Chapter 7: Instant Enthusiasm
Instant Enthusiasm About Climate Verso
I think people were enthusiastic about the idea of a Climate Verso podcast because there is so little public dialogue between the competing crisis and skeptics camps.
It seems bizarre that somebody like me needs to get scientists talking to each other. The only reason I’m trying to do this was to generate public awareness.
I Challenge Myself
Originally, this idea of a public dialog was not going to be a podcast per se. I had no clue what it would look like.
But when I first started thinking about this dialogue idea in the Spring of 2023, I said to myself, I’ve got to at least talk to people I know about what I’m doing, and see what they think.
So, I challenged myself to share this idea with people in my life and ask them for a $100 contribution to get it off the ground (just to test their enthusiasm).
Virginia
I may be an amateur environmental policy analyst, but in real life I currently make a living as the owner of a limousine agency in New York City. Anyway, one day I told Virginia, my long-time good friend, about my idea. However, since she was also a long-time client, I didn’t ask her for a contribution.
Virginia was indignant. “Well, I don’t care if you’re not asking me, I’m giving you a hundred dollars anyway.”
After I had convinced 15 or 16 people to give me $100, I stopped asking for donations, because I had proven to myself that I had a good idea. So I didn’t feel the need to ask anymore.
“I’ll Give You Five Minutes”
At about the same time, I called an old friend of mine, someone who’s a very powerful management consultant. He’s also a strong member of the crisis camp, and barely acknowledges that there IS another side.
I said, “Hey, I’m putting together this project to get people from both sides of the climate issue to talk to each other.”
And he replied, “Listen, I don’t have time to talk to you, but I’ll give you five minutes.” He very much values his time.
I said okay.
An hour and a half later, we hung up after having a mind-blowing conversation.
A couple of weeks later, I called just to give him an update.
And literally the same thing happened. Again he said, “I don’t have time to talk. I’ll give you five minutes.” And we talked for another hour.
I was beginning to think that people liked my idea.
Other Conversations
Full disclosure: I’m trying to legitimately lessen the mood of crisis regarding climate change. And that can upset people who feel we need that mood to energize the public.
But when I tell them my climate dialogue idea, even some of these people say you know, Ned, friendly and respectful conversations are such a great idea.
I’ve also met with people who work in the field of climate who say they won’t participate in my podcast because they’re afraid it might hurt their career if they’re seen talking to people with different views.
But I have yet to find anybody who said, “Oh, this is a silly idea.” Nobody.
If You Think About It
And if you think about it, the concept doesn’t just apply to climate. It can apply to so many contentious issues.
But I only want to focus on climate.
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