What Are the Options?
Reversing the Eco-crisis in One Generation – Part 5
I said, “Let’s make a list of the 100 most-substantive solutions to climate change.” … I wanted to see this list of solutions. – Paul Hawken
Environmentalist Paul Hawken asked:
Do we know what we need to do in order to arrest and reverse global warming? … I wanted to know the most effective solutions that were already in place, and the impact they could have if scaled.
In his books Drawdown (2017) and Regeneration (2021), environmentalist Paul Hawken took on the challenge of reversing the climate crisis “in one generation.”
Drawdown made four massive contributions to the project of reversing the climate crisis in one generation:
First, Drawdown established the concept of a “climate solution” for meeting human needs[1] that people everywhere might decide to adopt.
Second, Drawdown established the concept of climate solutions that delivered climate-crisis-reversing benefits measured by the avoided and/or sequestered greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions delivered by the climate solution.
Third, Drawdown established the concept of climate solutions that people everywhere want to adopt because the climate solution delivers economic benefits in the form of avoided cost savings.
Fourth, Drawdown validated the concepts of climate-crisis-reversing benefits and cost savings benefits by measuring and evaluating the climate-crisis-reversing benefits and cost savings benefits delivered by 93 categories of climate solutions.
Drawdown estimated those 93 categories of climate solutions – when widely adopted -- to deliver more than $97 trillion of avoided cost savings (cost savings benefits) and more than 1 trillion tons of avoided or sequestered greenhouse gas emissions (climate-crisis-reversing benefits) …
Just as Drawdown established the concept of a “climate solution” for meeting human needs that reverses the climate crisis, so might one establish the concept of a “regenerative option” for meeting human physical needs that reverses the Ecological Crisis as a whole.
Reversing the Ecological Crisis requires people everywhere wanting, deciding & acting to adopt things-we-extract options[2] and things-we-use options[3] -- for meeting human physical needs -- that scale back the human-created things-we-extract flows[4] & pollution flows[5] that are creating the Ecological Crisis.
In other words, reversing the Ecological Crisis requires a simple decision-making process through which people everywhere decide to adopt:
things-we-extract options that take less things-we-extract from the biosphere, that is, they take less things like forests, fresh water, wildlife, soils and minerals from the biosphere, or
things-we-use options – like an energy option, a water option, a materials option, a food option, or a manufactures option – that put less pollution into the biosphere.
A things-we-extract option (like re-wilding) that takes less things-we-extract from the biosphere -- or a things-we-use option (like a solar water heater) that puts less pollution into the biosphere -- may be called a “regenerative option” because less things-we-extract flows and less pollution flows allow the biosphere to regenerate itself …
Just as Drawdown established the concept of a climate solution that delivers climate-crisis-reversing benefits in the form of avoided and/or sequestered GHG pollution flows, so might one establish the concept of a “regenerative option” that delivers ecological-crisis-reversing benefits in the form of avoided things-we-extract flows and/or avoided pollution flows.
Less things-we-extract flows or less pollution flows make an option “regenerative” because less things-we-extract flows and less pollution flows allow the biosphere to regenerate itself.
Such lessened things-we-extract flows – measured by an increase in the number of species in an area[6] – may be called a “regeneration benefit” of a things-we-extract option.
Such lessened pollution flows – measured by an option avoiding more pollution than it incurs – may be called a “regeneration benefit” of a things-we-use option …
Just as Drawdown established the concept of a climate solution for meeting human needs that delivers economic benefits in the form of avoided cost savings, so one might establish the concept of a regenerative option that delivers “performance benefits” for meeting human physical needs and “economic benefits” in the form of avoided cost savings.
Just because a regenerative option delivers regeneration benefits (measured by increased # of species per area or avoided pollution flows) does not mean people will want to adopt it.
If a regenerative option does not meet a human physical need – for food, for water, for heat, for shelter, or for transport – people are not going to want to adopt it.
Similarly, if a regenerative option that meets a human physical need costs more money than a non-regenerative option that meets that same need, people are not going to want to adopt the regenerative option.
If people want to adopt a regenerative option, they need to persuade themselves of two things:
First, they need to persuade themselves that the regenerative option meets a human physical need. In other words, the regenerative option has to work. It has to perform. It has to deliver nutritious food, or drinkable water, or a habitable building, or safe transportation, or usable electric power.
If a regenerative option meets a human physical need, if it works, if it performs, it may be said to deliver “performance benefits.” If a regenerative option does not deliver performance benefits, people are not going to want to adopt it.
Second, if people want to adopt a regenerative option, they need to persuade themselves that the regenerative option avoids more costs than it incurs. In other words, the regenerative option has to deliver avoided cost savings compared to the non-regenerative option currently in use.
If a regenerative option avoids more costs than it incurs, it may be said to deliver “economic benefits.” If a regenerative option does not deliver economic benefits, people are not going to want to adopt it.
To recap: a regenerative option that people everywhere want to adopt …
Just as Drawdown conceived a “climate solution” that delivers climate-crisis-reversing benefits & cost savings benefits, one might conceive a “regenerative option” that people everywhere want to adopt because it delivers ecological-crisis-reversing benefits and cost savings benefits.
What do you think? Does this make sense to you?
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Peace and Aloha!
Erik
P.S. I cross-posted this article on Medium for greater reach.
[1] “The way to reverse global warming is to address human needs, the needs they have now.” – Paul Hawken
[2] Things-we-extract options include options for extracting things like forests, fresh water, wildlife, soils and minerals from the biosphere for meeting human physical needs.
[3] Things-we-use options include options for using things like energy, water, materials & chemicals, food & fiber and manufactures & structures for meeting human physical needs.
[4] Things-we-extract flows include flows of things like forests, fresh water, wildlife, soils and minerals out of the biosphere for meeting human physical needs.
[5] Pollution flows include flows of things like greenhouse gas emissions; aerosol pollutants like smoke, dust & sulfates; synthetic pollutants like herbicides, pesticides & microplastics; ozone-depleting gases; phosphorus & nitrogen pollutants; and light & noise pollution into the biosphere from human beings’ uses of things-we-use.
[6] In Regeneration (2021), Paul Hawken asks, “Does the action create more life or reduce it?” A things-we-extract option (like re-wilding) that creates more life – as measured by an increase in the # of species in an area – may be said to deliver ecological-crisis-reversing benefits in the form of avoided things-we-extract flows from the area.