Second Nature President Anthony Cortese Delivers UMPI Commencement Address

Dear President Zillman and trustees, faculty and staff of UMPI, parents and families of the Class of 2011, members of the Greater Presque Isle and northern Maine community, and, most importantly, the Class of 2011:  it is a great honor to be present at this extraordinary rite of passage for the best and the brightest of our future leaders, professionals and leading citizens.

It is great to be back in Presque Isle.  I was first here in 1969 for another honor as the best man at the wedding of Marsha Bishop of Presque Isle and David Fletcher of Machias who met at Tufts and are here today.  Marsha’s parents and grandparents were UMPI graduates.  Marsha’s mother, Marjorie, UMPI Class of ’42 is also here today.  Welcome, Marjorie.

Class of 2011, we are here to celebrate your incredible accomplishment – you have mastered the knowledge, skills and values that earn you society’s recognition in a formal and permanent way and that will allow you to be life-long learners, productive leaders in society and to continue the greatest experiment in world history – a democratically governed society.

In 1968 I sat where you are today.  Like many of you, I was the first member of my immediate family to attend college and my parents were very proud.  But the future was not rosy - the world, as we knew it, was in great turmoil.  We were experiencing race riots in big cities. The destructive and unpopular Vietnam War was in full swing.  Two great leaders were assassinated – Martin Luther King in April and Bobby Kennedy three days before our graduation.  Campuses across the country were disrupted by student protests about the direction of society.  The immense destruction and pollution of the natural world was just emerging.  And the prospects for a good job and a career seemed to be a fading and impossible dream for college graduates.

From that inauspicious start, the U.S. recovered and enacted some of the most enduring and successful societal innovations in history that improved the rights and opportunities of all citizens, protected our precious life support system, ensured the health care for all seniors and the most disadvantaged of our citizens. The economy grew 3-4 fold with unexpected scientific, technological and social revolutions in every area of society – think biotech, the Internet, laptop computers, cell phones, Facebook and Twitter.  The world population grew from 2.5 billion to 6.8 billion people.  Democracy triumphed over communism in Russia and Eastern Europe while China, India and Southeast Asian countries have become full-fledged industrial economic players.  More people today experience a better quality of life than anytime in history.  Advanced skills, knowledge and entrepreunerial drive have become critical in successful navigation of this world.

What kind of world are you entering?
You are now entering a society in which humanity is at crossroads without historical precedent. Because of the extraordinary and exponential growth of population and of the technologically based economic system - especially since the mid 20th century - humans have become pervasive and dominant forces in the health and well being of the earth and its inhabitants. All living systems are in long-term decline and declining at an accelerating rate. Some geologists have dubbed this geologic time the Anthropocene era. At the same time, 3.2 billion people lack sanitation and earn less than $2.50 per day and the gap between rich and poor in every country in the world (including the U.S.) is growing. And, despite what you may hear in the chatter of the news media, we have begun the permanent disruption of the climate and acidification of the ocean - largely from the burning of fossil fuels - that will surely undermine the complex civilization of which we are a part.

This is a civilizational, not an environmental problem. The planet will survive as long as the sun keeps shining. It is about how we can ensure that all current and future humans will be healthy, live in strong, thriving, secure communities, have meaningful and productive work on a finite planet whose capacity to support all life is precarious and will reach a population of 9 billion in the next 35-40 years.

As Einstein famously said, “We cannot solve today’s problems at the same level of thinking at which they were first created.” Some minor modification of business as usual will not work. The scientific consensus among earth systems scientists is that if everyone lived like the average Westerner we would need 3-4 planets to continually supply all resources and provide critical ecosystem services including conversion of waste products into useful substances. The Defense Department has stated recently that the biggest threats to our future are climate change, population growth, water shortages, food availability and prices and failing states, not just armed aggression.

While this is a sobering description of where we are, it is not a prediction of where we can or will be if we put our minds, hearts and backs to it.

Join me, now, on a journey of hope, possibility and opportunity. Imagine a society in which all present and future humans are healthy and have their basic needs met. Imagine you are the future scientists, engineers and business people designing technology and economic activities that sustain the natural environment and enhance human health and well being operating completely on solar/renewable energy. Imagine that we move away from a linear “take, make, waste” industrial system to a circular production and consumption system in which the concept of "waste" is eliminated because every waste product is a raw material or nutrient for another species or activity, or returned into the cycles of nature. This is the way nature operates. As an example of the importance of this new industrial model, a University of Florida engineering class recently determined that there is 30 times as much gold in a ton of used cell phones than in the most concentrated virgin ore.

Imagine that you, as developers, lawyers, fisherman, foresters and farmers, are managing human activities in a way that uses natural resources only at the rate that they can self-regenerate – the ideas embodied in sustainable forestry, fishing and agriculture. Farmers have had this understanding for centuries – you don’t eat your seed corn. By doing so, we could live off of nature’s “interest”, not its capital, for generations to come. These are the concepts of biomimicry – learning from and imitating nature. These concepts are being pursued in one form or another in thousands of businesses.

Imagine that you, as scientists, accountants, mathematicians and health specialists, help us understand where all resources come from, where all pollution and wastes go and what impact they have as well as the true cost of our daily living. Our current ecological, health and social footprint is largely invisible to most of us and not reflected in the price of most products and services. As an example, it took a few thousand pounds of solid materials from around the world to make my 5.5 pound laptop computer, most of which went to waste before I received the computer. The best estimates of the true life cycle health, social and ecological cost of a gallon of gasoline, for example, is between $8 and $12 including the amount we spend on defense to keep the oil flowing from parts of the world that are hostile to our way of life.

