Kumbaya as Strategy

It can work

When you seek to address a challenge as monumental as the climate crisis, it’s best if you have a number of strategies. Various ways of pursuing environmental progress work differently and are well suited for different people or moments. 

Personally, I’ve always admired the strategy of trying to build a bigger tent and crossing the proverbial aisle. That approach aligned well with my former organization, TNC. In my time, TNC worked very hard to maintain its non-partisan approach, which — let’s face it — is sometimes very hard to do. And it usually worked out very well. Time after time, in partnership with other good organizations, TNC developed strong bi-partisan support from voters across all 50 states in the US. And that led to bi-partisan support in Congress for smart conservation policy. 

Of course, other strategies work too. Take Greenpeace, for example. They are really good at campaigning against bad — and sometimes good — actors. (I remember how they once campaigned against us at TNC. It was very annoying, but they sure got our attention. And we redoubled our efforts in the area they criticized). Greenpeace frequently campaigns against companies that stand to improve on the environmental front. Often such efforts encourage those same companies to collaborate with centrist environmental organizations and many positive outcomes result.

Right now, in this moment of extreme polarization, I think we should double down on the crossing-the-aisle strategy. Otherwise, we risk missing out on important sources of support that are likely available. For example, there are definitely many Republicans who care about nature. Who want to protect biodiversity. Who worry about their grandchildren growing up in a world bedeviled by climate change and who want to do something about it. But, many of them feel like they have been painted into an us-vs-them corner. And if we continue down this path and the elections turn out to be hugely in Republicans’ favor, what hope for progress on climate do we have then? Very little. 

Now imagine an alternative scenario. One in which we intensify outreach right now on specific issues. Where we seek out common ground rather than digging in. We can build momentum for smart policy that can be supported by majority political coalitions. 

My friends sometimes tell me I’m completely wrong about this. They say, “You’ll never win over the extreme far right.” My answer: “We don’t have to do that. We only need a majority of voters.” That seems doable to me on many issues.

Consider some of the climate challenges we face in the days immediately ahead and ask whether this approach might work. Last week, for example, we wrote about the AI revolution and the opportunity to build out the electric grid in positive ways. This would require environmentalists and communities to engage constructively with the people who build transmission lines and data centers. We’ve also talked extensively about net-zero efforts and the need to rely on both nature-based carbon removal efforts and emission reductions, particularly since the latter is proving much harder than anticipated. And we know we need to get creative in finding ways to fund lower-income countries’ energy transition and climate efforts. All of these complex challenges allow for pragmatic win-win outcomes in my view. But such results can only be achieved if the various parties engage sincerely with one another, negotiate, and seek ways to compromise.

We’re definitely kidding when we call this approach “Kumbaya.” The strategy is not at all easy. It’s not like sitting around a campfire and singing songs. It takes hard work. It takes humility. It requires reaching out to regions, people, and organizations where you might be less comfortable. (Believe me, I learned all of this the hard way and made more than my fair share of errors along the way). It requires energetic listening and patient relationship building. It calls for careful consideration of tradeoffs and determining how best to balance different outcomes. And I’m not saying it’s always the answer. 

But if we don’t rev up our efforts now, I worry that come November, we may very well wish we had. 

Onward,