All over the world
millions of young people took to the streets
and they were joined by their parents' generation
and their grandparents' generation
and they spoke with a single voice
and what they said was clear and compelling:
"It's our turn. We're a new generation. We want a new vision for the future."
"There's something unfair in the way this world is organized."
Why is it there are no jobs for young people?
Why is it that the economy is collapsing?
Why is it that this beautiful planet that we live in is deteriorating
and we are now threatened as never before?
We are ending a great industrial era based on fossil fuels.
When oil went up to $147 dollars a barrel a few years ago on world markets
all the other prices in the world went up
because everything is made out of fossil fuels-
pesticides, fertilizers, construction materials,
power, transport, heat, light - all of it.
First we need to understand that the second industrial revolution based on fossil fuels
is now sunsetting.
The energies are getting too expensive- coal, oil, gas, uranium-
and now the technologies based on those energies, they're very old
They have no multiply effect.
The entire infrastructure of this civilization based on these carbon fuels
is now on life support.
Fossil fuels are the most elite energies in the world.
They're not found everywhere, they're only found in a few places.
So they require huge military investments to secure them.
They require massive finance capital from banks
to organize them from the well-head to the final user.
The result is the second industrial revolution has created a top-down, centralized
energy regime and economic structure unparalleled in history.
And today, at the end of this second industrial revolution
3 of the 5 largest companies in the world are global energy companies
and underneath these companies are the large banks that finance
this second industrial revolution energy infrastructure
and underneath the banks are 500 or so global companies
who feed off the oil spigot
from telecommunications to transport.
and when we put this all together it's shocking to realize
that these 500 companies
make up a third of the GDP of the entire world.
So we've created this very very centralized, elite
second industrial revolution energy and technology infrastructure
and now as we end this age in history
one percent of the population that's controlled this pyramid
has benefited immensely and 99 percent of the population
that's at the bottom of this pyramid has been disenfranchised and is getting poorer and poorer
What do we do?
We need a new way to organize society
based on justice, equity, and sustainability.
When communication and energy revolutions come together
they change economic history
they change the way power is distributed.
We're on the cusp of a great new communications/energy convergence
a third industrial revolution.
and what is so interesting about the internet
is that this electricity communication is very different from the one I grew up on in the 20th century
I grew up on telephones, radio, television
centralized, organized, top-down
by contrast, the internet revolution is organized very differently.
It's distributed, it's collaborative.
Millions of young people come together in vast networks and they exercise
Lateral Power.
This internet communications revolution is just now
beginning to merge with a new energy regime
and we transform the entire electricity grid of the world
to an energy internet
so when millions and millions of buildings are collecting green energy on site
storing that energy in hydrogen like we stored media in digital
and then if you don't need some of that energy and some of your neighbors do
your software can direct your energy across an energy internet
and you can share it across continents.
This is power to the people.
This is lateral power.
(People chanting) "This is what democracy looks like!"
The music companies--they didn't understand file sharing music
When millions and millions of young people
began to create software to distribute and collaborate and share their music in vast networks
the music companies thought it was a joke
Then the music companies went out of business.
The newspapers didn't understand the blogosphere
and now the newspapers are creating blogs and going out of business.
As powerful as these changes are
in the social spaces of the internet
when the internet joins with renewable energy it's a 100 times more powerful
because it changes the political landscape, fundamentally.
Ask this question:
Does this institutional behavior whether it's government, business, education-
is this institutional behavior centralized, patriarchal, top-down?
Is it closed? Is it proprietary?
Or is this institutional behavior distributed?
Is it collaborative?
Is it open and transparent?
Is it lateral power?
This is the new politics of a new generation.
Lateral power brings with it a much more equitable distribution of the fruits of society.
Because when millions and millions of people are sharing
their energy, their resources, their economic wealth
we create a good quality of life.
Nobody's left behind.
We all become entrepreneurs, but we all collaborate in social networks.
This is the way a decent, humane economy should operate on this planet.
Then we won't have the 99 percent versus the one.
We'll have the 100 percent
living together in a just and sustainable world.
So my hope
for this young generation
point the way.
Direct us into a new future
One that we can be proud of because we've shared the great fruits of this planet.
We've protected the interests of our fellow creatures.
We've preserved this earth for future generations.
We've made a better world.