Motivating America

Listened to NPR on my way to the BYU Apocalypse Club meeting this morning...they interviewed this guy named Michael Shellenberger, of the Breakthrough Institute, who said that the trouble with preaching global warming is that guilt and doom only motivate a small percentage of Americans. That is, admittedly, shameful and foreboding, but probably worth acknowledging.

Shellenberger has decided to shift his focus from direct discussion of global warming to positive, opportunity-based discussions about investing in research on cleaner new technologies. That's more resonant with the American Spirit, he said. We like to invent stuff; we don't like being told the world is going to end.

Which has me thinking about how we at the Club could recast the Apocalypse as an opportunity for America...maybe we could get people to fund one of the horseman, so they could feel some sense of accomplishment when the plagues and wars come....hmm....