Corporations are made for a short-term, linear world. They and their owners must be balanced by we who think about the long term, about turns that the universe could put us through. A clean energy infrastructure is vital to our survival, and the time to make it happen is now. If we don’t stop global warming soon, we’ll melt the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, raising sea levels by 16 feet. If we wait until it starts breaking loose, we won’t be able to stop it. The time to act is now.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone off Oregon’s coast last quaked around 9 PM on January 26, 1700. It has quaked 41 times in the last 10,000 years. Less widespread but still catastrophic are the Gorge fire of 2017 and massive 2020 wildfires, hurricane-level storms like the Category 3 Columbus Day storm in 1962, and other black swan events: extremely rare, unpredictable occurrences with a massive, transformative impact. I’d like us to be prepared.