Coaching Al Gore & the Climate Reality Project
Let’s help Al Gore stretch & become a better Zero Carbon player!
One of the things Footprint to Wings does is coach other environmental organizations. Feel free to coach us back! We’re all in uncharted territory here.
Why do we coach? Because:
• Team Doom is dancing in Team Earth’s endzone.
• Team Earth needs to get it together.
• We all need zero carbon coaching.
Why start with Al Gore?
• He’s a climate change awareness MVP!
•He made a movie: “The Inconvenient Truth”.
•It won an Oscar!
•Lots of people watched it!
•Then he decided a movie explaining climate change isn’t as good as people you know explaining climate change. So…
•He started the Climate Reality Project…
•To personally instruct thousands of people every year on how to tell other people that…
•Climate Change is Real.
So far so good. Al’s Climate Reality training produces some of the best explainers of how climate change is real. Tens of thousands of people are out there now, delivering, hands down, perfectly executed multimedia explanations of how climate change is real.
What’s the next step? Here’s where things seem to stall out. Here’s where we feel — Al, Climate Reality Project — you can do better! Looking at your mission:
Our mission is to catalyze a global solution to the climate crisis by making urgent action a necessity across every level of society.
You’ve got the “making urgent action a necessity” part down. Great job!
What you need to focus on is the “catalyze a global solution” part.
Because right now, you’re like the bodybuilder that focuses on his pecs and has super skinny legs.
Taking a tour of your website, and downloading your action kit, we see the word “solutions” a lot, but no specifics:
“We speak up with relentless honesty about the solutions we have right in front of us and the forces standing in our way: the anti-science deniers and the wealthy corporations who put their own healthy profits from dirty fossil fuels before a healthy planet for all of us.”
Note the word “solutions”, followed by a quick shift to “deniers.” This is a pattern.
The pattern is reflected in the Climate Reality Leaders you train; dedicated people, trained to give the official Climate Reality presentations. I attended the most recent version of the official presentation. The speaker was poised and engaging. On the subject of climate change, the presentation was polished and informative. But on the subject of solutions, it was an impressionistic gloss. All I’m left with is the sense that “solar exists” and “the price of wind is coming down.”
Where does that leave us?
In a loop.
The Climate Reality Loop
•The presentation begins.
•We get a vivid sense of the problem. Climate change is Real! Urgent action is necessary.
•We’re waiting with bated breath for the solution…
•The presentation is coming to an end, just a few more minutes…
•The solution seems to be…
•“Solar exists. The price of wind has come down. Questions?”
•Someone in the audience asks for more clarification on the solutions
•I just gave you the solutions. There are lots of solutions…um…LOOK! Deniers! Corporations! Obstacles! So…
•We must deal with the denial! By…
•Explaining the reality of climate change to more people.
•Sign up for the Reality course!
And repeat!
How did we get stuck in this loop?
Notice that both the solutions and the deniers are in front of you:
“We speak up with relentless honesty about the solutions we have right in front of us and the forces standing in our way: the anti-science deniers and the wealthy corporations…”
You keep directing your focus on the deniers. Focus on the solutions, and you’ll blow past the deniers.
But perhaps there’s something preventing you from focusing on the solutions. The complexity and conflicts within the solutions. This would explain…
The Avoider Within the Activist
Yes, there are obstacles in front of you. Standing in your way.
But is it “deniers and corporations” standing in the way? Are corporations the only ones putting their own comfort via fossil fuel ahead of a healthy planet?
Every American is doing that.
We’re all “the forces standing in our [own] way.”
That’s what makes this a super wicked game. To win the game, we need to confront the obstacles within: the confusion about what exactly, we’re supposed to be doing; what we are afraid we have to give up; the questions we’re afraid to ask.
What is the obstacle that is keeping the Climate Reality Project from clarifying the solutions?
Whatever the obstacle, you’ll have a better chance of achieving the mission if you get super candid! And tackle the solutions with the same attention to detail that you give to explaining climate change. I know you can do it.
Roadmap to 100
But wait, you say — we’ve covered the solutions. A Whole “Roadmap to 100” of solutions! Right there on the site, you say.
About that. I’ve looked at the Roadmap, and there are some bugs.
What bugs?
You invite businesses and communities to commit to 100% … of electricity.
Electricity is about 30% of any given business or communities’ energy use. (Transport and heat are the rest.) So this “Roadmap to 100” is really a roadmap to 30.
This is like saying:
- I got 100% in football!
- You mean you made a touchdown?
- No! I went 100% of 30 yards!
- Ah. Great! Keep going.
Not to belittle that 30%. Thirty yards is a huge achievement. It’s just not 100% of the field.
This is 30% disguised as 100%.
Is the Roadmap at least clear on how to achieve that 30%?
