Christina (Tina) Swanson, Ph.D.

Every potential climate solution on the Drawdown Explorer begins as a hypothesis. This sounds geeky, but we’re scientists – we can’t help it. It’s the way we think. Our hypothesis looks something like this: “If we do [name of climate solution], it will [reduce emissions or remove carbon dioxide] by [how it works]”.

A recent conversation with a friend got me thinking another way about the “who” and the “how” of climate action. 

Shortly after I left academia to take a scientist position with a nonprofit environmental organization, a colleague from the Environmental Protection Agency – a key audience for my science-based advocacy – gave me some advice. “You need to understand,” he said, “that the government decision-makers you talk to don’t care about what you know. They care about how what you know can help them do their jobs.”

Now comes the hard part. After decades of inadequate efforts to rein in greenhouse gas emissions and slow climate change, we are running out of time. We need a new strategy. 

Each and every one of us contributes to climate change – but some of us are going to need to do more to fix it.