Eric Nonacs: You Can See Climate Change If You’re Looking

I actually think that climate change is the most urgent threat to humanity, and a lot of humanity, particularly those in the United States, doesn’t realize that fact.

“Human beings are like ants—the fact that human beings will always find a way to get around problems is really reassuring to me,” says Eric Nonacs, the Vice President for Alliance and Partnerships at the Skoll Global Threats Fund. Founded in 2009, the organization focuses on five critical “issues that keep you awake at night.” They are nuclear proliferation, pandemic disease, water scarcity, Middle East conflict, and the one that Nonacs believes is the most urgent threat: climate change. “If you talk to people elsewhere around the world, either in the developed or developing world, they are not in denial of the fact, because you can see climate change with your eyes if you’re looking these days,” says Nonac. Despite the partisan gridlock in D.C. around global warming, Nonacs remains hopeful. “I think an individual, or a set of individuals who creates the right team, can change the world,” says Nonacs.

TakePart travelled to the Skoll World Forum in Oxford, England, to pick the brains of the world’s biggest thinkers. These Innovators in Action are changing the face of the future with bold new ideas and profound enthusiasm. Motivated by personal experience and fueled by the hope that things can get better, these innovators—each of them true social entrepreneurs—are improving our world, one brilliant business idea at a time.