Climate change is becoming a climate crisis.
The stage looming is catastrophe — unless people act.
Paul Hawken wrote “Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation” to help lead change. Jane Goodall’s foreword sets the mood explaining that taking care of the planet also means helping people.
There’s a self-awareness as Hawken knows getting people to read this poses two challenges. First, stories about the environment can be, well, dull.
“Climate is quite probably the most boring subject the science world has ever had to present to the public,” Hawken says, quoting a frustrated marine biologist. Seriously, who wants to listen to a lecture on algae?
Second, once aware of the problems, they seem insurmountable. Air pollution, global warming, factory farming – who can understand it all? Or know what the best answer is?
Wood pellets have been promoted as a clean, carbon-neutral energy source. Yet, typically wood-pelleting factories “are built in lower-income African American communities, creating high rates of asthma and lung disease,” Hawken says.
Sometimes it seems as if the climate crisis offers no solutions — just different problems.
“It’s natural to feel overwhelmed,” Hawken says.
So, he writes, the first step is to understand the situation by seeing the big picture. He suggests following Kimberly Nicholas’ lead. A top climate scientist, she boiled the entire complicated subject down to five simple facts: The Earth is warming, it’s our fault, we’re sure, and it’s terrible.
Her fifth fact? “We can fix it.”
The next step, Hawken says, is to get specific. His book breaks down the topic into dozens of short chapters, illustrated with beautiful color photos and single simple issues, from Earth-friendly farming to clean energy. Then it holds out hope by pointing out various steps that people can take, large and small, to restore the planet.
Protecting trees is critical.
“Forests are crucial to our well-being,” Hawken says. “They are watersheds, habitat and refuge. They clean the air, cool the air, and create the air. Forests cover nearly 30 percent of the Earth’s terrestrial surface … contain most of the planet’s terrestrial plant and animal species.”
The problem, not surprisingly, is profit. Turning trees into money fast means cutting them down. Arbor Day is lovely as an idea, but people running a business don’t have time to admire the majestic trees they own. They have to convert them into lumber or palm oil — or get rid of them to make space for crops or cattle.
Reforestation isn’t a perfect answer, either. Companies may brag they plant one tree for each they destroy, but a tiny sapling doesn’t immediately replace a massive oak. Hawken argues that instead of one quick fix, we have to look to a multitude of solutions, from turning away from palm oil (which is unhealthy to begin with) to exploring alternative crops like bamboo.
Farms present another challenge for our environment. Modern agriculture has helped feed the world, but it has also poisoned the earth. Regimented rows of crops eliminate ground cover such as crimson clover that fights erosion. Constant, large-scale plowing degrades the soil. Pesticides and fertilizers pollute our air and water.
Yet, some natural answers already exist. Adding worms to ordinary compost makes it a superfood for plants; one study showed it boosts crop yields by 25%.
Sometimes people can do the most by simply doing a little less. Letting a field go fallow for a season helps repair the soil. Stopping the overgrazing of livestock gives grasslands a chance to regenerate. Ending overharvesting allows fish stocks time to replenish.
“The default mode of nature is regeneration,” Hawken writes. “It is not the land that is broken, but our relationship to it. Nature has been recovering from disturbances for eons, including floods, fires, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions and even an occasional asteroid strike.”
The world knows how to heal itself, and we only need to get out of its way.
Of course, most Americans don’t live in forests or on farms. But there are plenty of problems around the urban landscape, too. And maybe even a few time-tested solutions – some of which the modern world has mostly forgotten.
“Twenty-five hundred years ago, Greek civilization faced an energy crisis,” Hawken writes. “The growth of city-states and their colonies required ever-larger amounts of fuel to heat homes and public buildings. The main source was wood, and forests were being destroyed.”
So, the ancients turned to solar energy.
New cities were constructed with buildings facing south to use the sun’s warmth more efficiently. “Build the south side higher to get the winter sun and the north side lower to keep out the cold winds,” Socrates advised. “In summer, the roof will afford an agreeable shade.”
The architects of ancient China and Rome used the same commonsense ideas. But people built ever-taller buildings, and they turned to fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. Skyscrapers added huge windows, then sealed them shut, requiring massive air-conditioning.
Energy-efficient alternatives still exist, though. And the move toward them has become a rush.
“More than 100 cities worldwide already get 70 percent or more of their power from renewable energy,” Hawken writes. “Denmark set a formal goal of 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 and is now halfway there.”
Of course, not everyone is thrilled with people weaning themselves from fossil fuels.
In 1976, Manhattan’s 11th Street Energy Task Force erected a wind turbine atop an Alphabet City tenement, providing power to residents. Excess energy was sent back over Con Ed’s grid, which meant the building’s electric meter ran backward. The utility promptly sued to shut them down — and lost.
And the following summer, when the rest of the city lost power, the little windmill kept the lights on at 519 E. 11th St.
People don’t need to build their own wind turbines to give their homes an upgrade. There are more than 1 billion drafty old buildings in the world. And simple fixes – better insulation, sturdier windows, more efficient heating and cooling systems – would not just save enormous quantities of energy but also boost employment.
“There are 79 million single-family homes and 45 million more households in apartments, condos, and duplexes (in America),” Hawken writes. “Nearly half of residential buildings were constructed before 1973. ... A nationwide retrofitting program would mobilize more than a million people.”
Another big idea is to simply think small. What if people did not have to drive 45 minutes to work or half an hour to a big box store? What if everything they needed was within walking distance of their homes, or just a short bus or bike ride away?
Cities from Portland to Paris are moving toward this model, dubbed “the 15-minute city.” Reducing automobile traffic not only cuts air pollution – a contributor to lung disease and heart problems – but excess noise as well, proven to increase depression and anxiety. And it brings people together, creating community.
And community is how real, lasting change always begins.
“The climate crisis is not a science problem,” Hawken writes. “It is a human problem. The ultimate power to change the world does not reside in technologies. It relies on reverence, respect, and compassion – for ourselves, for all people, and for all life.”