US expert warns of need for third industrial revolution
Jeremy Rifkin, the US Wharton Business School’s economic forecasting "guru," expert and economic and energy
advisor to the EU, speaking in Dublin at the Institute of International and European Affairs, warned that EU
governments and leaders in business must make critical changes to how they produce and distribute energy, to combat
the looming oil crisis, rising energy costs and climate change.
Speaking to members of the Institute at an event sponsored by NTR, Rifkin warned that: “To remain dependent of
fossil fuels will have ominous consequences for the future of human civilisation and the ecosystems of the earth.
Every government needs to explore new energy paths and establish new economic models with the goal of achieving as
close to zero carbon emissions as possible.”
“Pivotal economic changes in world history have occurred when new energy regimes converge with new
communications regimes. The First Industrial Revolution occurred when coal powered steam technology came together
with the print press. The Second Industrial Revolution saw the convergence of first generation electrical forms of
communications (telegraph, telephone, radio, etc) with the introduction of oil and the internal combustion
engine.”
“The creation of a renewable energy regime will herald the Third Industrial Revolution. We need to envision a
future in which millions of individuals can produce locally generated renewable energy -- solar, wind, hydro, waves,
biomass, etc -- store that energy in the form of hydrogen and share their power generation across a Europe-wide
intelligent intergrid, through sophisticated IT systems.”
