There is no doubt that climate change will have a major effect on my daughter's world - our daughters' world.

We are already dealing with the consequences of climate change. Now I'm doing what I can to accelerate "adaptation and mitigation" efforts, or as I've heard it put, "managing the unavoidable and avoiding the unmanageable".

When I speak to people about climate change, whether through the slide show or otherwise, they often become engrossed in conversation. To me, it's evidence that dealing with climate change is as much a social movement as it is a planet-sized policy and engineering problem.

For some, solutions to climate change feel restraining and counter to the essence of the American dream. I have come to learn quite the opposite - that weaving an energy efficient, environmentally responsible lifestyle into the fabric of our culture will create a better paradigm for the American dream. It will improve global energy security. It will help free the world from the geopolitical nightmares spawned by international dependence on fossil fuels. We will live more responsibly, with a strengthened sense of our global community and a better life for generations to come.

That's a vision I can easily get behind.