Do you really believe? I’m not asking if you ‘believe’ in climate change – thankfully that question has been delegated to the world of trolls. I mean, do you believe we can build a low-carbon economy in which 9 billion people thrive? That’s a much harder question for many of us. But until we all answer with a resounding ‘yes!’ we won’t move far or fast enough.
That low carbon transition requires mass re-engineering of our global infrastructure, economic systems and even our personal behaviours. The scale of revolution is admittedly hard to imagine, until you remember that we’ve already lived through one. And the leaders of that revolution unequivocally believed not only that it should happen, but that it would.
The internet is almost exactly the same age as I am. In those 40 years the reach, speed and impact on our lives, economies and even built environment has been monumental. Today nearly half the world’s population can Skype loved ones, order food and access education and cat videos online. We plan our lives and run our businesses all through a system that didn’t exist when I was born.
From daily personal habits to huge infrastructure projects – our political and business leaders have happily turned our established systems upside down for the digital revolution. The British government alone is merrily spending £1bn to upgrade us to ‘superfast broadband’, without the whimpering even minimal green investment generates. Climate activists can only dream of the public and political support the digital economy enjoys.
Global transformation can be done, and it has been done. Perhaps we can learn from the people who did it. Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, says “Silicon Valley is a mindset, not a location.” So here are the key terms which underpin that proven world-changing mindset:
Visionary. This overused word is fundamental to how Silicon Valley changed our lives. From Steve Jobs to Elon Musk the term ‘visionary’ now seems reserved for technology innovators rather than political leaders. While many call for ‘vision’ within the climate movement we seem to lack those iconoclastic leaders who hold an unwavering expectation and belief in their answers. We need to learn that people follow people not policies.
Pay it forward. On the opposite end to the individual exceptionalism of ‘visionaries’ is this term for collective benefit. One surprising aspect of the geek world is how highly it values shared learning and a sense of community. There is a philosophy of ‘coopertition’ and support for unusual partnerships in Silicon Valley. We desperately need a similar alignment within climate action, not only within business or activist communities – but between them. The benefit of coopertition is that it allows for cooperation on the need for action, while reserving the right to viciously compete on which action should win out.
Growth-mindset & fail-fast. Two terms encompass learning, innovating and being open-minded. ‘Growth-mindset’ was coined by the Stanford University professor of psychology Carol Dweck, and she compares it to the fixed mindset that doesn’t allow for flexibility, growth or failure. That’s also the root of ‘fail-fast’ - another beloved tech term. Both reflect an acceptance of trying, learning from failures and not expecting perfection from yourself or others. Especially in the business sector, ambitious plans on climate can be killed by an overly ‘fixed’ mentality. Fear of critics dampers the innovative failures we could all learn from.
UX. User Experience is the way a technology user (you and I) behaves and feels using a particular product. The holy grail of UX is for a technology to be frictionless – a word for a service so beautifully designed that it’s intuitive with inefficiencies and annoyances smoothed out. Attempts to take personal action on climate are rarely frictionless. Indeed the sheer difficulty of taking action over climate change is often held as a badge of personal honour. We need to improve the UX of low-carbon lifestyles.
I’ve plucked these words from the lexicon of an industry arguably more concerned with making money than changing the world (although they would argue differently). But it’s not the worthiness of Silicon Valley’s impact I wish to emulate – it’s the monumental scale. In fact, that’s my favourite tech-term: ‘scalable’. And getting scalable seems to have a lot to do with believing it’s possible.
This article is part of the Guardian’s Keep it in the Ground campaign. You can receive the latest updates on the campaign by selecting “Follow series” in the Guardian app
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