Published Oct. 14, 2019

In my work over the past 17 years on clean cars, cleantech, clean energy, and climate change, I’ve connected with over 2,000 people, mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Now I’m starting to reach out to all of you with some very good news: we know how to restore a safe and healthy climate! I encourage you to explore and help advance these hopeful solutions to transform our world.

It will take tens of millions of us around the globe deciding to set a more ambitious goal than “avoiding the worst consequences” of what’s to come. We can all agree that unless countries and companies end Business As Usual, we won’t act quickly enough to reverse course. Plus it will take ending our personal Business As Usual — not out of guilt or shame, but to give ourselves more agency to help create a better future.

Human ingenuity and determination continue to surprise us, and can take us further than we can even imagine! You all — the best thinkers and doers I know — can be great pioneers on projects, campaigns, policies, startups, and companies that inspire the world. If you aren’t yet convinced we can get there, or if you want to hear about the first Global Climate Restoration Forum recently held at the UN, read the latest on Climate Restoration here.

Last year, I launched ClimateChangesEverything.org to tell stories of peoples’ motivation and energy behind hopeful climate goals, and to incubate restoration ideas and projects, many of which could use your help!

Anna and Felix – We Can Restore Our Climate!

One of these projects aims to help people like you and me, who’d like to do more than we’re already doing on climate, but don’t have a spare hour. I recently hired Anna Michel as the world’s first Climate Projects Manager to help me extend my reach and effectiveness. She’s helping me spread the news about Climate Restoration to everyone I know, and developing and promoting projects at ClimateChangesEverything.org. It’s been even more fun and exciting than I expected!

One year out of college, Anna gets paid to focus on what she cares about most — climate — by meeting and working with people in my networks. She’s half-time; soon she’ll split her week between me and a second Climate Projects Sponsor (CPS), gaining experience from both of us. 

Signs at the Foley Square starting point for the NY Climate Strike march

Now may be the best moment ever to end personal Business As Usual and dedicate ourselves to restoring our climate. Millions of people of all ages now recognize we’re in a climate emergency. Youth climate activists have led the way in activating people worldwide. They and other groups are speaking up for our collapsing ecosystems and millions of species facing extinction. They’re marching, striking, and suing governments for their most fundamental human rights. Youth climate activist leader Alexandria Villaseñor, 14, asks: “Why go to school when you have no future?” 

Greta Thunberg and others invited adults to join them in ending Business As Usual, and from Sept. 20-27, over seven million demonstrated worldwide! The Sunrise Movement and others are developing plans for a “mass strike” early in 2021 — no matter who’s elected President. And now a Global Coalition for Climate Restoration can be added to global Green New Deals, with solutions to return our air, water and soil to pre-industrial quality levels. 

Are you a committed entrepreneur, advocate, or activist who wants to create new ways of existing, even flourishing, within — and beyond — our climate crisis? Can a CPM help you leave hopelessness behind and feel energized that you’re using your talents and resources most effectively? 

The single most effective thing any of us can do about our climate is talk about it a lot; you can start by reaching out to your connections, and to me or Anna if any projects I describe interest you.

Already overloaded? Right now, I’m looking for 10 people to join me as Climate Projects Sponsor. Imagine collaborating with someone decades younger than you, who brings fresh perspectives, skills, and strategies to your projects. We have two levels for Sponsors. For 20 hours/week, can you scrape up $25/hour? Or can you easily afford $50/hr? We’ll pair you up so a CPM can earn $750/week.

We’re recruiting potential Climate Project Managers in the San Francisco By Area, drawing from the diverse youth activists at Sunrise Movement Bay Area hub and other groups of young people for climate. We’ll work with you to write a job spec and match you up with the right CPM candidates. 

We have other projects at ClimateChangesEverything that can use your help, like organizing a special Presidential Climate Advisor Briefing and launching a Patreon platform to crowdfund the ClimateHope Media Project — so far, we have five sponsored articles on Climate Restoration at Grist.org.

Anna and I will be happy to talk or meet with you! You can shoot us an email to get the ball rolling.