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Commentary: Lee is right about one thing. Love is the answer to climate change.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Miranda and Valerie Kemeny hold signs as students gather to call for action on climate change at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday March 15, 2019.

Everyone from news anchors to late-night hosts has had a field day with a speech that Sen. Mike Lee recently gave on the Senate floor.

Amid the Star Wars posters and Aquaman references he used, one line of Lee’s speech stood out to most as particularly odd: Lee proposes the solution to climate change is falling in love, getting married and having kids. Despite Lee’s strange speech and my embarrassment as one of his constituents, I think he at least got one thing right: Love is the answer.

No, having kids does not reduce greenhouse gases, but loving kids might. Love can inspire somebody to take into account the harm their lives cause to others, to change bad habits, and to do better — in fact, to be better.

One lesson of climate change science is that the challenges of climate change will fall harder on future generations. The idea of future generations may seem abstract, but having children or grandchildren can make that concept real very quickly. After all, loving kids not only implies caring for them today but also caring about their future.

Just as we are grateful for those who have sacrificed to make our world better, we need to see that today we are making the world for the future — a world where those we care about will inhabit.

And because our actions are rooted in love, it doesn’t matter whether the people who benefit understand our sacrifices and the ways we have reduced our carbon footprint. This is not about taking credit or out-performing others, it’s about making a better world for those we love and whose well-being will be determined by how we conduct our lives and our business today.

I imagine that some may find this an empty sermon, and if all this amounts to is words, they are right. It takes more than words. It takes action.

But not only can love inspire action, it can also open vectors of meaningful change that do not exist without it. If every person who is complacent about climate change understood how their carelessness will hurt those they love, they might be compelled to change.

It is great source of hope to me that today’s youth, already aware of the threat climate change poses to them and their generation, might be able to get the older people in their lives to think differently by helping them see what is at stake is not just politics but the quality of life for those they love.

I believe that if the goal is to reach more people and to inspire more action, it is not reciting facts and statistics, outrage, sarcasm, action policing, or efforts to humiliate political opponents that will win the day. Rather, it is love that will cause self-reflection, open pathways to hard conversations, change hearts, and heal the planet. While climate change poses an extraordinarily difficult problem, love has to be part of the answer.

Brigham Daniels | BYU Law School

Brigham Daniels is a professor of environmental law at Brigham Young University Law School. The views he expresses here are his own and do not purport to reflect those of his employer.