Drawdown: Reversing global warming with current solutions
(Updated 30 August 2018 to include extra links)
Have you been avoiding thinking about global warming because it’s just too scary? Have you been hoping that someone, somewhere would come up with some answers?
Well, they have…
The research fellows of Project Drawdown started identifying and evaluating solutions in 2013. Four years on, they’ve identified the Top 80 solutions we can take action on today to REVERSE global warming. They’ve done the analysis and calculated that if we all put our collective “buts” into gear we could turn things around in just 3 decades.
No government action is required (though support will help) – just constructive, cost-effective, community-building “no regrets” solutions that don’t have a downside. Many of them far more accessible than you would ever have thought.
So if you’re tired of worrying and want to do something worth doing, you now have a list of 80 possibilities to explore. Find out more – or order the book – at Project Drawdown.
Here are the top 15 (of 80) Drawdown action areas:
* Refrigerant Management
* Wind Turbines (onshore)
* Reduced Food Waste
* Plant-Rich Diet
* Tropical Forests
* Educating Girls
* Family Planning
* Solar Farms
* Silvopasture
* Rooftop Solar
* Regenerative Agriculture
* Temperate Forests
* Peatlands
* Tropical Staple Trees
* Afforestation
Source: “Drawdown: the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming”
The full list of 80 solutions in order is here: http://www.drawdown.org/solutions-summary-by-rank
Check a short summary video out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JofB90edhY
Or a longer video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlMLz2u4VGo
24th October 2017 – extra videos
Paul Hawken on useful ways of communicating global climate disruption: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xs-ywk2voQ
Paul Hawken on solving global climate disruption through innovation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY_aMzeJ_p8
8th January 2018
Yale interview: http://e360.yale.edu/features/paul-hawken-on-one-hundred-solutions-to-the-climate-crisis
“If you had asked us at the outset to name the top five or 10 solutions, we would have gotten them wrong.”
“It’s stunning to consider that if you combine solution number six, universal education of girls through secondary school, with solution number seven, access to family planning for women who want it, you get a reduction in CO₂ that far exceeds that number one solution of refrigerant management”
“The way we’re going to solve this problem is with development processes that actually make human life better.”
14th March 2018
“Abandon the “wussy” language of climate mitigation as well as war metaphors, and develop more positive ways of thinking about the issue.”
“Research has shown that emerging sectors that could help address climate change will also create millions of jobs in the future. For instance, the Business and Sustainable Development Commission estimates that sustainable business models in sectors like agriculture, energy, cities, and health could create 230 million jobs in Asia alone.”
http://www.eco-business.com/news/how-to-change-the-climate-story-paul-hawken/
27th April 2018
Paul Hawken’s NY Times article on “ A Smorgasbord of Solutions for Global Warming “
“reversing global warming is bursting with possibility: walkable cities, afforestation, bamboo, high-rises built of wood, marine permaculture, multistrata agroforestry, clean cookstoves, plant-rich diet, assisting women smallholders, regenerative agriculture, supporting girls’ ongoing education, smart glass, in-stream hydro, on and on.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/opinion/a-smorgasbord-of-solutions-for-global-warming.html
Paul Hawken explaining carbon, hydrocarbons and climate:
23 May 2018
AIRAH article talking about Drawdown as a global movement and their specific hub project:
https://www.airah.org.au/Content_Files/EcoLibrium/2018/05-18-Eco-003.pdf
“So what we’re trying to do is open up the understanding of the data and economic resource pathways so that Drawdown is a self-organising process that occurs on different levels of society. And our job is just to basically get out of the way but also to feed and serve that in whatever way it manifests.”
Be excited, be VERY excited…
18 July 2018
A Project Drawdown Wiki: https://drawdownwiki.info/index.php/Main_Page
A Drawdown Podcast: http://www.thedrawdownagenda.com/
30 August 2018
Cities as carbon sinks: https://www.architectmagazine.com/technology/aia-cote-in-conversation-with-paul-hawken_o
