Builders and Thinkers of the Week

Welcome to the newest edition of Planet Home’s ‘Solutionists of the Week’.

From established subject-matter experts to rising Solutionists, we want to share their successes and celebrate the achievements of those leading the charge in bringing net-positive solutions to the world. Here’s this week’s roundup of Solutionists making waves in their respective industries.

Hasan Minhaj is a multi-talented comedian, writer, producer, and actor. Understanding the influential platform he built, Minhaj started covering topics deeper than the light-hearted comedy he was used to. Best known for his Netflix show Patriot Act, Minhaj broke down political, environmental, and social issues in an approachable fashion.

Praised for its in-depth research, quality analysis, and expert comedic delivery, the show earned an Emmy, a Peabody Award, two Webby Awards, and landed Minhaj a spot on the Time 100 Most Influential People list.

Minhaj used the show’s platform to raise awareness about the challenges our planet faces, taking a deep dive into the social and industrial phenomena that have a negative impact on our environment. From fast-fashion to the fossil fuel industry, Minhaj shined a light on the important issues we face.

Lucas Joppa, Microsoft’s Chief Environmental Officer, spoke at the Techonomy Climate conference this Tuesday. Microsoft wants to buy carbon capture services to advance the technology and bring its costs down, as carbon capture is currently extremely expensive and at its current status, won’t be able to scale to pull the amount of CO2 we need to get out of our air.

“The market can barely support Microsoft’s demands. There’s just not enough supply,” Joppa said of carbon capture. “That’s fine now, kind of, but it’s not fine for 2030. It’s not fine for 2050. The rest of corporate America needs to get into this game.”

Microsoft has immense purchasing power, and is rightfully applying it to carbon capture. “We came along and said we want a million metric tons. That blew the lid off the market,” Joppa said. “We bought 1.3 million metric tons in the first year. That was the vast majority of what the world had to offer.”

Mei Lin Fung is a technology pioneer who co-developed the prototype CRM system at Oracle, resulting in the largest software category in today’s world, expected to reach $80B by 2025. Today, world leaders consult Fung on many of our planet’s greatest challenges. Fung is a part of Think7, a group of experts from around the world who develop research-based policy recommendations for the G7 nations.

In March, Fung’s nonprofit, People-Centered Internet, submitted several policy briefs with recommendations on potential solutions to our climate crisis, one suggesting creating global “climate clubs” in communities around the world.

“Any school, college, or community center can set up a climate club,” Fung explains. “They could have an Olympics of climate solutions, for example, and compete on climate solutions,” she says. “Young people have the energy to help the climate, but we’re not giving them a place. Climate clubs could help harness that energy.”