Now, imagine that you, as lawyers, economists, ethicists, religious leaders and government officials, are working on policies to ensure that all current and future generations are able to pursue meaningful work and have the opportunity to realize their full human potential both personally and socially. Imagine that you as planners, social workers, sociologists and community officials are working to make communities strong and vibrant because they celebrate cultural diversity, are designed to encourage collaboration and participation in governance and emphasize the quality of life over the consumption of stuff. Overpopulation and overconsumption are the biggest impediments to living sustainably on a finite planet. We need you, as artists, psychologists and humanists, as much as we need scientists and engineers to make the transition to sustainability.

Imagine that you, as teachers, are embedding these principles in education at all levels. Imagine you, as health specialists and nutritionists, are helping promote wellness and prevent illness through exercise, nutrition and careful consumption and other lifestyle habits. Imagine that you as historians have taught us how past societies have succeeded or failed to guide our current and future world. Imagine that you, as librarians, are helping provide access to the best information that will help all professionals and the public understand and live by these principles. Imagine that you, as journalists and public relations specialists, are helping translate the complex ideas embodied in this new vision for the public to be able to make informed decisions.

Can we do this? Yes, because we must (“Necessity is the mother of invention”) and we are already moving in this direction. A growing consensus of business, government, labor and other leaders around the world believe that a “clean, green economy” based on these principles is the only way to grow the economy, create tens of millions of jobs, help solve global health and environmental problems and have a chance at creating geopolitical stability and justice. It was this kind of revolutionary thinking that got DuPont to reduce heat-trapping emissions by 72% since 1990 and save $4 billion and Interface, the world’s largest modular carpet manufacturer, completely dependent on fossil fuels with and annual sales of $1.2 billion, to save $430 million in waste reduction and reduce greenhouse gases by 90% in 10 years. Ray Anderson, Chairman and Founder of Interface, has said that they might not be in business today if they had not made these changes.

Architects, engineers, planners, landscapers and health specialists are collaborating in unprecedented ways to design and renovate buildings that use 70% less energy than a conventional building, provide a lot of natural light, use little toxic construction materials and furnishing, improve ventilation, conserve water, improve the health and productivity of occupants, make their own electricity and manage their own wastes and reduce operating costs over the life of the building by an order or two of magnitude – all at the same or lower cost to build. That is what we call a win-win-win solution. Business entrepreneurs and engineers have helped grow wind and solar powered electricity (though still a small part of the total generation) 20-30% every year for a decade. Texas is the largest producer and user of wind energy of the states. They have in place, under construction and under development over the next 15 years to produce enough wind power to provide 90% of residential electricity in Texas.

Thanks in large part to you, as students, colleges and universities have greatly accelerated their efforts to provide you with the knowledge and skills you need to implement this vision and have been modeling sustainable behavior on their campuses and working with local communities. One of the greatest examples of leadership by higher education is the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. It is an accountable commitment to rapidly reduce and eventually eliminate or neutralize campus greenhouse gas emissions and to develop the capability of students to help all of society do the same. Begun in early 2007 with 12 colleges and universities, today 675 colleges and universities in all 50 states and the District of Columbia covering 35% of the student population have made this unprecedented commitment. Every type of institution from 2-year community colleges to the biggest research universities is participating.

I am pleased to say that UMPI was one of the charter signatories and that all University of Maine institutions are participating. In fact, 75% of Maine’s students are enrolled at a member institution – a rate higher than any other state.

You, as students, should be especially proud of what you have helped UMPI do in making and implementing this commitment. Its nationally recognized wind turbine – the first of its size in the state – is an open lab and model for the greater Presque Isle community. It is a source of education for UMPI, Northern Maine Community College and the community and is saving UMPI over $100,000 annually in electricity costs. When combined with the solar panels on the main campus building and conversion of the oil boiler to wood and biomass this year, UMPI will reduce its greenhouse gases by over 50%. There is a special importance to this early action. The greenhouse gas impact on the climate system is non-linear in impact. It takes 30-50 years for the gases to have their full effect in the atmosphere and on the oceans. Thus, emission reductions early on are extremely important in slowing down the rate of climate change. Most impressively, all this work is involving local businesses and helping the local economy.

Some have said that this revolution in thinking and action is impractical, too hard or impossible. What we must do is make the impractical or seemingly impossible inevitable just as President Kennedy did in getting us to the Moon. The earth does not recognize how hard it is for us humans to change. It will respond to the physical changes we cause on its own schedule and in its own ways.

You have the power to do this. Many people will tell you as graduating students to follow the market in terms of where the jobs and opportunities are. That is too narrow a view. Markets don’t make themselves. People make markets. You can make the market, the community and the world that you want.

As you take over this torch, remember to participate in the governance of society - it is crucial for this vision and your future. Democracy is not some kind of natural condition - it is an anomaly in history. It requires the same demanding mix of intellect, imagination and ethics as does the education that makes it possible. Left to its own devices, governance (as is happening now) will become dominated by professional politicians, experts, special interests and zealots. Democracy is not a spectator sport!

The time for action is now. Every day the world adds over 200,000 new mouths to feed, house and clothe. I hope that you rise to the occasion.

I wish you the best of luck. You can change the world for yourself and others. As Margaret Mead famously said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." My father would have put it like this: “If you think you are too small to make a difference, you have never been alone in a tent with a mosquito!”