Clean

Chapter 1THE CALL FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLD

Tó éí iiná (Water is Life)

—Navajo saying

Amid the chaos, fear, and confusion of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, something unforeseen appeared: clean air. People around the globe found themselves in various states of lockdown as offices, restaurants, schools, theaters, and almost everything else shut down. With nowhere for drivers to go, the number of cars on the road plummeted. The result? Global levels of PM 2.5, the particulate matter that generates haze in both skies and lungs, declined by 30–40% and concentrations of the nasty pollutant sulfur dioxide fell 25–60% worldwide.¹ In the crazy days of spring 2020, people from Tokyo to Tacoma, and from Boston to Buenos Aires breathed easier during the first months of a policy-induced global economic coma.

That global breath of fresh air reinforced two prevailing ideas about building a sustainable economy, in terms of both ecological renewal and human health. The first cemented the notion that dramatically reducing, if not eliminating, the fossil-fuel-powered internal combustion engine is an essential element. The second emerged from our collective consciousness as we experienced the outside world through Apple's Facetime, Facebook, Skype, Teams, or Zoom: digital technology would pave a golden road to a more sustainable world.

The pandemic experience validated the first idea; the second, less so. Consumer-facing apps from Amazon through Zillow can reduce travel, fuel ...