No. The site says:
Talk to us and we can help you create an action plan for how to do it by referring you to available resources like the EPA Green Power Partnership and then monitor and report on your progress. In order to be a 100% Committed partner, we’ll need to approve the plan to make sure it connects with our commitment to clean, renewable electricity.
A bit of a black box, that.
Basically, the instructions are to “Form a committee and hire an expert.”
This is like your GPS telling you to “stop and ask that guy over there for directions.”
But surely, they offer excellent behind-the-scenes guidance once you do enroll, and there are people who have done this, and reported back their progress, and we can look at their case studies and see how they did it!
Not so much.
The website lists only one entity that has “made the transition” to 100: Aspen, Colorado.
No details are given about what Aspen achieved or how. There’s no “performance profile” in the parlance of coaching.
A quick internet search shows Aspen gets half their electricity from hydro-power, the rest from wind, much of it imported or credited. If Aspen is buying renewable credits on the market to get the credit for renewable energy, some other area is not getting the credit for their wind turbines.
A bit of a shell game, that. [And I’m not the only one who accounts for it this way. Here’s Lucas Joppa, Microsoft’s first Chief Environmental Officer, discussing the “bugs” in offset & credit accounting.]
What kind of 100% of 30% are we going for here?
Time For Action
We’re not going to get to zero carbon without clear, achievable solutions.
You’ve played well to your strengths. You got the players all worked up! Got them to realize that climate change is real! You’ve succeeded in making many people feel urgent action is a necessity.
But what action?
“Clarifying the action” is where you need coaching.
Heads Up! what you need is a detailed solutions curriculum for the Climate Reality community. Add a second part to the training. A “Solutions Reality” module.
Stuck for ideas? May I recommend the Footprint to Wings Zero Carbon Coaching Clinic as the comprehensive, candid “Solutions Reality” module.
We’re happy to modify the clinic to the Climate Reality format. Imagine your organization with its robust structure, plus our candid solutions curriculum! We could go. all. the. way. To zero carbon and beyond.
Lay Team Doom to waste.
Integrating the Sport
One final coaching note. Al Gore — as you know, you’re a bit of a polarizing figure, politically. And much of climate denial is not about climate but about identity and tribalism.
We have a fragmented Team Earth. What can we do about it?
Is it enough to keep explaining that climate change is real?
Perhaps we can leverage this tribalism for the greater good. One way to do that would be to make the project more inclusive by broadening the competition. You know what I’m talking about.
In the “Roadmap to 100”, under “What sources are not acceptable,” you explicitly reject carbon capture and storage (CCS) and nuclear energy. This makes the race to zero carbon a limited affair, harder to win, and dismisses players who like those plays. [Update: Hey! Since I wrote this, it looks like nuclear is on the table: “The Climate Reality Project will still accept some nuclear generation under the campaign at our discretion.” Of course, the ultimate mix of energy on the ground will be determined by all the citizens of any given state at their discretion, and the actions they take or don’t.]
Aren’t we supposed to reject those things?
In point of fact, the referees are still conferring on the ultimate pros and cons of any given play. For example: these days we have people angry at trump’s EPA for rolling back environmental and species protection laws, not realizing you’ll need to roll them back even more for a massive renewables regime.
When you start thinking systematically through the solutions — the solutions are less black and white.
That might be why we tend to avoid detailed solution talk. It’s uncomfortable.
But we have to get through those uncomfortable conversations, candidly if we want to win the Race to Zero Carbon.
Footprint to Wings is a trans-partisan organization. There is a distinction between “100% renewable energy only” (means) and “100% zero carbon emissions” (ends). We are “ends” oriented and inclusive. Open to red state, blue state and wild card solutions to get to zero carbon. We’re democratic. Carbon capture and nuclear aren’t off the table. If your state wants them, you can use them. If it doesn’t — more renewable power to you! It’s citizen/player’s choice. But keep in mind, you can’t just talk about it. You have to get it up and running, on the ground for it to count as a solution.
In the end, the portfolio of solutions will come down to the will of the people in your state. Our job as zero carbon coaches is to clarify each play, and help the players understand then choose their preferred plays, and play their best.
That’s an upside to a 50 state, no holds barred race. Permission to try EVERYTHING. Whatever works. To get to zero carbon. Because urgent action is a necessity!
Because TEAM DOOM is dancing in civilization’s end zone. This is no time to stand on ceremony.
Bonus — this inclusivity makes things more interesting:
Imagine an Al Gore-Backed, 100% Renewable-Only State neck and neck with a Red State team. Tribaly trash talking each other’s strategies all the way to zero carbon.
Thanks for reading to the end! How did you like our coaching? How would you coach our coaching? How would You coach Al Gore? Comments welcome!
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