Jacob and Will discuss preparing for the climate emergency

00:02 All right, so this is Jacob interviewing Will. Hello, Will. So, yeah, it's 2030 and in your neighborhood you managed to achieve carbon neutrality, which is an important part of averting the climate crisis. And so you had a specific behavior change that did that. So what did you guys do? Will, tell me a little bit about it.

00:29 I think the key was recognizing that climate is a complicated issue and there are some people who are more willing, or not more willing, but more able to understand where the money is that we are putting in to different climate projects should be going. So I think for the average American, I think the biggest piece was just understanding that some of our money that we are spending, some of that actually needs to go towards climate. And in the same way that we think of recycling or something like that as a behavior, in the same way we started to realize that just actually putting our own money towards this and actually putting a resource of ours into the general pool of, into the pool of money that is being used to combat this crisis that had a huge impact on just people finally having the resources to be able to actually start combating the crisis at its source.

01:59 So with this new allocation of resources, what did your neighborhood do? How did it change as a result of this choice?

02:09 So I think part of it was with being a little more willing to spend the money that also came with it. An understanding of. Because we understand there's also an understanding of perhaps using a little bit less power or using a little bit less water at different pieces. For example, taking instead of a 30 minute shower, maybe taking a 10 minute shower.

02:37 Do you mean the reverse?

02:40 What did I say?

02:41 You said three minute shower. Oh, 30. 30 minute shower. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah.

02:45 No, but yeah, so just kind of basic steps of reducing kind of that footprint that we're making when it comes to either energy or pollution or all of those things that are affecting the world right now.

03:09 Yeah. So obviously that's a pretty big change, like allocating all of our resources into more environmentally conscious choices. How did you guys like convince everyone? I can assume some people probably very readily took on the challenge, but naturally, when you're starting to live a more frugal lifestyle, there's a resistance to it. So how did you guys like convince your neighborhood that like, not only is this going to be good for the environment, but this is going to be in your best interest as well?

03:46 I think a lot of it was, we didn't have to do much of the convincing. You can just see with just, even just with like Something like weather patterns. I mean, we've seen with blizzards and hurricanes, just like it has been actually visible how much it has increased in strength in many ways over the years. And so in a lot of ways, it isn't that people aren't ready to accept it, it's simply that they don't want to be the ones that are actually putting in that money. And so there's almost. There's honestly. There honestly was just a point where people realized, if we don't do something, this will actually affect us. So in a form of. And almost in a form of just self interest and self preservation, it's very arguable that you could definitely make the argument that it's still worth it. Donate to climate purely out of self interest and not for others. Sure.

04:47 Would you say that there's also been a positive impact to the community as a result? Really? Okay, like what?

04:54 I mean, I think when you're doing something and you're doing something together, it's inevitable that, that there will at least be some connections made. And with something like that and everyone knowing that this is good, there's in a sense, like whether you want to or not, you start to connect with many of these people that are putting in this work as well.

05:16 So all these connections were being made as people were uniting under this common cause. How was that organized? How were teams put together to make this happen?

05:27 Yeah, I think one of the big pieces was getting the people who were most passionate about this and kind of working their way down and just kind of going throughout the community and slowly finding people who were more passionate, acting.

05:49 As like encouragers, kind of sharing their passion. Yeah. Cool.

05:54 Yeah. And I think with that, you. Again, I don't think it's that hard to find people who are actually willing to invest in this. It's sometimes just literally just takes time for people to see how important this is. Sure.

06:10 Yeah. Would you say that there was like a shared vision that everyone rallied around?

06:16 There was the shared vision of, in a sense, what could become.

06:21 Sure. Some. Some sort of. There was some negative incentives there.

06:26 Yeah.

06:27 Did you guys have positive incentives as well?

06:30 I mean, it's just like, it's. I mean, it's very clear. You can even look at something like with China with the smog and in some like Beijing, and we don't want that, obviously. That's terrible. And so we're just kind of hoping that we can just kind of already starting that process of rebuilding kind of back to a way that is healthy for the environment, will be really, really just helpful to kind of. Yeah. Just to kind of begin that process.

07:05 Sure. Yeah. Like, having. Just having a healthier environment makes for more wellbeing. So even just saying, like, hi, clean air, would be really nice to have. So we should work towards that. Yeah.

07:18 People are just happier.

07:20 Yeah, I can see it. All right, well, thank you so much. This has been an excellent interview. Absolutely.

07:26 Thank you for having me.

07:26 Yeah. I'll let you go about your day. Thank you.

07:29 Thank you.