Yes, Virginia, they still believe in climate change.

Of all the eyebrow-raising cabinet picks that president-elect Trump has made, one stood out to me: the energy secretary. 

Trump has nominated the CEO of an oil & gas company known for its work in fracking, Chris Wright, to the position. He shares the “drill, baby, drill” philosophy of the president-elect and is also a climate skeptic. But he goes a step further to assert a reality very different than the one the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) inhabits. The IPCC’s latest report (March of last year) is clear that not only is climate change occurring, “adverse climate impacts are already more far-reaching and extreme than anticipated.”  

Yet, in a video Wright posted to LinkedIn last year he said, “There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either.”   

For those of us who work every day to secure a sustainable future, it would be easy to look at the appointment of Chris Wright and think, “That’s it…we can’t talk about climate anymore.” 

The thing to remember, though, is that Chris Wright is in the minority. 

Our surveying earlier this year saw the highest level of agreement in 16 years among people in America that climate change is indeed occurring and caused by human activity. 68% of people in this country agreed with the statement and only 15% disagreed (everyone else is in the middle, agreeing that climate change is occurring, they’re just not sure it’s our fault.) 

Further, 76% of people in America with kids noted that they feel moderately-to-extremely concerned about the impacts of climate change in their kids’ lifetime. 

So, despite what may happen with the appointment of an energy secretary (the Senate still has to confirm Wright), his beliefs are out of step with the beliefs of a majority of Americans who increasingly see the devastating effects of fiercer hurricanes, wildfires, floods and more. Most importantly, people in America aren’t really looking to government to solve the problem; they’re looking to companies for solutions: 

• 61% of people in America hold companies strongly-to-very strongly responsible for making changes that would positively impact the environment. 

• 65% of people in America say a company’s environmental reputation has a moderate-to-very-strong impact on their purchasing decisions. 

• 35% of people in America say that in order for a company to be considered a “good company,” it needs to make a concerted effort to reduce its environmental impact. 

While telling a story about diversity and inclusion may still, unfortunately, get your company labeled as “woke,” telling the story of what you’re doing to solve environmental problems is a winner. 58% of people in America say knowing a company is a leader in GHG reductions makes them feel better about that company. Only 9% say that would make them feel worse about the company. 

So the next time someone in your office says, “Oh, we can’t talk about climate change,” tell them that not only can you talk about it, you should. Because just like the old story of Virginia and Santa Claus, Americans believe.