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1. A Planned “Safety Valve”
Alton C. Thompson
While a History major, in 1958, at (what was then) Wisconsin State College-Oshkosh—and taking an
American History course from freshly-minted Wisconsin Ph. D. W. Fletcher Thompson, Jr.—I learned
about the “Turner thesis”:1
“Part and parcel of the Turner thesis was the idea that the frontier served as
a safety valve for the restless, the discontented, and the unemployed.”2
Because the Turner thesis had
become controversial, we were exposed to some of that controversy in an assigned reading, The Turner
Thesis: Concerning the Role of the Frontier in American History (1963), edited by George Rogers Tay-
lor [1895 – 1983].
Insofar as the frontier, in the United States, did act as a “safety valve,” that function was an unplanned
one. Today, there’s a need for a planned such “valve,” and there are three questions that need to be ad-
dressed:
1. Why does such a need exist now?
2. What form should that “valve” take?
3. Should the creation of that “valve” be assigned to our federal government, to private parties, or
a combination of both?
First, then, the question of the need for a “safety valve.”
* * * * * * *
As I write these words today (December 10, 2020), 15,040,175 Covid-19 cases have just been reported,
along with 285,351 deaths to date. In a sense, a “safety valve” has been created to address the Covid-
19 problem, in the form of mask-wearing, social distancing, and hand-washing—and the prospect of a
vaccine soon. But my focus here is on a problem of a far more serious nature, and the possibility of de-
veloping a “safety valve” that might help address that problem.
The problem: The fact that global warming is occurring3
—and now accelerating, “Bringing World
‘Dangerously Close’ to Irreversible Change.” “Irreversible change”—that is, continuing warming that
cannot be halted—would mean that Earth would become less and less habitable, with the prospect that
our species would join the 1,000,000 other species now on the verge of going extinct, during this pe-
riod of “the sixth extinction”! As early as 2026?!
Despite the fact that global warming has been researched for about 80 years now, greenhouse gas
(GHG) “emissions [the primary cause of global warming] are still rapidly rising, with increasingly damag-
1 Named for Frederick Jackson Turner [1861 - 1932], who in 1893 delivered his famous "The Significance of the
Frontier in American History"paper before the American Historical Association, which was meeting in Chicago
during the World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago World's Fair).
2 J. A. Burkhart, “The Turner Thesis: A Historian's Controversy” (1947), p. 77.
3 Dr. James E. Hansen is a scientist who has long been associated with research on global warming.

2. ing effects on the Earth's climate. An immense increase of scale in endeavors to conserve our biosphere is
needed to avoid untold suffering due to the climate crisis (IPCC 2018).” But—unfortunately!—just be-
cause an “immense increase of scale in endeavors” is needed, it does not follow from that fact that an
“immense increase” in efforts will actually occur!
That is not “good news”! Let us hope, however, that inaction on this problem does not continue much
longer—and in this paper I offer a possible course of action. One that might be conceived as a “safety
valve” one!
* * * * * * *
As to the form that a “safety valve” might take in the case of global warming: Let me preface my re-
marks here with the observation that the society that we live in today is characterized by a high level of
interdependence, both local and global. There are advantages in that interdependence—efficiencies,
along with product/service availability—but the dependence that exists in our society at present can be-
come a problem if a “wrench” is “thrown into the system”—the Covid-19 problem being a current ex-
ample.
Global warming is also an example; and although it is having effects, those effects are not being re-
ported on or are being reported on (e. g. wildfires in California) but a connection is not made between
those effects and their cause. The fact that our media are not educating the public about global warm-
ing—its seriousness and its effects—is, of course, troubling—and helps explain our inaction in address-
ing the global warming problem. But that problem is not the one that concerns me in this paper.
Rather, it is suggesting a possible “safety valve” to help address the global warming problem.
What I suggest is that ecovillages be created, and “ecovillage” being a community “organized around
ecology and sustainability.” Ecological principles would be followed in creating the community, the
goal being “sustainability”—which:
is the ability to exist constantly. In the 21st century, it refers generally to the capacity for the bio-
sphere and human civilization to co-exist. It is also defined as the process of people maintaining
change in a homeostasis balanced environment, in which the exploitation of resources, the direc-
tion of investments, the orientation of technological development, and institutional change are all in
harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations.[1]
The specifics of any ecovillage would, of course, be decided upon by the individual or organization that
initiated it—which leads to my third question: Who/what should have that responsibility?
* * * * * * *
Given that during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration there was a “New Deal,” and that a “com-
munities” program—involving “resettlement” communities, “subsistence homestead” communities,
and “greenbelt” towns—one possibility would be for the incoming Biden administration to initiate an
ecovillage program. It’s doubtful that it will, however! (I have no contacts with any of the Biden peo-
ple to inform them about this suggestion!)
Another possibility would be for entrepreneurs and/or private sector organizations be the initiators. As
this would most likely occur were the communities to be company-town communities, it’s such commu-
nities that I advocate herein. Also, for such communities to have any impact on the global warming

3. problem, there would need to be a proliferation of them—and that is more likely to occur if they are
initiated by private-sector individuals/organizations rather than governmental departments. Were such
settlements to be subsidized by the federal government, this might help with a proliferation.
I present some of my ideas for them in my A Road to Survival? and Viking Villages for Today, and so
will limit my comments on what I have in mind here. Suffice it to say here that I advocate the creation
of small,4
“human scale,” settlements that would give their employees/residents an opportunity and
would like to see those who initiate them make a point of including, as residents/employees some of
our society’s disadvantaged members. Enough such individuals/families exist in our society that many
of them might be attracted to this “safety valve”!
As to whether this proposal will be acted on: “Time will tell”!
4 I conceive of them as constituting a “return” of sorts to hunter-gatherer existence! See my Is a “Return” Pos-
sible?