Climate change is the prime example where science can be used to settle disputes among parties for the common good. Persistent doubt about climate change has made solving the issue ineffective. Rather than argue about what we can’t agree on, what does science tell us that we can all agree on? Fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal) will deplete, likely, sometime in the next two centuries. What do republicans and democrats agree on? Entrepreneurship and job growth. So, the key to common ground in this area is renewable energy.
Currently, many conservatives negatively associate restriction and regulation with climate change; two things we know republicans will never agree with because it “kills jobs”. We want to reorient the approach to climate change by advancing energy: finding new sources, making renewable energy more accessible, developing more efficient energy storage capability and sustainable building materials, etc.
Renewable energy needs to be put on the table as the future of jobs and innovation. Currently, the solar power industry provides more jobs than coal in the U.S. If the U.S. ignores developing industry in the green energy sector in favor of fossil fuels, countries like China are going to take advantage of the market because they understand renewable energy is the future and are investing accordingly. Movement away from fossil fuels is a step towards innovation and growth, and solving climate change is implicit to renewable energy. But, instead of telling people what they are doing wrong to ruin the environment, we are telling them how we can all come together to make the environment better, the economy strong, and stake our claim as a global competitor and innovator.
Climate change advocates have not done a great job making the idea of climate change easily accessible to those who are skeptical. Climate change seems to be talked about as one big, singular issue, when it involves solving a series of problems across many industries and communities. Needed are policy initiatives to encourage industry to invest in renewable energy and pertinent research as well as government funding for R&D into materials research, battery technology, alternative energy sources, etc. To do this will not be easy. We propose establishing public-private partnerships to compensate for limited federal funding and incentivize the private sector. The private sector has operational efficiency and government research agencies have the resources to accomplish tasks where science, technology, and engineering overlap.
Even though our goal in the short term will change the conversation away from climate change, the long term result will be the same: create a more sustainable society and better standard of living to protect the health of the environment and the people who live in it.