Why I Founded Climate Ingenuity

My Story

Most people know me for my hardcore passion for climate policy, so it might seem surprising that I only got involved less than three years ago. Back in late 2019, Greta Thunberg’s movement had just risen to prominence around the same time that the Australian wildfires were happening. Meanwhile, I had just come off an awful semester at college and knew deep down that I really needed to make some big changes in my life. Then, sitting by myself at a restaurant past 9pm on an otherwise normal Tuesday night, I saw a scary tweet claiming the world could start falling apart in five years if not enough is done to cut global greenhouse gas emissions. It didn’t matter at that moment that the tweet came from a climate doomer. Suddenly I had this huge realization that I was distinctly well equipped to take substantial action on the issue, much more than I had previously thought.

However the thing is, like a lot of people I just didn’t know what I should do at the beginning. In the following year, both before and during covid-19, I’d say 80% or more of my ideas to bring about change didn’t go anywhere. At times I felt so overwhelmed as if I somehow needed to carry the weight of the whole world on my shoulders alone. But I kept trying and refused to become one of those people who merely chose “not to think about it.” Then in early 2021 I faced my first major hurdle.