{"id":2446294,"date":"2019-07-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-13T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=309350"},"modified":"2019-07-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-13T06:00:00","slug":"environmentalist-paul-hawken-wants-climate-action-rather-than-hand-wringing-and-he-has-the-steps-to-prove-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/environmentalist-paul-hawken-wants-climate-action-rather-than-hand-wringing-and-he-has-the-steps-to-prove-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmentalist Paul Hawken wants climate action rather than hand wringing and he has the steps to prove it"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Paul Hawken is author of ‘Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reserve Global Warming.’ He is speaking in Aspen Saturday night.<\/strong>
Terrence McCarthy\/courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The irony of having airline flights canceled because of a heat wave in Italy as well as a weather front on the U.S. East Coast and missing a speaking engagement in Aspen on Thursday night wasn\u2019t lost on environmental activist and author Paul Hawken.<\/p>\n

He finally made it to town Friday morning and will speak tonight at Paepcke Auditorium. The presentation, which is sold out, is being co-hosted by Aspen Center for Environmental Studies and the Aspen Institute. He missed giving the keynote speech for ACES\u2019s 50th anniversary celebration Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Hawken said his travel troubles are demonstrative of one of the less glaring implications of global warming.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got the glaciers, you\u2019ve got the drought, you\u2019ve got the famine \u2014 we get the big headlines,\u201d Hawken said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we realize a lot of planes won\u2019t be able to travel, put weather aside, just from heat alone. Combine that with extreme weather and you have what the stewardess said yesterday on United Airlines: \u2018This is the worse year that the airline has ever seen in decades and decades, maybe ever in terms of weather and flights,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hawken wrote the best-selling book \u201cDrawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and his team highlight 100 steps that are being taken around the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and, in turn, ease global warming. The 100 methods aren\u2019t theoretical. They are in practice and proven to work.<\/p>\n

Hawken is on a mission to share those 100 steps. He isn\u2019t a handwringer about global warming. It\u2019s a condition that humankind created, so now it\u2019s a problem that must be solved, he said.<\/p>\n

Aspen Times: Your presentation Saturday night sold out some time ago so we know Roaring Fork Valley residents are receptive to this discussion. What\u2019s it going to take to inspire people on a mass scale \u2014 not climate deniers but folks who are either ambivalent about climate change-global warming or are unaware?<\/p>\n

Paul Hawken: It\u2019s a really important question, not just a good question but it\u2019s an important question because I say the same thing you just said but in a dark way. After 40, 45 years of global warming-climate change being before the public in newspapers, magazines, increasingly so now but it\u2019s been around for the long time, 99 percent of the world is disengaged, doesn\u2019t understand it, doesn\u2019t relate to it, doesn\u2019t see why they should do something or how.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t question the science or the scientists but the science communication, with all due respect, was inept on a large level. It just lit up the amygdala, which is the fight or flight or fear or whatever, and as soon as that lit up, the brain prefrontal cortex shuts down. This goes back ten of thousands of years in our brain. We respond to immediate threat not to future existential threat.<\/p>\n

So the communication is bad about if we don\u2019t do this now, then in the future at some point, this may or will or is going to happen. We\u2019re not sure when or which place, how severe it will be, whether the ocean will rise this much or that much \u2014 all this sort of stuff, speculating on how things are going to go wrong.<\/p>\n

The human brain isn\u2019t wired that way. We\u2019re wired for current needs, current threats. We haven\u2019t spoken to that. What I\u2019m saying is we have to completely shift that focus to reverse global warming and address myriad environmental issues that are all interlinked. (We must) address them on current human needs. Never have so many people had so many needs as right now because there are so many people here. And never have so many people been marginalized as they right now, whether they are working or not.<\/p>\n

Aspen Times: The challenge seems so daunting. Are we just trying to limit the damage of global warming at this point?<\/p>\n

Hawken: The inertia of global warming is overwhelming. It actually changes very slowly and that buffering, that resiliency (of the Earth) has lulled us to sleep in some way \u2014 \u2018I don\u2019t see any global warming, we\u2019re fine.\u2019<\/p>\n

The odds are really long. My answer is OK, that\u2019s the odds. That\u2019s not going to stop me, that\u2019s not going to make me go into despair. I\u2019m going to go do something. I\u2019m going to act. I\u2019m going to work. I\u2019m going to invent. I\u2019m going to write. I\u2019m going to teach. I\u2019m going to do everything I can because that\u2019s what gives my life meaning.<\/p>\n

If enough of us do that, there\u2019s no question we can reverse emissions and return our climate to something that approximates the last 10,000 years in terms of stability. That is true. That\u2019s good data.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s missing is the will. If you just look at the news and the predictions of what\u2019s going to happen, it\u2019s easy to fall into a funk, to stay in depression and I think people are. That makes it all the more imperative that we come together and figure out what to do in such a way that we accelerate the rate of our behavior.<\/p>\n

Aspen Times: Your organization has released 100 solutions to reverse global warming \u2014 is that the right phrase, reversing or offsetting?<\/p>\n

