Dear Entrepreneurs: Climate Change Isn’t a Problem. Stop Trying to “Solve” It.

Get ready for a #HotTake: Climate change isn’t a problem. Yes, I know you’ve heard it’s a huge problem. And because you’ve heard it’s such a huge problem, you’re worried Manhattan is going to be under water, Phoenix is going to be unlivable, and we should all be buying beachfront property in Denver. But I promise, climate change isn’t a problem.

To be clear, I do believe the Earth’s climate is changing, and I do believe changes in the Earth’s climate are having (and will continue having) negative impacts on enormous amounts of peoples and regions. And, of course, I’m not the only person who’s concerned. Other people are concerned, too, and that’s why dozens of entrepreneurs I meet each year tell me they want to “solve” the problem of climate change. But those same dozens of entrepreneurs struggle to make meaningful progress. I’m starting to wonder if they’re struggling because they’re thinking about climate change as a problem.

Any entrepreneur I’ve spoken with who wants to “fix” the climate change “problem” quickly discovers that climate change is too big, too complex, and too nebulous to grapple with as a single problem, and that creates enormous amounts of friction prohibiting innovation. Describing climate change as a “problem” frames it as a simple cause-and-effect scenario…