

Fossil fuels are the most elite energies in the world.

They're not found everywhere, they're only found in a few places.

So they require huge military investments to secure them.

They require massive finance capital from banks

to organize them from the well-head to the final user.

The result is the second industrial revolution has created a top-down, centralized

energy regime and economic structure unparalleled in history.

and today, at the end of this second industrial revolution

3 of the 5 largest companies in the world are global energy companies

and underneath these companies are the large banks that finance

this second industrial revolution energy infrastructure

and underneath the banks are 500 or so global companies

who feed off the oil spigot

from telecommunications to transport.

and when we put this all together it's shocking to realize

that these 500 companies

make up a third of the GDP of the entire world.

So we've created this very very centralized, elite

second industrial revolution energy and technology infrastructure

and now as we end this age in history

one percent of the population that's controlled this pyramid

has benefited immensely and 99 percent of the population

that's at the bottom of this pyramid has been disenfranchised and is getting poorer and poorer

What do we do?

We need a new way to organize society

based on justice, equity, and sustainability.

When communication and energy revolutions come together

they change economic history

they change the way power is distributed.

We're on the cusp of a great new communications/energy convergence

a third industrial revolution.

and what is so interesting about the internet

is that this electricity communication is very different from the one I grew up on in the 20th century

I grew up on telephones, radio, television

centralized, organized, top-down

by contrast, the internet revolution is organized very differently.

It's distributed, it's collaborative.

Millions of young people come together in vast networks and they exercise

Lateral Power.

This internet communications revolution is just now

beginning to merge with a new energy regime

and we transform the entire electricity grid of the world

to an energy internet

so when millions and millions of buildings are collecting green energy on site

storing that energy in hydrogen like we stored media in digital

and then if you don't need some of that energy and some of your neighbors do

your software can direct your energy across an energy internet

and you can share it across continents.

This is power to the people.

This is lateral power.

(People chanting) "This is what democracy looks like!"

The music companies--they didn't understand file sharing music

When millions and millions of young people

began to create software to distribute and collaborate and share their music in vast networks

the music companies thought it was a joke

Then the music companies went out of business.

The newspapers didn't understand the blogosphere

and now the newspapers are creating blogs and going out of business.

As powerful as these changes are

in the social spaces of the internet

when the internet joins with renewable energy it's a 100 times more powerful

because it changes the political landscape, fundamentally.

Ask this question:

Does this institutional behavior whether it's government, business, education-

is this institutional behavior centralized, patriarchal, top-down?

Is it closed? Is it proprietary?

Or is this institutional behavior distributed?

Is it collaborative?

Is it open and transparent?

Is it lateral power?

This is the new politics of a new generation.

Lateral power brings with it a much more equitable distribution of the fruits of society.

Because when millions and millions of people are sharing

their energy, their resources, their economic wealth

we create a good quality of life.

Nobody's left behind.

We all become entrepreneurs, but we all collaborate in social networks.

This is the way a decent, humane economy should operate on this planet.

Then we won't have the 99 percent versus the one.

We'll have the 100 percent

living together in a just and sustainable world.

So my hope

for this young generation

point the way.

Direct us into a new future

One that we can be proud of because we've shared the great fruits of this planet.

We've protected the interests of our fellow creatures.

We've preserved this earth for future generations.

We've made a better world.