By Matthew Myer Boulton, Originally Published in The Monadnock Shopper News, Green Monadnock column, June 2026.
Future historians will say many things about the age we’re living through on planet Earth, but one of the top headlines – arguably the most important story of them all – is the ongoing global transition to clean energy. Many are making this transition because of climate concerns, but as it turns out, there are at least three other powerful reasons to consider – and they might surprise you.
Here in New England, we know a few things about energy revolutions. The millponds we kayak and swim in remind us of the eighteenth-century water power revolution; the coal silos near Emerald Street in Keene remind us of the nineteenth-century coal revolution; and the eye-popping gas prices these days remind us of the twentieth-century revolution toward oil and natural gas. And now, yet another energy revolution is upon us: the shift to renewable, cleaner energy sources, such as solar and wind.
What’s driving the change? Many understand that burning fossil fuels is wrapping the Earth in a heat-trapping blanket of pollution – and an overheated planet means more extreme weather, more extreme vulnerability, more ecosystem damage, more species extinctions, and more political and social unrest.
But set all that aside for a moment, and consider the argument from human health. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, about 1 in 10 deaths on Earth were attributable to COVID-19, and in order to combat it, we essentially closed down much of the global economy and profoundly transformed our lives. But the pollution created by the burning of fossil fuels contains tiny particles we breathe into our lungs, creating respiratory, pulmonary, and other diseases. A recent Harvard University study found that a staggering 1 in 5 deaths on Earth today can be attributed to our use of fossil fuels.
In other words, we are currently living with an ongoing health catastrophe on the scale of COVID-19. Imagine what we would do today if a new pathogen emerged that caused death at that kind of scale! For health reasons alone, we must do all we can to advance the clean energy transition as boldly and swiftly as possible.
But wait, there’s more. A third argument focuses on economics. A primary reason why we are prosperous in this country is precisely because of those millponds and coal silos and gas stations: our ancestors were at the cutting edge of what were then new-fangled forms of energy – and whoever’s out front on energy and technology reaps economic benefits.
But this time around, we are rapidly being left behind. The cheapest way to produce a kilowatt of electricity today is to produce it through solar or wind, and China is way ahead of us on both fronts. The past is prologue: whoever leads an energy revolution becomes prosperous. For economic reasons alone, we must do all we can to advance the clean energy transition.
But set aside climate and environmental concerns. Set aside human health. Set aside economics. There’s still at least one more compelling case. Even a complete climate skeptic who doesn’t care about health or prosperity should still be an enthusiastic supporter of the transition to clean energy. Why?
National security. Sunshine and wind don’t get stuck in the Strait of Hormuz. And as we are seeing in the tragic, illegal wars in both Ukraine and Iran, the present and future of warfare is electronic. Those drones aren’t being powered by internal combustion engines; they’re being powered by batteries, as are their remote controllers, along with all the other battery-powered devices our armed forces rely on today and tomorrow.
And here’s the thing: no country will be secure if an adversary is producing their batteries. We need a robust, homegrown battery industry in the United States, and the only way to make such an industry viable is to have it produce commercial products as well, such as batteries for electric vehicles or for home use (ideally charged up by solar panels!).
So let’s get after it: for the sake of our climate, for the sake of our health, for the sake of our economy, and for the sake of our national security. Think of the broad political coalition this kind of thinking could rally and mobilize. The time has come! Clean energy now!
Co-founder and creative director at SALT Project, an Emmy-winning film production company based in Keene, New Hampshire, Matthew Myer Boulton is an author, teacher, filmmaker, and vice-chair of the Hub. A graduate of Northwestern University, Harvard Divinity School, and the University of Chicago Divinity School, he has served on the faculty of Harvard Divinity School and seminaries in New England and the Midwest. Much of his teaching and research focuses on the intersections of the sciences and the humanities, with an emphasis on ecology and sustainable forms of human life. He also co-coordinates the grassroots Clean Energy Team in Keene, New Hampshire.