I want to tell you a story.
It all began when I went to visit my close friend Killian (who you will get to know more) in his hometown of Seattle. We both love solving problems and every time we meet up we always go back and forth discussing a seemingly endless number of ideas that pop into our head. That being said, I knew this trip was going to be full of brainstorming, deep conversation, never ending laughter, and history (one of his many passions).
It was a wet, rainy, and a bit gloomy day, but since the moment I landed we were set on getting outside. At around 2 we parked the car near this mallard filled pond and set off on a mini hike in Seward Park — 300 acres of old-growth forest in the south-east corner of the city. The trail we chose was damp, but also serene, mystical, and truly beautiful. Walking over fallen trees that contain hundreds of years of stories and memories in their trunks and rubbing against bright green moss that captured every droplet of water we began discussing a number of different topics, ranging from our confusion with certain policies to our current jobs to the difficulty of changing human behavior, but it eventually became clear that our concerns about the world were focused around one issue: the climate. Our planet and the people who are already seeing the tolls of climate change need help. Long story short, we left that park with a plan.
In an effort to increase the amount of discussion we are also creating a Slack channel. If you’d like to join, please send us a note with your email address and will set you up as soon as we see it!
You can create a new note by highlighting a word or section of a post and choosing the note option from the toolbar.
Our Plan and Focus
Of course no one person could ever be capable of tackling this issue alone. The rising tide of clean energy innovation and fossil fuel/carbon emissions regulation is thanks to the efforts of many people, and the countless systems and processes that apply these to real life consequences.
Since there are already many resources detailing the issues we are going to focus on solutions, both for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and for mitigation of the effects of climate change. This will undoubtedly entail some discussion of the process behind climate change and the nature of climate predictions, but this topic should keep us focused on what we can do in the here and now. There will be posts that follow a storyline, a number of others will provide detailed graphics that breakdown this massive environmental problem into relatable pieces, and a few will be a bit unconventional.
Similar to how a Rubik’s Cube is overwhelming at first glance, climate change is not the easiest problem to digest. Some people have vague ideas on how to solve it, others don’t even know where to begin. It’s intimidating to think about because the effects seem so distant and hard to grasp, it’s unsettling to talk about because it can truly alter the course of so many natural processes around us, and it’s hard to comprehend because each part of it has a seemingly endless string of information attached to it. This blog will be the place where all three of those obstacles are not only tackled, but defeated.
We eagerly encourage anyone to engage, because we believe that in order to “make a dent in the universe” (thank you Steve Jobs) we need the help of people with all perspectives and from a variety of different backgrounds to be involved. Call us out on our mistakes, ask any question that comes to mind (believe me we have asked each other, give or take, 100+ questions in the past couple of weeks), post your opinions, share your photographs of the climate around you and what climate change means to you, make it into a Snapchat story, tell your grandmother and your dog, just keep talking about it!
Feel free to reach out to us if you would like to see more of certain things or even if you’d like to join our team. This is as much a learning experience for us as it is a project to raise interest and awareness about climate change. Until a few months ago, neither of us had more than the most superficial understanding of how the process of global warming is occurring, let alone what can be done about it. Nevertheless, we used curiosity and passion as a driving force to learn more about this problem and are hopeful that you will do the same as well, bringing your perspective and expertise, whatever they may be, to the table. To tweak the well said words, “the tools and knowledge of one nation belong to all nations” (in reference to the unifying nature of the internet), of Dex Torricke-Barton the knowledge of one person should belong to all.
In an effort to increase the amount of discussion we are also creating a Slack channel. If you’d like to join, please send us a note with your email address and will set you up as soon as we see it!
You can create a new note by highlighting a word or section of a post and choosing the note option from the toolbar.
We really look forward to embarking on this journey with you and we cannot wait to hear your perspectives, questions, and thoughts. Eleanor Roosevelt said it best, “you must do the things you think you cannot do” and that’s exactly what we are going to do.
Curiosity and inquisitiveness always,
Jonathan and Killian
