transforming the building stock of every continent into micro-power plants to collect renewable energies on-site.The five pillars of the Third Industrial Revolution are: That’s because each pillar can only function in relationship to the others.
Like every other communication and energy infrastructure in history, the various pillars of a Third Industrial Revolution must be laid down simultaneously or the foundation will not hold. The establishment of a Third Industrial Revolution infrastructure will create thousands of new businesses and millions of jobs, and lay the basis for a sustainable global economy in the 21st century. This is now being implemented by the various agencies within the European Commission, as well as in the member states. Then, in May 2007, the European Parliament issued a formal written declaration endorsing the Third Industrial Revolution as the long-term economic vision and road map for the European Union (EU). In 2006, I began working with the leadership of the European Parliament in drafting a Third Industrial Revolution economic development plan. The democratization of energy will bring with it a fundamental reordering of human relationships, impacting the very way we conduct business, govern society, educate our children, and engage in civic life. In the coming era, hundreds of millions of people will produce their own green energy in their homes, offices, and factories, and share it with each other in an “energy Internet,” just like we now create and share information online. Internet technology and renewable energies were about to merge to create a powerful new infrastructure for a Third Industrial Revolution that would change the world. In the mid-1990s, it dawned on me that a new convergence of communication and energy was in the offing. In the 20th century, electronic communications - the telephone and later, radio and television - became the communication medium to manage and market the oil-powered auto age and the mass consumer culture of the Second Industrial Revolution. In the 19th century, steam-powered print technology became the communication medium to manage the coal-fired rail infrastructure and the incipient national markets of the First Industrial Revolution. The accompanying communication revolutions become the means to organize and manage the new temporal and spatial dynamics that arise from new energy systems. New energy regimes make possible the creation of more interdependent economic activity and expanded commercial exchange, as well as facilitating more dense and inclusive social relationships. I came to realize that the great economic revolutions in history occur when new communication technologies converge with new energy systems. For the past 30 years, I have been searching for a new paradigm that could usher in a post-carbon era. A new convergence of communication and energyīy the 1980s, the evidence was mounting that the fossil fuel-driven industrial revolution was peaking and that human-induced climate change was forcing a planetary crisis of untold proportions. It is becoming increasingly clear that we need a new economic narrative that can take us into a more equitable and sustainable future. We may be on the brink of a mass extinction of plant and animal life by the end of the century, imperilling our own species’ ability to survive. Our scientists warn that we face a potentially cataclysmic change in the temperature and chemistry of the planet, which threatens to destabilize ecosystems around the world. Worse, climate change from fossil fuel-based industrial activity looms on the horizon. A record one billion human beings - nearly one seventh of the human race - face hunger and starvation. Governments, businesses and consumers are awash in debt, and living standards are plummeting everywhere. The result is that unemployment is rising to dangerous levels all over the world.
The entire industrial infrastructure built on fossil fuels is ageing and in disrepair. Oil and the other fossil fuel energies that make up the industrial way of life are dwindling, and the technologies made from and propelled by these energies are antiquated.
Our industrial civilization is at a crossroads. Economist Jeremy Rifkin explains how the five pillars of a third energy-communications revolution will create the foundations for the next great wave of economic growth. Internet technology and renewable energies are merging to create a powerful new infrastructure.
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