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19 of the last 21 years have been the hottest years on record.
Planet Earth has all ready warmed by 1.1 degrees
Celsius from the planet on which homo sapiens evolved.
Climate change catastrophe is coming.
We got through it.
>> [LAUGH] >> Have I managed to put any of you to
sleep yet?
Yawn, I'm bored already with this speech.
And it's okay, you can admit it, so are you.
So let's reset.
Communication about climate change sucks,
it all sounds the same and everybody wants to be Al Gore.
>> [LAUGH] >> But in trying to scare people into
taking action, I believe we miss the opportunity to make the basic
point that there is no better career than working to address climate change.
It checks all the boxes.
You hope to build financial security?
Work in climate.
In the back, you hope to work at the tip of the spear,
solve interesting problems with real-world ramifications?
Work in climate.
And you hope to find meaning in your work and
to be proud of your contributions to the greater good?
Work in climate.
This is not the climate change talk you've heard 100 times before.
I'm not here to scare you, I'm here to recruit.
>> [LAUGH] >> It is
tragic that climate change exists, of course.
However, for an individual strategically shaping their career,
climate change represents a once in a lifetime opportunity to skate
where the puck is going on trillion dollar industries with massive policy and
regulatory tailwinds.
Global scope, but that are somehow still young enough to have low
barriers to leadership despite enormous, almost guaranteed growth.
And at the same time, careers and climate are an opportunity to pursue
work whose impact will reverberate for generations to come.
An opportunity to do well for yourself and to do good for those around you.
So for the next six minutes, doing well and
doing good is all I'm going to talk about.
First, doing well.
Climate change is fundamentally different from
any of the economic megatrends of the past,
the steam engine, the wheel, electricity,
steel, the Internet, please no one say Web 3.
Each of these things happened, and they were important steps forward for
our species, but each of these things just happened to happen.
Facebook exists, but it wasn't inevitable that Mark Zuckerberg would create it.
Climate change is not like these other things,
because facing climate change is mathematically inevitable.
Either we will beat it or it will beat us.
And inevitability means opportunity.
Think about how many times in history have you been able to look 30 years into
the future and know with very little uncertainty which industries will grow?
The logic is extremely simple,
either we lose the fight against climate change and
the economic wheel stops turning, fire,
famine, flood, also other F words.
>> [LAUGH] >> Either we lose or
if we're going to win and secure a future for our species,
we know pretty much which industries will need to grow.
Electrify everything and power it with renewables, right?
Renewable energy, energy storage, regenerative agriculture,
decarbonize transport, I could go on and on.
The nascency of these industries also means low barriers to leadership for
those who want to get ahead.
Think of any investment bank, odds are there's a managing director
there who's been doing some version of that job for 50 years.
How can you or I compete?
On the other hand, the electric bus industry has existed for five years.
Which means for any young, smart, ambitious person,
like any of you in this room, you have an opportunity to be
among the best in the world in very little time because the playing field is level.
Opportunity abounds for journalists,
geologists, policymakers, investors.
Yes, for lifeguards, because chances are we're going to have a lot more water.
>> [LAUGH] >> Absolutely everyone has something to
gain from participating in the new economy.
And the earlier you get in, the more valuable you'll be.
If you want to do well, work in climate.
But isn't life about more than just doing well financially?
There's an entire other set of criteria, I believe,
we're all hoping to find at work to make the world a better place and
pursue our passions, to help others, to do good.
I spent the years before Stanford as a young executive building
a solar microgrid company in Southern Africa.
Picture an urban Zambian slum called [FOREIGN] during rainy season.
Tin roofs thrumming with falling rain,
turgid rivers of mud flowing in the streets.
My company had recently installed a solar microgrid here, this solar microgrid.
So one rainy day, I was leading a site visit and
escaped the rain into someone's home as the sun set and darkness settled.
This was about the time of the day when at home here at Stanford,
I would just turn on the lights.
But these people couldn't do that, so it just got dark.
We sat, We waited,
and then light, warm light flooded
the home, energizing us all.
These people, this family had light and
power and a better chance at a better life.
I can't pretend to know true poverty, I was just a visitor.
But for a few moments, I experienced firsthand what 800
million people without electricity live through.
For me, this was truly a light bulb moment.
It was a light bulb moment because when I saw the impact
that my work had on real people, I felt a sense of purpose.
I felt that my work had meaning.
I felt that my life had meaning.
It's such a gift to truly believe in what you do.
And I believe strongly that nothing merits such belief more than
preventing human suffering induced by climate change,
and facing up to the greatest challenge our species has ever known.
If you want to do good, Work in climate.
But at the end of the day, the beauty of it is you do
not have to choose between doing well and
doing good if you choose to work in climate.
I'm absolutely convinced it's the best of both.
I'm inspired by the monumental opportunity to shape
the next thousand years of history.
And I'm damn sure that we need every last one of us.
So, my friends, I invite you, work in climate, thank you.
>> [APPLAUSE]
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