Something that is persuasive for you, is likely not going to persuade your neighbour. We need a variety of arguments to cut through the noise, which are relevant and targetted to the intended audience. To exemplify this, here is a story about the parlous state of Pure Mathematics in this country.

I was chatting to my elderly father the other day. He has devoted his life’s work to Mathematics, specifically the sub-disciplines of combinatorics and graph theory. He is a distinguished Professor, has his own Wikipedia entry and won an award called the Euler Medal in 1998 from the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications (ICA).

But it pains him deeply to see that in Universities across the UK and USA, Pure Mathematics as a sub-discipline is being closed down. He spent his entire career at Reading University, which closed down Pure Maths some years ago, and has had a long association with West Virginia University (WVU) which is also about to close Pure Maths along with other Liberal Arts courses. At least the WVU issue managed to make it into the New York Times.

Doubtless, the reasons for these closures are complex, but ultimately it comes down to the fact that not enough people place sufficient value on the work done in these departments.

When asked why I, his son, should care about his latest ground-breaking discovery, he struggles to come up with an answer. He believes he has just solved a 60-year old conjecture, and is hoping to talk about it in a special event hosted in WVU later in April 2024. This excites him greatly, so much so that it is all he can really think about.

If you have watched “A Beautiful Mind” staring Russel Crowe, the story about Nobel winning Laureate John Nash, you’ll get a sense of the overwhelming, all-consuming nature of being addicted to Maths.

But why?

Because it is intrinsically beautiful. It is worthy for its own self.

This recent conjecture that he (thinks) he has proven is within its own niche. There are only a sub-set of people who find this work of interest. Certainly not all mathematicians, and not even all folk interested in Pure Maths. This is a cohort within a sub-set.

Arguments to cut through the noise

The difficulty that Pure Maths has is that it isn’t solving anyone’s immediate problems. At least with a piece of artwork, there is a chance that you or I might be able to see and appreciate the beauty. But a beautiful maths problem is so inaccessible, that only a small number of people can appreciate it. And apart from beauty for its own sake, no one can find much of a use for it.

The Mathematicians, an introverted set of people (yes – a generalisation), have been terrible at playing University politics. Whether they haven’t felt the need to, or they haven’t been able to, they simply haven’t been able to put forward sufficiently persuasive arguments to cut through the noise.

There are some fundamental cultural and societal questions thrown up by this, not least regarding the purpose and role of education.

Now what does any of this have to do with the need to electrify?

For one thing, just because you find a “thing” interesting, it doesn’t mean others will feel the same way.

We are going to need to find the arguments that will cut through to people. These arguments will vary from one person to another. What problems are we solving?

Declaring a “climate emergency” is usually just white noise.

Talking about how a heat pump can heat your home just as well as a gas boiler, isn’t relevant to most people, who are perfectly happy with the status quo.

Raving about your electric car, and how it can easily transport you down the M1 from Luton to Heathrow isn’t necessarily persuasive when someone has an excellent petrol car already.

Celebrating that Gridserve now have an Electric Forecourt at Gatwick Airport which makes it a doddle to re-charge your electric car is great, but again, so what?

We need to listen to our customers and solve their problems for them.

What is stopping Mrs Miggins from electrifying her house or her car? We probably have most, if not all of the answers already.  But we need to take the time to communicate to her, to make her feel that she is empowered to make the right decision.

At Brimstone Energy, our goal is to de-mystify the Green Energy Transition for regular people. We think the benefits of electrification need to be shared more broadly around society, and we will work tirelessly to realise the Brimstone Manifesto.