Hawken: The first thing I wanted to do is name the goal. Nobody has named the goal. Mitigating is not a goal. Fighting, combating, tackling climate change is not a goal. All these verbs you read about, these are male sports and war verbs and metaphors. We have to stop using that. It\u2019s just stupid. You can\u2019t fight climate change anyway, it\u2019s supposed to change. It makes Don Quixote look like a pragmatist. That\u2019s just a silly way to talk to each other about it.<\/p>\n

The goal is drawdown, which is the first time on a year-to-year basis where greenhouse gases begin to go down. That\u2019s our goal, to reduce global emissions, which in turn will reverse global warming.<\/p>\n

Can we do it in time? No one knows. Are we going to wait until we find out? No.<\/p>\n

What we did is mapped, measured and modeled the 100 most substantive solutions to reversing emissions thus global warming.<\/p>\n

(To do that, his team worked with a diverse array of scientists and experts around the globe that are actually taking steps on reducing emissions, not just studying how to do it.)<\/p>\n

Everything in Drawdown that we measured and modeled is scaling, it\u2019s here, it\u2019s in place, it\u2019s growing, we\u2019re doing it, we know how to do it. We measured the economic costs and savings, which are enormous.<\/p>\n

So what we\u2019re trying to hold is a mirror to the world to say this is who we are.<\/p>\n

The fact is every problem is a solution in disguise. This is the most gnarly, super-wicked problem that we\u2019ve ever encountered. Therefore, the way to look at it is it contains a plethora of extraordinary, transformative solutions. The question is, are we on it, do we identify them, are we doing something about it, are we coming together, are we communicating in such a way that is inclusive, are we listening to each other? These will enact a larger movement toward addressing what\u2019s happening on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aspen Times: What is the role of businesses in the climate fix and what needs to be done to get businesses to think beyond their footprint and into scale solutions?<\/p>\n

Hawken: The good news is, a lot of businesses are asking that question of themselves, particularly the bigger, responsible companies. You can\u2019t really keep your social license today in business, and I would say for many small ones too, unless you\u2019re aware and you\u2019re acting in a way that\u2019s responsible, meaningful and directed with regard to climate, environmental and social justice. That\u2019s changed in the last twenty years.<\/p>\n

Still, I would say even the most responsible corporations are making things that have so much impact and aren\u2019t really necessary.<\/p>\n

You do see this sort of split where corporations and even foundations who are giving money away and are trying to address these issues, they should really look at their portfolio. How are they making this money? How is this extra money being made? What are these companies doing?<\/p>\n

I do work with some of these large companies and I will say some of these people really care. They\u2019re just people there. They\u2019re like you, me and everybody else. They\u2019re not any different. \u2026 They see what\u2019s happening to their favorite fishing hole. They see what\u2019s happening in terms of extreme weather and they\u2019re just as concerned as everybody else.<\/p>\n

They also have these big, unwieldy organisms called multi-national corporations and they\u2019re doing the best they can with it. It\u2019s good news, bad news. The good news is that now the literacy in big companies is extraordinary in respect to climate and the environment. But the capacity to act in a quick, meaningful way is curtailed by the fact that there are shareholders and analysts and they have to report out quarterly, they have to grow, they have to increase their sales and profitability or they lose their job. And that is a big, big obstacle to real change.<\/p>\n

Aspen Times: Let\u2019s end on a positive note. Pick an example in the 100 solutions and explain how it\u2019s being applied in a meaningful way, in a way a layperson can understand.<\/p>\n

Hawken: Probably the one that most people get surprised about is educating girls, which is the number six solution in terms of ranking. In the past people would say what are you doing about climate \u2014 well, wind and solar, Elon Mush and electric cars and things like that.<\/p>\n

(He explained how the rankings process removed any personal bias by the staff and used scientific data to compile the list.)<\/p>\n

The most surprising one was girls\u2019 education. There are 145 million girls who are forced to leave school (annually) because of circumstance \u2014 fathers and sometimes mothers want them to leave school so their brothers can go to school, or early marriage \u2026. Their education is being terminated and they have an average of five-plus children. A girl who is supported in her education to reach our equivalent level of high school has an average of two-plus children. It\u2019s replacement rate.<\/p>\n

But not only that \u2014 she\u2019s educated, she earns more, she puts more resources into fewer children rather than an impoverished girl becoming a woman putting fewer resources into many children.<\/p>\n

The difference between the high and median United Nations population projections by 2050 is 1.1 billion people. That\u2019s almost entirely due to family planning. So educating girls is one pathway to family planning.<\/p>\n

Somebody once asked me, \u2018What do we do about population, how do we control population?\u2019 I said you\u2019ve got the wrong verb. It\u2019s how do we empower girls and women because they will make really brilliant decisions if they are empowered but if they are forced to do things against their will then they make very different decisions because those decisions are made for them.<\/p>\n

To have 1.1 billion people is a huge difference by 2050. It\u2019s a very significant impact on global emissions and deforestation for food, etc. etc.<\/p>\n

scondon@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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