The Solar Patriot

To Fight Climate Change, We Need an Apollo Program for Politics, Not Technology

July 22, 2019 By Erik Curren

The success of Apollo 11 flipped the American public from skeptics to fans. The climate movement needs its own moon shot moment to build public support today.

The Climate Movement Needs to Celebrate our Heroes Like Abolitionists Did

July 6, 2019 By Erik Curren

After 30 years, the climate movement is too much about data and not enough about people. Celebrating our leaders can inspire Americans to join us.

Should We Pay Fossil Fuel Companies to Abolish Dirty Energy?

June 24, 2019 By Erik Curren

Today’s movement to abolish fossil fuels can learn from two different paths that the British and American governments took to abolish slavery in the 19th century.

The Fight against Climate Change Must Become the New Abolitionism

June 17, 2019 By Erik Curren

There’s no moral comparison between humans who suffered in slavery and molecules of fossil fuels. But the abolition movement of the nineteenth century may hold the key to unblocking climate action today.

Climate Crisis Shouldn’t be about Mere Money

June 4, 2019 By Erik Curren

I was so pleased to see a piece called “Climate change is our World War III. It needs a bold response” today by the venerable Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. A great all-around mind, Stiglitz brings an economist’s wide take on money, stuff and people to the question of whether the world can afford […]

The #1 Easiest Way to Fight Climate Change

May 23, 2019 By Erik Curren

As long as energy prices remain low, you can forget about asking hundreds of millions of American consumers to drive less or turn down their thermostat. A few committed environmentalists will conserve energy just because it’s the right thing to do. But experience has shown that for the average American, morality is a poor motivator […]