Christian: Imagine a world in which every human being has access to energy. Picture cities suborganized into small communities that are joining together to produce their own food. And picture, of course, for the rural areas, much more efficient agriculture. I think that vision is beautiful. imagine a techindustry that is entirely signed up to helping to make that transition happen for the whole world. If this has been such an amazing conversation, i'm so glad we are finally going to meet and talk about it.
[This episode originally aired May 21, 2020] Internationally-recognized global leader on climate change Christiana Figueres argues that the battle against global threats like climate change begins in our own heads. She became the United Nations’ top climate official, after she had watched the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit collapse “in blood, in screams, in tears.” In the wake of that debacle, Christiana began performing an act of emotional Aikido on herself, her team, and eventually delegates from 196 nations. She called it “stubborn optimism.” It requires a clear and alluring vision of a future that can supplant the dystopian and discouraging vision of what will happen if the world fails to act. It was stubborn optimism, she says, that convinced those nations to sign the first global climate framework, the Paris Agreement. In this episode, we explore how a similar shift in Silicon Valley’s vision could lead 3 billion people to take action for the planet.