Cristianna Gómez: We all have internally in our minds that voice of doubt. It's important not to dismiss it and push it away, she says. "We must decouple well-being from the growth of greenhouse gases" In order for developing countries to continue their economic growth, they need access to alternative energy sources such as solar panels or wind turbine power. The Paris Agreement is a step towards ending fossil fuels' 100-year dominance over global GDP.
How can we feel empowered to take on global threats? The battle begins in our heads, argues Christiana Figueres. She became the United Nation’s 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, she 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. We explore how a similar shift in Silicon Valley's vision could lead 3 billion people to take action.