There's the challenge of switching electrical generation to clean sources.
Which is smaller than the challenge of electrifying almost everything that uses power, and then switching all energy to carbon-zero sources.
Which is smaller than the challenge of reducing energy demand in every way possible, electrifying all energy use, and providing that energy from carbon-zero sources.
Which is smaller than the challenge of reinventing how goods and services are provided, reducing and electrifying the remaining energy demand, and providing that power from clean sources.
Which is smaller than the challenge of both providing that disruptive energy sustainability and getting to zero emissions from all other sources, like deforestation, agriculture, livestock and landfills.
Which is smaller than the challenge of getting to zero emissions while launching a project of global ecological restoration to check ecological collapses, secure vital ecological services, preserve biodiversity and begin a multi-century process of atmospheric restoration.
Which is smaller than the challenge of getting to zero emissions, undertaking planetary restoration and launching headlong into the ruggedization of human systems, so our civilization can withstand the massive crises we've already set in motion.
Which is smaller than the challenge of hitting zero CO2, restoring the Earth, ruggedizing civilization and scaling up global cooperation to meet the planetary crisis' most destabilizing impacts—stresses that are leading to more war, more forced migration and more failed places.
Which is smaller than the challenge of global governance on a world where even nations are too small in scale to confront dire problems that respect no borders, and where humanity's age-old hatreds and fears must be surmounted in the midst of technological acceleration.
Which is a smaller challenge than the monumental cultural undertaking of imagining together a thriving, dynamic, sustainable future that feels not only possible, but worth fighting for.
Imagining planetary success, together, is now the hardest and most vital task we face.
Imagining planetary success, together, is now the hardest and most vital task we face.
The planetary crisis is—above all else—a crisis of imagination, of culture, of thought.
