David Morris

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Unlike some in the anti-globalization movement, Morris is an unapologetic advocate for new technology, which he sees as an important tool for keeping things local and small. Take his plan to replace petroleum, which causes global warming and keeps us captive to oil imports, with plant-based fuels and plastics. Outlandish? Not at all, he explains. In 1941, Henry Ford unveiled a prototype of a car made entirely of plant products: a fuel tank filled with ethanol made from corn, a body fabricated from plastic made from soybeans, tires fabricated from goldenrod. We have stuck with fossil fuels, Morris says, not because of their innate superiority, but because of political deals favoring petroleum interests.

Though the forces of globalization seem to pull us ever farther from the brand of radical common sense Morris offers, he can claim significant victories. His book on what’s wrong with electrical deregulation and what we can do to fix it, Seeing the Light: Regaining Control of Our Electricity System, presaged the devastating California energy crisis. So it would be a mistake to dismiss his other ideas, like substituting grain fields for oil wells or thoughtfully redesigning society’s rules to enhance community. What’s radical today may become the conventional wisdom that shapes the course of the next century.

From the book Visionaries: People and Ideas to Change Your Life ($17.95 Utne Reader Books/New Society Publishers). Call 1-800-880-utne or visit your local bookstore. 

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