Concern & Hope

The first of a series of What Can Go Wrong...Tour posts

Concern & Hope

After returning from our “Here We Are Tour” now dubbed the “What Can Go Wrong…Tour”, I’ve naturally had tons of people asking me about my experience–the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Instead of repeating myself countless times, I decided to write down the story and share it with everybody–yes, including you–because I think there’s something for everyone from this journey.  

Taking the past few days to reflect on the tour as a whole, I concluded that my experience can be summarized as one of concern and hope.  Concern highlighted by the warmup impacts of climate change happening now, the rise of rightwing climate change denying communities and politicians, the rapid decline of climate tech startup funding and consequential failure of critical companies, the return of old school cleantech mentality, and the awful state of US charging infrastructure–which is indicative of the lack of infrastructure needed to support a climate tech revolution.  

I cried every morning while driving to the next city knowing that, like the autumn leaves, my life has and is undergoing radical changes–loss of a relationship and family, CTC needing to pivot and perhaps fold, and, despite doing everything I can over the past decade to help turn the tide, the emissions trajectory remains up and to the right.  At the same time, I found a lot of forgiveness in my heart while driving solo countless hours across the country and through Canada and, although for a brief window, was reminded how awesome romantic relationships can be–giving me hope that I can love again.  And although the large events we attempted didn’t work outside of NYC Climate Week, the tour itself can be considered a success with “smaller” cities picking up the baton. 

So where’s the hope?  It lies with you and others like you.  The CTC community showed up.  Whether it was lending me an electric RV for 5 weeks, co-hosting last minute popup events, stepping in when proverbial sh*t hit the fan, providing me a bed to sleep on when I was exhausted, donating when it was clear that we’d have a substantial financial shortfall, sending out a videographer to capture the final days of the tour, and, most importantly, continuing to collaborate on solving the climate challenge.  There will be a dedicated thank you email to everybody who lent a helping hand, but first I want to record and share the story while it’s still fresh in my mind.  

I’m dedicating the next couple of weeks to writing and sharing.  There’ll be personal anecdotes and stories including individuals I interacted with because when it comes to climate change folks tend to zoom out and focus on the macro–when it’s individuals–people who will make the change, or not.  We can fall into a trap thinking that government is the answer and fall victim to the animal spirits of markets.  Yes, government does have an important role to play, but relying on government to solve the problem can result in apathy, overconfidence and even dispair.  Don’t forget, people run the government.  Each of you has more power than you realize.  The answer is personal action–leadership.  Either rise to the challenge, or don’t.  I hope the forthcoming stories result in more action and less apathy. 

I apologize in advance to anybody who might be put off by anything I write in upcoming posts–but, to be honest, at this juncture idgaf because we don’t have time for niceties anymore.  I’m going to speak the unfiltered truth, which may ruffle some feathers, but I’m also going to be honest about mistakes I’ve made.  Nobody’s perfect–trust me, I’m far from it–all we can do is evolve and improve from our mistakes.  

All that being said, I’m excited to record and share my experience–and I welcome all input and ideas along the way–as long as it’s peaceful and constructive. To be honest, I don’t know where CTC goes from here—all I do know is that its path will be guided by you–so I want to hear from you all.

Thank you for your time, energy, and support, and, as always, I hope you enjoy the show.

Warmly,

Matthew