From Lazy to Last (Environmentalist): A New Beginning

A confession: I used to be known as The Lazy Environmentalist. My job, through books, a radio show, and a reality TV show, was to convince skeptics and the occasional sloth that it’s easy to live sustainably without hassle, guilt, or effort.

Though I still believe it’s easy to live modern, design-inspired, sustainable lifestyles, I know the urgency of the moment asks more of us.

So this month, I launched The Last Environmentalist, a new weekly podcast about action, ingenuity, and hope in the face of climate change.

The premise: we are the first generation in human history to have the data to know what’s coming…and the last with a chance to do something about it.

As the podcast’s host, I’m investigating what’s happening, what’s getting in the way, and what we can do to speed up decisive climate action. The world’s leading climate scientists have told us we are now in a race against the clock. I want to know how we win.

My show’s guests offer fascinating answers. Here’s a snapshot of who they are:

Jigar Shaw(Episode 4): Jigar invented the zero-money down solar lease that is now a multi-billion dollar industry. He is one of the world’s leading climate technology investors.

Tom Szaky (Episode 6): Tom created the world’s most innovative recycling company (TerraCycle) that now has plans to eliminate all consumer packaging waste once and for all through its global initiative Loop.

Katherine Wilkinson (Episode 3): Katherine is the senior writer for Drawdown, the world’s most comprehensive plan EVER to reverse global warming.

Erin Meezan (Episode 9): Erin leads sustainability for Interface, the floor tile company whose Climate Tack Back mission aims to reverse global warming and open-source the playbook for others to copy.

On the show, I also tug at the question of hope. I ask these farsighted leaders how they keep their chins up, how they keep moving forward when the news about climate change can feel so frightening and overwhelming. Their answers are illuminating.

A case in point is this week’s show (Episode 10) with Asheville-based climate champion Drew Jones of Climate Interactive, one of the world’s leading climate change think tanks. Last fall, Drew published an Op-ed in The New York Times responding to the announcement by the world’s leading body of climate scientists that humanity must make unprecedented carbon emissions cuts by 2030 or face irrevocable consequences.

Drew titled it: “Stopping Climate Change Is Hopeless. Let’s Do It.” He was well-positioned to fully appreciate that report’s findings from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change because his firm’s climate models helped inform it. Drew’s perspective is vital to what we do now and how we steel ourselves for the future that lies ahead.

Overall, I’m incredibly excited about this climate conversation because it aims to be grounded, yet hopeful and eager to go wherever climate solutions are most promising – be it new policies, protests, or products.

After all, what we’re talking about here is how we rise to face the challenge of the most significant threat ever to confront humanity. That’s about as epic as epic gets.