Serial entrepreneur Anshuman Bapna found himself in a self-described mid-life crisis as 2019 came to a close. He'd spent just over a decade in the online travel sector following stints with Google and Deloitte Consulting, and he wanted a new challenge to tackle.
He was exploring several possible industry sectors for his next move, when he came across the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) special report. It had been released in October 2018, and the news, not surprisingly, was bleak.
“One of the key messages that comes out very strongly from this report is that we are already seeing the consequences of 1°C of global warming through more extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, among other changes,” wrote Panmao Zhai, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group I. The IPCC's report, approved with input from leading scientists in over 40 countries, definitively stated that "limiting global warming to 1.5°C would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society."
On the podcast The Brand Called You, Bapna likened his journey to the choice Keanu Reeves's character Neo faced in The Matrix. Choose the blue pill and become oblivious to the world that the matrix creates. Or take the red pill and see through the illusion.
"So once you take the red pill in climate, it's very hard to look away. Because this is a crisis of such global and historical proportions that it feels, once you understood this a little bit, it's hard to do anything else," he explained.
Bapna set his sights on tackling climate change at scale. He spent months studying the science behind climate change, learning the solutions across multiple sectors, and understanding the disparities between the Global North and Global South. But it was a lonely and solitary pursuit, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic hit North America.
"People in his community were not asking the same questions. He didn't have people to talk to about this," said his business partner, climate change educator and clean energy advocate Kamal Kapedia. "And so when we met, we thought, well, why don't we start something for people like him? Start a program that facilitates skilled professionals in making this transition into climate work."
They launched Terra.do, the world’s largest platform for climate action with a bold mission: get 100 million people to work directly on climate in this decade. The Terra hypothesis is that the climate problem is so complex and vast there is no one single ‘silver bullet’ solution. And that "over 50% of the world’s GDP is getting completely disrupted or transformed by climate." Hence the need for 1% of humanity, approximately 100 million people, to either transfer their existing expertise or learn new skills for the sector.
For the last four years, Terra has since held its foundational twelve-week fellowship course, Climate Change: Learning for Action (LFA), for more than 20 cohorts with participants hailing from over 80 countries. The fellows are united only by an interest in learning about climate and taking action. They differ in background, career experience, education, and global location.
LFA fellows commit to approximately five to ten hours per week, which includes a required guest lecture and lab, plus optional topic deep dives and community meetups. To earn the course certificate and 'graduate', fellows also have to complete five assignments spread out across the twelve weeks.
"The main thing that happens is a facilitated personal transition. By the end of [LFA] they really found that intersection between their skills, interests, climate impact and what is possible in their local context,” says Kapedia, Terra.do's Chief Learning Office and developer of the core LFA curriculum.
Bapna is thrilled at Terra's success to date, but knows they are just getting started. "I find a lot of inspiration from the generation younger than us. ... I just find [it] astounding and amazing: their utter refusal to accept that this is the way the world works. ... That is the attitude that I would love to have.”
To learn more about Climate Change: Learning for Action and Terra other specialized course offerings, visit Terra.do and use this referral link for a 20% registration discount.