Common Public Challenges

America is going through a monumental transition that we have seen only a few times in its history. These periodic transformations are prompted by deep structural changes to the economy and society – like the shift from an agricultural to an industrial economy, or the movement of people from rural areas to the city. They also are marked by the appearance of unprecedented challenges that the old system, the old politics, are unable to solve. This happened in the the 1930s with the onslaught of the Great Depression and the rise of Fascism. These twin drivers of structural changes and unprecedented challenges then force a period of a couple decades of rapid innovation in government and throughout society that leads to nothing short of a reinvention of America. 

 

All signs indicate that America has entered one of those historical moments now. Our system change is the globalization of everything, with greater and greater global integration to come. The unprecedented challenges are symbolized, but by no means limited to, climate change. We appear to have entered a period that will end up at the other end with a reinvention of America to fit the new realities of the 21st century. In 20 years or so, if all goes reasonable well, we will have figured out a much more sustainable way of living, based on clean energy sources, and integrated into a much more closely interconnected world. 

 

Or America may fail. We may not pull off this reinvention. We may bungle this transition, and not provide the leadership that the rest of the world so desperately needs too. It all depends on whether we rise to the challenge. 

 

Taking on “Challenges” Rather than Just “Problems”

We at Next Agenda believe America will rise to the challenge. We do think the American people, helped by like-minded people all over the world, are fully capable of solving all the pressing challenges of the 21st century. 

 

We deliberately use the word “challenges” rather than “problems” in the above sentence, and often throughout the website. “Challenges” connotes the sense of “really big problems,” but it also is aspirational. If you solve a challenge, it implies that you have moved to a higher stage, achieved something better. That is why we often frame problems as challenges. When we solve them, we should arrive at a better state. This is true with almost all our 21st-Century challenges. If we solve climate change, it almost certainly will mean that we will have moved to low impact energy sources and a way of living that is just better, period. 

 

We at Next Agenda also believe that Americans all over the country are eager to help actively solve the challenges we all face. People want to step up and do their part. People want to contribute their thoughts and ideas, their talents and knowledge. They just don’t know how to productively contribute. They can’t give up their jobs and lives and all move to Washington or work full-time on national problem-solving. But they certainly can do much, much more than vote every two to four years. 

 

Next Agenda will provide one way for people to work together on these common problems. We expect to launch a series of public “Challenges” taking on hugely important problems that the country must face. They all will have common characteristics: 

  • • The challenge needs to be ambitious enough to make a significant impact on the life of the country. 
  • • The solution to the challenge has to be largely unknown to most people or the ideas already developed have little exposure, let alone consensus.
  • • Solving the challenge has to be doable in a relatively short time-span, like  within 10 years or so. In other words, it must be doable given the level of technology and know-how we currently possess. We don't want to spin our wheels on long-term academic research. 
  • • Finally, all challenges should be simply and easily understood, able to be articulated in one clear question, like our first one:

 

How can America get all its electricity from clean energy as fast as possible? 

This inaugural challenge has all the elements of the ideal. Cracking this challenge would greatly accelerate America’s efforts toward solving climate change, and crack a model that others could adopt around the world. No one really knows how to do this right now, beyond back-of-the-envelope calculations, or the occasional lone White Paper. It’s a hugely ambitious challenge, but it is doable with the technology we have. Al Gore has been promoting the need to do this for the last 18 months, before he received the Noble Peace Prize for his climate efforts. It’s a problem just waiting to be solved. 

 

There are many other challenges facing the country that we at Next Agenda would like to take on with time. We will learn much from this public Clean Energy Challenge, and be able to apply our learnings to attack other challenges down the road. One that has frequently been brought to our attention is around the future of food. “How could America shift to more sustainable agriculture and more healthy food production?” 

 

Or out of our Clean Energy challenge is the obvious corollary: How could America reorganize its transportation around clean electricity? If you are designing America’s next electric energy grid it makes sense to also design transportation around that new infrastructure.