“Decarbonize the world, one tree at a time.”
“Decarbonize the world, one tree at a time.”
“Some people see ambitious climate targets and say, 'Fantastic, the problem's getting solved.'
Here's the problem. A target is no guarantee we're going to get to the goal.
[But] It's important to have targets.
It binds society together. It gives you a direction in which […] to go.
Embracing, enacting, and scaling a negative-emissions plan to get to net zero is a Herculean task.
This is something far bigger than say, the Moonshot, or other initiatives it’s often compared to, because this involves really every economy on Earth, every government, ultimately every citizen.
…We need a revolution in our mindset.”
— Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, Global Energy & Climate Innovation Editor at The Economist
We recall a similar remark made by John F. Kennedy in 1962 during his historic speech at Rice University, in which he said “Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills”. And the goal he was referring to of course, was the Moonshot. We make reference to the Moonshot here, because it is a factual record of a project succeeding that should not have. An endeavor with an impossible target, or at least one that was highly, highly improbable in the given time-frame. It is the embodiment of an impossibly “Herculean task”, to borrow from Vaitheeswaran, made remotely plausible through the efforts of a collection of individuals who were organized and oriented towards a singular purpose and outcome. That outcome was quite good.
Without further ado, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, ladies and gentlemen.
(golf-clap please.)
Source: Nasa on the commons; https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasacommons/9458165337/in/album-72157634969149583/
| | [ “On Sept. 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy declared that by the end of the decade, the United States would land astronauts on the Moon. It was 57 years ago today when Kennedy stood in front of a crowd of roughly 35,000 at Rice University and delivered his historic speech.” ] | |
“So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer, to rest, to wait.
If this capsuled history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man in his quest for knowledge and progress is determined and cannot be deterred.
But why some say the moon? Why choose this as our goal?
And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why 35 years ago fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon.
We choose to go to the moon.
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we’re willing to accept.”
- John F. Kennedy
