People of all stripes whether green-living gurus or thrifty penny pinchers, conservatives or liberals want to use less energy. Now, technology and behavioral science are giving them the tools to do it.

On the first Earth Day in 1970, environmental sentiment was proudly worn and fiercely optimistic. It tapped into a deep concern for our future shared by young and old; rich and poor; left, right, and center. Now, as the world faces an accelerating global climate crisis, political will has faded and divided. Grand bargains are far from view. And failure to find common ground and cut carbon pollution could tank the biosphere in ways we cant imagine.

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And yet, today, Im hopeful.

Even though almost all climate scientists agree that human activity is warming the planet, climate change remains politically divisive. But the same can no longer be said of climate solutions. A growing body of evidence suggests that people everywhere, of every political stripe, want to use less energy derived from fossil fuels. And now, technology, economics, and science are aligning behind them.

If the public and private sectors can work together and seize this moment, millions of Americans will soon have powerful new tools to reduce their energy consumption and curb our carbon emissions. The four big ideas below outline the space where consumers and companies, government and industry, left and right find that their common interests saving energy and money align to help save the planet.

On April 23, 1970, The New York Times wrote of the original Earth Day: Conservatives were for it. Liberals were for it. Democrats, Republicans, and independents were for it. So were the ins, the outs, the executive and legislative branches of Government.

Today, Im not sure you could write the same sentence. But you could about energy efficiency. Our behavior as energy consumers is nearly universal; we dont like waste. We dont like throwing money out the window. We want to be good neighbors and good citizens. As it turns out, these things mean as much to people in red states as they do to people in blue states.

Theres plenty of data to prove it, but its easier to look at our statehouses. Even at a time of profound political division, energy efficiency laws have quietly swept across more than half the union from North Carolina to Texas to California. Everyone agrees we shouldnt be wasting energy, and nearly everyone agrees we should be doing something about it.

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Climate change is divisive. Climate solutions are not.

2 hours 58 minutes ago by PRESS RELEASE

It's a moment the married mother of three children, and grandmother of five, has been anticipating for 43 years.

"It was just something I always wanted to do," said Rasmussen, who will be awarded a bachelor's degree in General Studies, with a concentration in behavioral science, at Spring 2014 Commencement ceremonies.

Georgia was just shy of earning a degree from UL Lafayette in 1971, when she, husband Mike and their young son moved to California. Mike, who earned a computer science degree from UL Lafayette in 1970, had enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and would remain stationed in San Diego for four years.

At the time of the move, Georgia had earned 129 hours as an elementary education major. She planned to complete a few remaining degree requirements once the family got settled. But, as she puts it, "life happened."

The couple shared one car, which made attending college classes difficult. Tuition costs in California turned out to be higher than expected. And, as the demands of family life slowly took over, Georgia's college dreams receded.

But they never faded completely. Last fall, she enrolled in the University's distance learning program. "It was my turn," Georgia quipped. Mike, who earned two advanced degrees over the years, agrees. He says "Gee Gee," as he calls Georgia, spent years putting her family's needs first.

The couple, who moved to the New Orleans area after Mike retired from the Navy, raised three children - two sons and a daughter - before relocating to Matthews, N.C. in 1998.

Along the way, Georgia made "significant contributions to our community in city government, the local school system, community hospital, social organizations and Chamber of Commerce," Mike stated via email.

Her devotion helped all of the couple's children earn college degrees, and go on to successful careers. Michael, 44, is a restaurant manager in North Carolina; Christopher, 39, is an attorney in Chicago; and Karen Foster, 35, is an office manager in North Carolina.

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Wife, mother decides it's her turn to get college degree

Like a Jehovahs witness, if you show up at their door and say, Can I interest you in some behavioral economics, theyll say no

When news broke this January that New York magazine was expanding its trademark brand of psychology-backed cultural analysisplayed out in features about dating, parenting and popularityinto a vertical covering social science, the news was a hiccup in the splashier announcement that the mag was reducing its print edition.

The vertical, Science of Us, launched quietly earlier this week, with an array of pieces tying psychology and behavioral economics to the way we live. Louis C.K.s exploration of dating while a fat woman was explored in a newsy piece on why overweight men find it easier to attract partners than their overweight female counterparts and an explanatory piece, perfectly designed for Facebook swapping, gave scientifically-informed tips on winning political arguments. (In the first four hours it was posted, it was shared 61 times.) Theres also the usual quick coverage of takeaways from psychology studies and a more substantial piece by Lisa Miller, exploring whether anxious people make more moral decisions.

Science of Us aspires to explain human experience through social sciencea task which, at its best, is fascinating and illuminating and at its worst is incredibly problematic and fear-mongering. CJR caught up with editor Jesse Singal a few weeks before launch, to talk about how New York is championing social science, and how the magazines breezy tone can translate into rigorous coverage.

Why did New York decide to dedicate a space to social science?

I think that their thought was that you can get people in by asking universal questions about anything. And theyve had some very successful magazine features in that space. Like Jennifer Seniors high school parenting piece [The Collateral Damage of a Teenager.] Her stuff in general, I think it did well. The pieces, which on the one hand dealt with universal themes and, on the other hand, when you read themshe actually gets pretty wonky. Like, in this very lively New York Magazine friendly kind of way. Theres a lot of good social science in there and people want to read this stuff. And once theyre in the door you can sort of bring them a lot of social science if you do it in the right way. This is sort of my line, not New York magazines line, but I think everyone is interested in social sciencethey just dont know it. Like a Jehovahs witness, if you show up at their door and say, Can I interest you in some behavioral economics, theyll say no.

So how does this kind of story change when youre shifting from print to digital?

In some ways, its the same. Like, we want to occasionally run those bigger feature stories that hopefully generate a lot of discussion and controversy. But we also need to figure out a way to tackle the news on a daily basis. So one of the big questions were struggling with is: When is it time to jump on a news story?

Alexis Sobel Fitts is an assistant editor at CJR. Follow her on Twitter at @fittsofalexis.

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New York launches new social science vertical