In a visit to the U.S. last week, Nobel Prize winner and Indian climate scientist Rajendra Pachauri, urged U.S. lawmakers at all levels to make commitments to serious emissions cuts and lead the way for the world in a transition to a clean energy economy. Myself and fellow 350.org campaigner May Boeve caught up with Dr. Pachauri following a panel discussion in San Francisco. He was excited to hear about the work 350 is doing, and urged us to continue to advocate for serious climate action in the lead up to the UN meetings in Copenhagen.

Today Dr. Pachauri has an illuminating op-ed in the Guardian entitled, “The world’s will to tackle climate change is irresistible”. What does he mean by that? The op-ed explains his point of view that the worry that rising gas prices and the food crisis will divert public and governmental attention away from solving the climate crisis, may be unfounded – that instead people are waking up to the fact that these crises are indicators of larger problems caused by many decades of poor development choices, and that the traditional economic quick fixes will not be good enough this time around. He ends by adding that he “believe[s] the current generation is ready for such a shift”.

Let’s show the world’s leaders that these problems are connected – and that the solutions ought to be too. We can resolve today’s crises while ensuring that our solutions to those problems are in line with solving the greater, long term crisis of climate change.

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