What If We’ve Got What it Takes?
What if Light Emitting Diodes (okay call them “LED’s”)
Enlighten us so ubiquitously that
Kids these days
Never heard of compact fluorescent or incandescent lamps
Let alone whale oil?
DONE!
What if Indigenous nations show the rest of us
How to confront oil pipelines and open pit mines
Raise buffalo for the good of the land
House people in hempcrete and recover brownfields
And treat wolves, water, and mountains as relatives?
WORK IN PROGRESS
What if our homes are routinely insulated?
And windows hold heat in on a cold day?
And thermostats turn up and down automatically as needed?
What if Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design projects
Elevate the building efficiency of a planet?
DONE!
What if deep-drilled geothermal wells
Using microwave technology
Disrupt and displace – in place
Thousands of coal, nuclear and gas-fired power plants?
And abscond with their transmission lines too?
WORK IN PROGRESS
What if technologists and governments coax and cajole
Electricity from the Sun and wind persistently enough
That windmills and solar panels grow out on their own
Across coastal seabeds, rooftops, community commons
And nouveau rich farms and ranches from Iowa to Texas
DONE!
What if electric vehicle panache
And their batteries and charging stations
Wow just enough customers
To relegate carbon hungry piston engines and their hosts
To museums and circus side shows?
WORK IN PROGRESS
What if we implemented laws to
Set aside wilderness, protect endangered species,
Clean up toxic dumps and drinking water?
How about we demolish two thousand dams
For the good of nature?
DONE!
What if front yards grow vegetables instead of grass?
And folks shop first at cooperatives and farmers markets?
And climate friendly perennials grace most meals?
Could “regenerative” supersede “organic” and “Non-GMO”
As the gold star certification for food?
WORK IN PROGRESS
What if we cleaned up and returned fish to
The Cuyahoga River, the Hudson River
The Thames, the Rhine, the Rhone
The Willamette River, and the Los Angeles River?
Lake Erie too?
DONE!
What if we let California, New York,
Hawaii and Vermont
Show us how to control, redirect, and apply corporate greed
On behalf of the people who
Thrive in a kind new world?
WORK IN PROGRESS
Jon R. Biemer
April 2025
Stories drawn from Our Environmental Handprints (2021) and Our Journey to Sustainability (2024) by Jon R. Biemer, Rowman & Littlefield. Inspired by What If We Get It Right? (2024) by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, One World.
