The International Center for Appropriate Technology or ICAT might be founded on the site of a well-known national laboratory whose primary focus has been the invention and development of weapons of mass destruction. Our deteriorating ecosystems now demand that a Manhattan Project-like crash program be initiated to address global environmental problems. At the source of the present crisis is the high consumption lifestyles of developed countries and decades of shortsighted national foreign policies that emphasized arms sales and military actions instead of programs of environmental restoration and social equity. The ICAT now serves as a world-class research center whose scientific expertise and supercomputers are directed toward fashioning the next generation of environmental technologies.

   This conversion of a military site to a global environmental facility might occur if a global outcry erupted requiring industrial countries to address the continued wanton destruction of the planet's life-support system. A coalition of media-savvy youth groups, religious, environmental and peace organizations might argue that many global social and environmental problems would likely yield to a major scientific research and development effort.  “The world doesn't need more exotic weapons,” they would note in their press releases.  “Rather, the planet’s people and world political stability would be far better served by a program to design and distribute improved cook stoves, cleaner cars, better pollution cleanup technologies, inexpensive water purification systems, organic farming systems and renewable energy power plants.”

      If such a facility were to be built in the United States, the debate would likely spur much heated debate in our presently-anti-environmental Congress. Realistically speaking we would need to elect a President who is strongly aware of the critical state of the planet, and who can serve as a forceful advocate for the proposed conversion plan. And the battle for the minds and hearts of Americans would prove ferocious. Perhaps our greatest reason for hope lies in the young men, women and children of the world. They would need to organize huge gatherings on every continent and swamp the White House and Congress with millions of letters, faxes and e-mail messages as they are the ones who will inherit the Earth and all its problems.

      The youthful millions would need to rally forth. Their platform would be simple: "There is no future in a world awash in deadly weapons and their toxic residues, bereft of natural resources and universally hazardous to the health of all species." They would demand the right to clean water and air, healthy forests, biological and cultural diversity and nontoxic food. They would insist they be afforded the opportunity to realize their own dreams, too — as had their forebears. The decisions made now by those in power, they would warn, would irrevocably determine the future for world youth — whether it would be one of nuclear winter and the resultant grim struggle for basic survival or one of broad opportunity in an environment of natural beauty. The young would have their say in this momentous decision, and they must raise their voice in unison. They must call for life. Certainly, the partial conversion of one U.S. national laboratory would not accomplish all these ambitious goals, but it would be a good beginning, serving as a positive precedent for this and other nations to follow.

      Ideally, a newly elected, environmentally conscious President of the United States would emphasize the readiness of the United States to serve not as a militaristic bully, but as a responsible world leader for environmental restoration and renewal. He would encourage the best and the brightest minds of his country to take up the challenge to build a better world, and he would promise to direct the full force of the American scientific community toward this end. “‘Swords into plowshares’ — this time it's for real," he would say proudly. "Let us begin the ‘Campaign to Restore The Earth.’ It is a noble, necessary pursuit; we must wait no longer — as all of life is now at risk."

A VISIT TO ICAT

A chill wind haphazardly scraped across the mesa top as I approached the International Center for Appropriate Technology. I noticed that the old guard tower, a two-story glass and metal structure, had been replaced by a series of more organic constructions — herb gardens and rustic ponds. Intrigued by the attractive park-like setting, I parked my hydrogen-powered fuel cell Honda and found myself irresistibly drawn toward a simple wood chip path that was bounded by a carefully chosen selection of rounded river stones.

      The serpentine path led me to a large stone circle. In the center rose a six-foot wooden pillar, carved like a totem pole with the faces of different human cultures. Behind the wooden monument, set in a skillfully-mortared rock wall, was a rainbow of tiles depicting the planet Earth from space. Below the globe, I noticed a bronze plaque announcing the founding date of the International Center for Appropriate Technology. The word "Peace" was rendered in several languages. A kind of shrine had also been constructed, and its nonverbal statement was self-evident. I could feel the palpable presence resident here of a deeply-desired human expression for a new, more harmonious world order. It manifested itself in the artifacts of prayerful expression — artfully-bound feathers, offerings of animal fetishes and miscellaneous unique tokens — and also, simply, as just a feeling in the air.

      After spending long, silent minutes at the shrine, I returned to my car and proceeded to drive up Bengal Tiger Boulevard, the old Trinity Drive, the town's main street, to where I knew I’d find the public transportation center. I covered the distance quickly as traffic was light. After parking the car, I boarded the waiting blue and white electric shuttle bus and wondered what experiences awaited me. Inhaling deeply, I relished the rare mountain air while scanning steeply sloping hillsides of green ponderosa pine that marched up to the 11,250 ft. summit above. A truly spectacular setting, I thought. Yet at the same time, I recalled to mind the original founders of the Manhattan Project — J. Robert Oppenheimer and his crew of brilliant, young physicists — so absorbed in the urgency and excitement of those heady times. None could fully imagine the impacts their momentous decisions would have on future generations. And, too, I felt the loss of innocence as humanity crossed that fateful threshold into the Atomic Age. The world would never be the same.

