The Future of Energy: Can We Achieve a Just Transition?
Bioneers | Published: March 13, 2025 Ecological Design Article
We live in turbulent times on many fronts. The reality of life under a federal government that was bought and paid for by extractive industry is crashing up against a booming energy transition that has been earnestly underway for a decade. Renewable energy provides nearly a third of electricity globally and it is forecast to continue to grow, largely due to basic economics: it is simply cheaper to install these technologies. But even renewable electricity isn’t a panacea, and risks remain as some of the same players and structures that built the grey economy begin to angle for a piece of the new green economy. Behind all of this, of course, is a global climate system that pays little attention to politics or economics, and the impacts of our supercharged atmosphere are increasingly being felt on a daily basis.
Understanding and parsing the complexity of our current resource situation is a challenging task. In this week’s newsletter, we hear from brilliant movement scholars about the pathway to a just transition for clean energy, from a leading philosopher on the moral implications of using water for fracking gas extraction, and join an extraordinary writer and activist as he delves into risks of a potentially dangerous fossil-fuel technology known as carbon capture and storage.
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‘Charging Forward’: The Promise and Perils of Lithium Development in Imperial Valley
California’s Salton Sea region is home to some of the worst environmental health conditions in the country. Recently, however, it has also become ground zero in the new “lithium gold rush”—the race to power the rapidly expanding electric vehicle and renewable energy storage market. The immense quantities of lithium lurking beneath the surface have led to predictions that the region could provide a third of global demand. But who will benefit from the development of this precious resource?
In this excerpt from “Charging Forward: Lithium Valley, Electric Vehicles, and a Just Future,” co-authors Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor examine the valley’s history, the economic and social structures behind its agricultural boom, and how they set the stage for today’s lithium development—raising critical questions about how the next boom will impact those who live and work in the valley.
When Water Becomes a Weapon: Fracking, Climate Change, and the Violation of Human Rights
Water sustains our living world, but as environmental advocate, moral philosopher and award-winning author Kathleen Dean Moore writes, it can also be a dark and dangerous thing. In the following essay, Moore, Distinguished Philosophy Professor Emerita at Oregon State University, examines the impact of fracking on this precious element. The essay, “When Water Becomes a Weapon: Fracking, Climate Change, and the Violation of Human Rights,” is an excerpt from volume three, “Water,” of the five-volume anthology series “Elementals” from the Center for Humans & Nature.
Keynote Speaker Spotlight: Wade Crowfoot – Natural Resources Secretary – State of California
Wade Crowfoot, on the frontlines of environmental leadership throughout his long career in the public and non-profit sectors, California’s Natural Resources Secretary since 2019, leads efforts to conserve California’s environment and natural resources, overseeing an agency of 25,000+ employees spread across 26 departments, commissions, and conservancies charged with stewarding the state’s forests, natural lands, rivers, water supplies, coasts, wildlife and biodiversity, as well as helping oversee its world-leading clean energy transition, including a commitment to conserve 30% of its land and coastal waters by 2030. Secretary Crowfoot has led efforts to navigate California’s record-breaking droughts, floods, and wildfires and has initiated a new era of partnerships with the state’s Native American tribes.
Catch Crowfoot and other visionary speakers at the 36th annual Bioneers Conference in Berkeley, California, from March 27-29.
A Landscape of Lies: The North Dakota coal town I grew up in is now the world test site for a potentially dangerous fossil fuel technology.
In this essay from Earth Island Journal, author, activist, and Bioneers speaker Taylor Brorby tells of growing up in a North Dakota coal town, where he spent many days fishing on Nelson Lake — a man-made body of water created to help with fossil fuel extraction that sits in the shadow of the Milton R. Young Power Plant. Reflecting on those waters, which because of discharges from the plant never freeze despite the harsh winters of North Dakota, Brorby examines the new fossil fuel technology of carbon capture and the environmental consequences of the underground storage of liquified carbon dioxide. Through personal narrative and investigative insight, Brorby questions the promise of this new technology and the stories we tell ourselves.
Upcoming Bioneers Learning Courses
We’re so excited to share this new season of Bioneers Learning courses! We’ve designed this season of both live and asynchronous courses for leaders like you — those who seek empathetic, intersectional conversations with leading activists and experts on the issues you are passionate about. Together, we will reimagine philanthropy, learn to harness nature’s timeless strategies to drive social transformation and build emotional resilience for frontline activism.
- Reweaving the Dream of Our Future: How to Tell Powerful Stories to Change the World | April 10-May 1, 2025 | This course is designed for those who feel called to harness the power of storytelling to inspire personal and collective change. Together, we will explore how to be effective storytellers and how to communicate a vision of what’s possible.
- EveryWoman’s Leadership: Cultivating Ourselves for Full-Spectrum Flourishing | April 16-May 7, 2025 | Guided by Bioneers co-founder Nina Simons, this four-week experiential program invites women, female-identifying individuals, and allies into a transformative space to cultivate inner awareness, relational intelligence, and clarity of purpose.
- Biomimicry for Social Innovation: Nature’s Lessons for Movement Leaders | May 13-June 3, 2025 | This four-week experiential course reveals how biomimicry—a practice that draws on the genius of ecosystems—can inform leadership, partnership building, and decision-making for lasting, regenerative change.
- The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times | Self-Paced | Discover how the Four Sacred Gifts of forgiving the unforgivable, unity, healing, and hope in action provide us with a path to our most grounded, loving, healed, and generous selves.
- Regenerative Agriculture: Nourishing the Soil, Healing the Planet | Self-Paced | Be enlightened on the practical applications and impressive potential that regenerative agriculture has to revive healthy landscapes; contribute to human and animal health; create an equitable food system; and help heal the climate.