Know any 5th graders? Hard to believe but they’ll celebrate high school graduation in 2025! Now, imagine Prof. Tony Seba* world-renowned author, educator and Stanford University instructor giving the commencement address. It might go something like this.
“Graduates – congratulations for having been born into a singularly unique 18-year period in the history of humankind. What’s so unusual about these 18 years? When you were born, a widely-viewed climate change documentary film had just been released. Suddenly, the potentially devastating climatic effects of burning fossil fuels become a reality to millions of Earth’s inhabitants. It was a concept so overwhelming that addressing it seemed nearly impossible. Fossil fuels powered practically everything. How would we possibly prosper without them?
But as you know, we’re well on our way to doing so. And you’ve had a front row seat as the solution unfolded. Just as you developed from early childhood through your pre-teens and now into early adulthood, so too, a new clean energy system matured.
Your parents experienced a similar bold transformation. Theirs was in communication and information. Imagine, when they were children they were taught “computer skills” with humongous “desktop” computers that required manual input on a keyboard. When they were about your age the smart phone era began permitting instant communication and information anytime anywhere. Landline phones and printed encyclopedia sets became obsolete. And now, how primitive they seem compared to the technology we’re blessed with in 2025.
The same type of “market disruption” happened with clean energy during your lifetime. As a young child, you may remember the novelty of seeing a neighbor install solar panels or of riding in a hybrid car that was partially battery powered. But like the computer, solar energy generation and battery storage technology grew exponentially. As you began high school in 2021 we reached an energy “tipping point.” That’s when local solar-plus-battery-storage energy systems world-wide became less expensive than ANY centrally generated and transmitted energy source. Industrial scale energy generation and transmission became obsolete. Like smart phones, this clean energy paradigm is sweeping the globe powering homes and vehicles. As you celebrate your graduation, the last internal combustion engine factory is shuttering its doors.
Over the course of your lifetime a frightening, seemingly insurmountable energy challenge is being met with clean energy right here, on the only home you’ll ever know where you’re forever…Earthbound.”
*Learn more - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxryv2XrnqM
“Graduates – congratulations for having been born into a singularly unique 18-year period in the history of humankind. What’s so unusual about these 18 years? When you were born, a widely-viewed climate change documentary film had just been released. Suddenly, the potentially devastating climatic effects of burning fossil fuels become a reality to millions of Earth’s inhabitants. It was a concept so overwhelming that addressing it seemed nearly impossible. Fossil fuels powered practically everything. How would we possibly prosper without them?
But as you know, we’re well on our way to doing so. And you’ve had a front row seat as the solution unfolded. Just as you developed from early childhood through your pre-teens and now into early adulthood, so too, a new clean energy system matured.
Your parents experienced a similar bold transformation. Theirs was in communication and information. Imagine, when they were children they were taught “computer skills” with humongous “desktop” computers that required manual input on a keyboard. When they were about your age the smart phone era began permitting instant communication and information anytime anywhere. Landline phones and printed encyclopedia sets became obsolete. And now, how primitive they seem compared to the technology we’re blessed with in 2025.
The same type of “market disruption” happened with clean energy during your lifetime. As a young child, you may remember the novelty of seeing a neighbor install solar panels or of riding in a hybrid car that was partially battery powered. But like the computer, solar energy generation and battery storage technology grew exponentially. As you began high school in 2021 we reached an energy “tipping point.” That’s when local solar-plus-battery-storage energy systems world-wide became less expensive than ANY centrally generated and transmitted energy source. Industrial scale energy generation and transmission became obsolete. Like smart phones, this clean energy paradigm is sweeping the globe powering homes and vehicles. As you celebrate your graduation, the last internal combustion engine factory is shuttering its doors.
Over the course of your lifetime a frightening, seemingly insurmountable energy challenge is being met with clean energy right here, on the only home you’ll ever know where you’re forever…Earthbound.”
*Learn more - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxryv2XrnqM
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