GREEN Reactor: EnviroNerdalist?

Traditionally, the Nerds were the guys who designed and built all those dirty things like the oil-drilling platforms and the nuke plants and all kinds of nasty stuff wreaking havoc on the planet.  And Environmentalists were the tree-huggers who tried to STOP all that nasty stuff wreaking havoc on the planet.  And never the twain would meet.  Or would it?

Sure, there are still idealist enviros who wouldn’t cut down a tree even to make a space for a sorely needed organic garden.  And there are still self-centered nerds who’d be proud to design a world-record deep-ocean oil rig.  But increasingly the Nerds – especially the younger ones coming of age in our period of global climate crises – are crossing the divide to embrace the GREEN.  How can this be?

Primarily because of pragmatism.  Nerds – pretty much by definition – aren’t stupid.  They can see where the world is headed, and if they have any Nerd-cred at all they give a lot of thought to what they can do to help fix it.  They can see that the Big Dirty Energy culture HAS to end, and so they migrate toward participation in clean projects.  Ultimately they know that without such discretion, their own lifestyles will be headed down the tubes in the throes of Mother Earth’s decline.  In short, THEY GET IT.

You know why Engineering jobs in the non-renewable energy field are the highest paying?  Because youger Nerds are smart enough to stay away from them.  Though the scarcity of applicants drives up the salaries, any Nerd worth his or her stripes prefers keeping it CLEAN.  And indeed there’s good money to be made in many other areas of less toxicity.

Taking it even further, there’s a move toward getting organized. For example, there’s a new ad-hoc group – born out of an Oakland “civic hackathon” — that calls itself Nerds For Nature.  They meet face-to-face in the San Francisco Bay area, but they’re steadily collaborating on such projects as Air Quality Sensors to track pollution, “bioblitzing” natural habitats to inventory species, mapping water resources, even organizing speed-dating fund raisers.  Could this be the start of a new movement?  If not that particular group, there will continue to be pragmatic technical tree-huggers organizing themselves to get us out of this mess we’re in.

On the other hand, there’s still this old-school-think out there that wants to keep the old wedge in place.  Just a few years ago The Economist was stirring things up with reports of “Tree-huggers v nerds”.  In their story about environmentalists fighting against massive new electrical trunk lines, they claimed “Environmentalists have never been a well-mannered lot, according to [nerd] Terry Tamminen, who has advised Arnold Schwarzenegger on climate change.”  And even in a story specifically about them, Rebecca L. Steward claims, “It is often a challenge to get an Environmentalist Nerd to show outward enjoyment such as gay laughter or even a wry smile.”

But that is definitely NOT my experience.  I’ve hung with the gang from Nerdy Show, attended Nerdapalooza, and lived a life of nerdity.  I’ve found PLENTY of fun-loving, caring and concerned environmental nerds out there.  And my observations tell me that the Millennials of the Nerdish-variety ARE the ones who are going to do the work to save our planet. BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO.  They’ll still be here to live on it after us ornery Boomers have returned to the soil.

Just to provide credence for my perspectives on such matters (though I’ve fessed up many times in my columns ) let me profess it again: I AM A NERD — engineering degree, Space Shuttle program, every aspect of programming, virtual reality and AI projects, lotsa lotsa interwebz pursuits (since before Al Gore invented them).  Through it all, it’s been the GREEN in me that has driven me the most.  No doubt about it, I’m an Envronerdist, at your service.  And I’m proud of the other Environerdists paralleling my course – as well as those coming along behind us.  Between us, we’ll get ‘er done.

PS: Want something really nerdy?  How about a free Naturalist app for your smart phone?  You can directly install iNaturalist for Android (here) or iPhone (here).  They both tie into the iNaturalist.org website, which lets you explore and learn more about your natural world, while you help them gather data.  Jump over there to learn more. (You can also connect to me there – I’m greenreactor.)