“Drawdown is that point in time when the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere begins to decline on a year-to-year basis.”
— Drawdown
Climate Change is an enormous problem. Even if we manage zero emissions, the problem is we have already exceeded our carbon budget, we’re living on borrowed time. We don’t just need to stop emissions, we need to start putting carbon back where it belongs. But there is no single magic solution. The reality is that there are many ways the Climate Crisis can be addressed. The book “Drawdown” looks at 100 of the solutions.
“We would want to implement these solutions whether or not Global Warming was even a problem because they have cascading benefits to human and planetary well being.
• Renewable electricity results in access to abundant clean energy for all
• Plant rich diet, reduced food waste, results in a healthy global population with enough food and sustenance.
• Family planning and educating girls? This is about human rights, about gender equality. This is about economic improvements and the freedom of choice. It’s about justice.
• Regenerative agriculture, managed grazing, agriforestry, silvopasture — restores soil health, benefits farmers and brings carbon back to the land.
• Protecting our ecosystems also protects biodiversity and safeguards planetary health and the oxygen that we breathe. It’s tangible benefits to all species is incalculable.”
“How much is this going to cost?
COST
“We estimate that to implement all 80 solutions would cost about $29 trillion US$ over 30 years. That’s just about a trillion a year. Now I know that sounds like a lot, but we have to remember that global GDP is over $80 trillion every year.”SAVINGS
“And the estimated savings from implementing these solutions is $74 trillion US$ dollars– over double the cost. That’s a net savings of 44 trillion dollars.“So Drawdown is possible. We can do it if we want to. Its not going to cost that much and the return on the investment is huge.
“Here’s the welcome surprise: when we implement these solutions, we shift the way we do business from a system that is inherently exploitative and extractive to a new normal that is by nature restorative and regenerative. We need to rethinhk our global goals to move beyond sustainability towards regeneration. And along the way, reverse global warming.”
I recommend getting a copy of the book Drawdown for yourself. The book isn’t mired in jargon, it’s written to be understandable to ordinary people. And not only will it make a great gift for those interested, and it would perhaps make a good educational tool to share with our public libraries and schools, but elected representatives as well.
Note:
If you missed the sold out event featuring Dianne Saxe, the Environment Commissioner of Ontario last night (January 11th, 2019),
or if you were there and want to see it again, you can watch it on the Facebook Livestream capture here:
https://www.facebook.com/divestwr/videos/356227264929627/