      I pondered this place of contrasts, where nuclear reactors and high-tech research facilities shared grounds once occupied by thriving Indian villages. Occasionally, those remaining Pueblo ruins not bulldozed for lab space, parking lots or chemical and radioactive waste disposal pits, surprised the visitor with their incongruous presence, sometimes appearing mere feet from the busy roadside.

      I looked about the landscape at the bland, monolithic, windowless metal and concrete buildings. They still spoke loudly of their original purpose -- better weapons design. They struck me as reminders of a nation's deepest fears, of political paranoia and power addiction unrestrained. And I thought of the land beneath and surrounding these buildings, forced to serve as an eternal repository of poisonous, radioactive fury. I asked myself: How will future generations judge this place? As being necessary at the time to save American lives and to preserve a democracy? Inevitable, from a human evolutionary standpoint? An effective 65-year deterrent to an all-out global nuclear war? Or an incalculable human, financial and natural resource waste without equal in all of human history?

      Yet, conceivably, with the redirection of this former national laboratory away from weapons design and toward global environmental restoration, an opportunity for national psychological and political transformation might exist. Certainly the past cannot be changed. The contaminated land here will never fully heal in human lifetimes; but human intentions can change, and with that shift can come healing and revelations to ensure a future beneficial to all. These thoughts filtered through my mind, translating into silent prayers. Somehow, I hoped, humanity would finally understand what it needs to do to serve the interests of all life on the planet.

      And indeed, progress was being made here. ICAT put the huge supercomputers designed to model atomic explosions to a much better, more humane use — monitoring the health of the planet. The supercomputers at ICAT continue to process huge amounts of data, but the data is now environmental, constantly imputed from sensors under oceans, in rainforests and deserts, on mountaintops and glaciers, and relayed from scientific laboratories and on-the-ground survey teams.  The incoming information stream is stored and processed at the Real Time Diagnostic Center. Inside the Center is a kind of Earth Situation Room, which houses a 20 foot x 30 foot electronic map of the world.  The huge  EarthWatch Map is impressive. It renders a sophisticated and highly detailed, almost 3-D graphic depiction of the planet’s surface that enables the viewer to easily sense the topographical makeup of any particular region of the globe.

THE EARTHWATCH MAP

      One quickly notices a variety of illuminated symbols scattered across the big map, some blinking. The meanings of these planetary hot spots are obvious. For example: small black skull and crossbones indicate the presence of toxic waste or serious environmental contamination, a fish skeleton describes polluted water, and a fire symbol depicts uncontrolled burning in the Amazon. Blinking symbols denote at-risk plant, animal and human populations requiring immediate attention and careful monitoring. A code number accompanies each blinking symbol. When the number is entered into a computer query, details are given on the threat and conditions that relate to each symbol. 

      The EarthWatch Map is also capable of modeling future scenarios such as global warming, ozone depletion, nuclear fallout, and ecosystem and population collapse. Running these scenarios is usually not for the faint of heart as they vividly describe impacts to the planet if the current course of civilization remains unchanged. However, the sobering experience often has the effect of prodding visitors to become more politically and environmentally active.

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     Elsewhere at ICAT, international teams of young researchers guided by experienced scientists and planners are hard at work with powerful tools seeking to fundamentally revision village and city infrastructures. Highly skilled engineering teams work long hours in state-of-the-art laboratories designing wonderful, earth-friendly technologies that people need to live a sustainable, healthy life. 

      I couldn’t resist asking a young worker to describe to me her experience of working at ICAT. The woman brushed the long, lustrous black hair from her face.  Her voice trembled with excitement. She spoke frankly of her group’s successes and failures regarding their efforts to find more efficient ways to raise literacy levels for young girls in poor countries. She shared with me her vision of future cities with humane and comfortable housing, of people working and living in safe environments where jobs paid a good wage, and where work was meaningful and people had time to socialize, laugh, sing, dance and make music together. Where life was something to enjoy rather than a never-ending struggle to survive at a minimal level of physical comfort. And where technology served people rather than dooming them to a fast-forward, production-based existence fatally severed from nature.

      It didn’t take long for some of her co-workers to find us. I asked about their personal motivation. They would speak of the deep fulfillment they felt working to make a difference in people’s lives, relieving to even the slightest extent, the burden of daily survival. They held this commitment as paramount, even though the individuals they would touch with their efforts might never know or meet them.

      I met with biologists exploring simpler and better birth control methods, and botanists probing the inner secrets of soon-to-be-extinct plants. I gazed over the shoulders of urban planners who would sit for hours at a clip skillfully modeling city designs on computers. I watched them rearrange cars, transportation systems, basic infrastructure, parks and factories — rethinking Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Calcutta, Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles — trying to find better ways to manage people and their environments. 

      I also observed economists, anthropologists, sociologists and architects, an entire building full of them, pouring over tabletops piled high with studies, data and drawings.  It seemed they were re-envisioning everything — the whole assemblage of human civilization.  Nothing is considered sacrosanct here — not the marketplace, not politics as usual, or contemporary patterns of financing and development. And they showed little interest in embedded governments and institutions and their precious ideologies or status-quo relationships of gender, ethnicity and class. Everything is up for reconsideration. All is judged potentially re-makable.