The U.S. Electorate Accepts the Reality of Climate Disruption

Last evening, I had a couple of beers with one of my favorite clients, who happens to be involved in ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC), one of the cutting-edge renewable energy technologies.  Insofar as OTEC delivers baseload (uninterrupted, 24/7) power, it has the opportunity to replace other forms of baseload (mainly diesel) as a source of energy for the more than one billion people who live near tropical oceans. 

During the conversation, my friend and I discussed climate disruption. “Do you realize,” he said, “That even the red states have come to accept the scientific truth here?”

For all you outside the U.S. (38% of our total readers) who don’t understand our idioms, “red states” refers to those that historically vote Republican (right-wing).  The import of his comment is that the U.S., regrettably the last developed country on Earth to have wrapped its wits around the subject, finally got the memo: climate disruption is real.

Here’s an article that explains all this.  For the first time in the history of polling U.S. citizens, the majority of Americans now understands and accepts the scientific facts in the space, as laid forth by 97% of those whose life’s work is studying the subject and reporting their findings in peer-reviewed papers.  That’s an important first step towards forcing our leaders to guide us in the direction of clean energy solutions.