It involves a lot of modeling, research and math because the solutions and the causes of emissions are intricately interrelated. We set out to do it, but it’s complicated to say the least. It’s never been done, which is odd when you think about it. PH: Even though climate change has been in the public realm of knowledge for four decades, no one had ever mapped, measured and modeled the 100 most substantial solutions to reversing global warming. Can you tell me about the scientific team you worked with on this project? In other words, not a moonshot or a silver bullet, but what humanity already knows and is doing.ĭS: A lot of work went into analysing those techniques. The question is can we lower anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from human activity and land use back such that what’s drawn down is greater than the amount that's emitted? I engendered this project in order to see if that was possible within 30 years using existing practices, techniques and technologies. We actually draw down six to seven parts per million of CO 2 every year.
PAUL HAWKEN DRAWDOWN FULL
Then in May-June, you start to see a change: The CO 2 is reduced, and you start to see oxygen being generated because you have photosynthesis coming into full bore in the north. Second, if you look at NASA’s atmospheric simulation over a year, you will see a tremendous amount of CO 2 being emitted in the northern hemisphere during the winter, from heating, cars, transportation and electricity generation. For me survival is more realistic than going over a cliff. That's what drawdown is about.ĭS: It seems like you set up your book to be a response to the people who might say that drawdown isn’t a realistic goal. It seemed to me that we needed a new meme and that should be reversal, from reduction to reversal. It just changes the rate at which you’re going down the wrong road. Can you slow down?” It doesn’t change the road you’re going on. Reduction or mitigation is like asking, “Humanity, you’re going down the wrong road.
I believe the words mitigation, reduction, stabilisation are rather weak goals in the face of what we know, don’t know and where we are. My sense is that we are underestimating the impact on climate, weather, oceans, food and civilisation.
We are in terra nova, a very different earth. Humanity – genus Homo, whether it’s Homo sapiens or Homo erectus – has never existed when CO 2 levels in the atmosphere were above 300 parts per millions until around 1935. Paul Hawken: If you look at the rate greenhouse gases have increased over the last 150 years, but mainly the last 20 to 30 years, it is extraordinary. It’s like saying let’s fight the wind or ocean currents or sunshine." Photo: Paul Hawken What makes this a different approach?Īuthor and activist Paul Hawken says "You can’t fight climate change. This conversation has been edited for length and for clarity.ĭaniel Strain: Drawdown is a shift from what many who work in climate change science or policy talk about today, which is mitigation or reaching net-zero emissions. He also discusses why, in many cases, people who talk about climate change are "trying to go into a locked back door to human understanding." Hawken sat down with Future Earth to talk about Project Drawdown. Hawken’s team reports that it could capture more than 30 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2050. But there are less well-known solutions like silvopasture, a practice of raising livestock in pastures made up of trees and grasses. The list includes commonly-cited technologies like rooftop solar, which could reduce the worlds carbon dioxide emissions by 25 billion tonnes. They also included solutions that sequester carbon dioxide through land use practices by 2050. They then calculated, using computer simulations, or models, how each of those solutions could either reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions.
To achieve this goal, Hawken and a team of scientists compiled a list of the 100 most substantive solutions to climate change. But his latest effort Project Drawdown, which has inspired a book and a website, tries for something different: It’s a how-to guide for not just slowing down climate change but reversing it – transforming the planet so that it pulls carbon dioxide back out of the atmosphere. The environmental writer and activist’s 2007 book Blessed Unrest, for example, chronicled the breadth of environmental and social justice movements around the world. Paul Hawken is no stranger to talking about climate change and other environmental crises. Getting to Drawdown: Q&A with Paul Hawken
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