What is the narrative for net-zero?

We “humans” are a creative lot. When we join forces we produce magical results like language, writing, governments, and economies. But when it comes to agreeing on the behavior of something that we did not invent, the characteristics of the universe, we have a hard time agreeing.

The behavior of greenhouse gases has been peer-reviewed since 1895 and currently 97% of our scientific community, individuals with twenty-plus years of education in the physical sciences, agree that it causes the weather conditions we are currently experiencing in our region. The 3% that have dissenting arguments should be listened to and their data peer-reviewed, but to ignore the 97% is like going to the auto dealer and questioning the efficiency of the internal combustion engine.

We are facing the most complicated and perilous dilemma humanity has ever struggled with. If the 97% are correct, we need to get to net-zero emissions to save the planet we share. And we need to do this without destroying the human-created systems that keep us safe, feed us, employ us and govern us.

What is the narrative for this next chapter in human history? Who will be the authors of the story that we can believe in and act upon? We need the great authors, like those who wrote the Magna Carta and the U.S. Constitution. We need to start writing the narrative that we can get behind, apply our creativity, work hard, and solve.

Andrew Walker

Spokane