In the video, “Building: A New Green Economy” by David Orr, he discusses how before our economic downturn, we were much more wealthy than we thought, and we lost it all very quickly. As a result, Orr wants to find environmental alternatives quickly and in inexpensive ways in order to withstand any problems presented in the future. Currently 7 billion tons of carbon are released into the air each year and the amount of carbon eliminated per dollar spent will either make or break our strive to obtain alternative energy resources. The author all states how we must become more self efficient and find new technology to start a new revolution and bring us back to prosperity and fairness. The main argument that he presents in the video is the need to bring all levels of sustainability into one project containing agriculture, urban renewal, education, and climate neutrality. The way this will happen is by having a downtown be a large part of the driving economy and build a green belt surrounding it. By doing so, we will have a cheap fossil fuel economy and the town will move to carbon neutrality. Orr finally concludes his speech by convincing the audience that we need to envision a better world that is not necessarily that same world we grew up in, but one that will be sustainable for everyone in the future.
