Building Bridges for a Stronger Climate Politics

Published: Aug. 5, 2019, 11 a.m.

Bishop Garrison’s son, Gus, is just over a year old. Nothing is set in stone for him; he’s full of open-minded wonder, curiosity, and exuberance. For Bishop, it’s a perfect representation of the kind of world he’s working to create in his professional life: as president and co-founder of the Rainey Center, Bishop envisions a post-partisan America that’s built bridges across all sorts of divides. In fact, the Center came to be through a friendship between Bishop – an African American, left-leaning man working in national security – and Sarah Hunt – a conservative woman working in clean energy. Today, their organization embraces the idea that diverse voices lead to creative solutions, and they never shy away from the most difficult conversations. They see the world the way Gus does, and maybe that can scale: an inclusive worldview for a stronger climate politics.