Welcome to the climate-solution age
For more than 30 years, the global conversation on climate change has been trapped between opposing fears. On one side, scientists warned of dangers from a warming atmosphere and rising seas caused by human activity. On the other, consumers, politicians, and business leaders have feared disruption to an economy long reliant on fossil fuels. From one climate summit to another, leaders set targets that have largely not been met. Mutual fears created stalemate.
This week that standoff may have finally been broken. President Joe Biden signed a raft of executive orders on Jan. 27 to aggressively place the huge U.S. economy on a foundation of renewable energy sources. His actions are well timed. Advances in technology and a widening consensus have shifted the focus from restraining the harm of climate change to realizing the good that can be done in slowing it.
“We see nothing but opportunity,” said Heather Zichal, chief executive officer of the American Clean Power Association.
While legislative battles await, Mr. Biden enjoys a once unthinkable range of support among investment bankers, energy producers, environmental groups, social activists, and especially young people. The oil industry, for example, appears to welcome a carbon tax that would drive more investments to clean energy. General Motors announced that it would end production of gas-powered vehicles by 2035.
How did all this happen? Two insights come from scholars who have studied how public thought shifts toward unity and opportunity through the diffusion of ideas.
The first is that modern digital communications, such as smartphones, have spread the discussion of climate change as well as the evidence of it. The best perspectives and solutions have found a wider audience quicker than might have happened a couple of decades ago. In addition, other causes were added to the mix, broadening the consensus. Largely through the expanded public space of social media, the conversation about climate change has become a conversation about climate justice, public health, and economic and racial inequality. President Biden’s executive orders call for significant new investment in predominately minority communities abutting high-pollution industrial areas.
The second insight is that the rapid pace of energy-related inventions has caught the public imagination. This is best represented by the commercial ascent of Tesla vehicles. More than any other company, Tesla has demonstrated the vast potential of shifting economies to renewable technologies. Despite the pandemic, its stock rose 695% in 2020. In recognition of the new electric vehicle supply chain and job market, Mr. Biden has called for the installation of 500,000 charging stations nationwide by 2030.
“When we talk to our future grandchildren, we will be able to refer to this decade as the one in which the switch flipped and the planet adopted a tremendously promising green future,” observed former tech executives Vivek Wadhwa and Alex Salkever in an essay last week in Foreign Policy.
On climate change, the inertia of fear is giving way to the resolve of hope.
