The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication has been tracking the views of the U.S. population on the issue of Global Warming since 2008. The good news is that 21% of the population are now “alarmed” and are working to address the problem on a regular basis. But that is clearly not enough despite the fact that the “Theory of Change”, a well researched piece of social science, states that it usually only takes a committed 10% of the population to drive policy. (Think U.S. - Cuba foreign policy).
I have spent the past two years researching and writing the most accurate and concise book I could to inspire those 30%—who say they are “concerned” about global warming but are, in reality, doing very little to address the problem—to finally focus and take serious action. 30% of the population is 100,000,000 people! And that number is far more than enough to get the United States to do its part to overcome political and industry headwinds and effectively address this crisis before it is too late. We are not victims. We have choice. The future is literally “in our hands.”
If all the efforts now underway to galvanize Americans to take action are successful, there is a high probability that we will keep global warming somewhere between 2 and 3 degrees below pre-industrial levels. But we must all row together in the same direction and at a far faster pace - not as depicted in this illustration from In Our Hands.
