Environmentalist Patricia DeMarco’s new book puts Pittsburgh at the center of creating a sustainable future
“There are ways that we can thrive as an economy and as a society without destroying [nature], but rather preserving it. So then the pathways become things like renewable energy systems, to use agriculture in a way that is regenerative instead of destructive, to look at ways of making good products that are by design not toxic and hazardous, and using green chemistry principles and biosynthesis and biomimicry as our pattern for making the things that we use. And then I looked at the institutional barriers that prevent us from going in that direction and the examples of leadership where this is actually moving forward in our society.
“That, to me, is something that doesn’t necessarily happen all at once. Major revolutions don’t very often happen like that. For example, solar is now at grid parity with coal in the electric system in many parts of the country. And there’s more of a push to say, hey, why aren’t we doing more of this in Pennsylvania? That kind of thing isn’t going to come down from the legislature, it’s going to be pushed up into the legislature by people who are saying, you know, we can do this. Even the utilities are looking at ways that they can integrate [solar].”