File:Bioneers-Hawken-Being Fierce and Fearless.jpg

File
File history
File usage

Size of this preview: 657 × 599 pixels. Other resolution: 751 × 685 pixels.

Original file ‎(751 × 685 pixels, file size: 130 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Paul Hawken interviewed by the Bioneers

Be Fierce and Fearless

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Bioneers

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/ProjectDrawdownCO2

Social entrepreneur and author Paul Hawken is a leading voice in the environmental movement... As humanity seeks to rise to the challenge of our time, Hawken provides a refreshingly positive and comprehensive approach to global warming solutions in many of his bestselling books, including the latest, Drawdown – The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming.

Bioneers sits down with Paul Hawken to learn more about his work and his plan for helping build a more connected world.

BIONEERS: In what ways have you seen the world change as a result of your work on Drawdown?

HAWKEN: My guess is that Drawdown moved the conversation away from despair to a sense of possibility for many people. We know that it is being taught here in the U.S. from 4th grade to MIT graduate school, and that it is in 14 languages now. All of this has surprised our publisher as, generally speaking, climate books don’t sell very well and Penguin was hesitant to publish it for that reason. The outcome is the opposite. It started out as a New York Times bestseller, and this latest printing, the eleventh, was its biggest printing ever. I can’t say what the results are so much as point to a hunger people have for enacting solutions. There are “drawdown”-named groups around the world who have come together to apply solutions that are applicable to their region, city, country.

BIONEERS: Drawdown, was published in 2017. Based on what’s happening in the world environmentally and politically right now, would you make any changes to the book if it were being published in 2019?

HAWKEN: The book was intended to have a sequel called Regeneration, which is what I am working on now with Lynne and Bill Twist at the Pachamama Alliance. Drawdown mapped, measured, and modeled the most substantive solutions to reversing global warming. However, models do not instruct us as to what to do, how to do it, how to prioritize, or the interrelationship among living systems, social justice and climate.

Regeneration is the social expression of Drawdown on a deeper systemic, biological, and human level. We have to be careful that we do not fall into a conceptual trap that we need to “fix” the climate. That is the same thinking that broke it, making the atmosphere something separate and “other.” What we need to transform is how we relate to life down here, both nature and each other. Social justice is at the heart of regeneration and our ability to reverse the climate crisis. Othering Indigenous people, races, religions, regions, and nature is the fundamental disease of our time.

BIONEERS: The Green New Deal proposal got a lot of press coverage this year. What was your reaction to the proposal and the hype—both positive and negative—around it?

HAWKEN: I loved it. It is bold, spunky, and radical. There is so little truth-telling in Washington, D.C., and it was the Green New Truth. It approached the problem from a deeper systemic level, which I think makes it a difficult piece of legislation to pass. My pragmatist side would have done this in steps, making each piece of legislation shorter, more to the point, and easier to get supported.

BIONEERS: When many people and publications discuss environmental issues and climate change, we see words like “fight” and “battle” and “struggle” a lot. In your opinion, is there a way to discuss mitigating environmental issues that is empowering and unifying?

HAWKEN: The language used is very much about sports and war metaphors, verbs that males and the media use for just about everything. Any time there are two sides, we create a semantic coliseum. The term “climate change” itself is incorrect. You cannot fight change. Or if you try, it makes Don Quixote look like a pragmatist. Climate is supposed to change, and the evolving systems of weather are miracles to be grateful for.

The language we hear is about fight, combat, battle, crusade, slashing emissions, the Carbon War Room, negative emissions, decarbonization—all profoundly negative terms. The language and mindset of healing the Earth and atmosphere needs to employ these words: restore, renew, rejuvenate, regeneration, connect, purpose, meaning, respect. What we want to do is change the conditions down here on Earth that are causing global climatic volatility up there and extreme weather everywhere....