Global warming is bad for the environment. Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard it all before. And the Breakthrough Institute in Oakland, California knows that pleading that case is likely to fall on deaf ears. And that’s why they’re trying something different. Instead of making it all about reducing emissions, or making polluting more expensive, they’re presenting the climate crisis as an economic opportunity. NPR reports:

“When was the last time human beings modernized our energy sources by making older power sources more expensive?” [institute co-founder Michael Shellenberger] asks the interns. “And, of course, by now you probably know that the answer is never.”

Personal computers didn’t take off because there was a tax on typewriters, he says. And the Internet didn’t sprout up because the government made telegraphs more expensive.

So instead, the institute is pushing innovation as a solution, instead of regulation. The goal is to find a cheaper, greener energy source, because as long as coal is cheaper, nations will keep using it. So the government, the Breakthrough Institute thinks, needs to increase its funding of clean technologies tenfold. That way, money will be available for the taking for anyone that can develop the next best green energy source. Only then will we see results.

It makes sense–though regulating emissions may work in the short term, looking way into the future, it seems that the only way to reverse global warming is to actually stop using the things that create it. And if there’s no money in it, tapping into some sort of “sense of urgency” probably won’t work–it hasn’t yet. So, let’s use what gets people’s attention. Money.