Drawdown is billed as \u201cthe most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming.\u201d\u00a0 Hawken says that\u2019s true by default.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo plan has ever been<\/em> proposed to reverse global warming, so it is<\/em> the most comprehensive,\u201d Hawken says.<\/p>\n The reason for the optimism?\u00a0 Through a confluence and compounding of 100 already-existing solutions \u2013 80 well-known solutions with peer-reviewed data and 20 coming attractions<\/em> – we can start on the road to drawdown today.\u00a0 Coming attractions are technologies \u201cthat are incipient, on the horizon, not quite there yet \u2013 scientifically validated but there is no peer reviewed data that we can call upon to model them,\u201d Hawken says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The solutions involve a mixture of technology and behaviour. In the book, explanations of each solution include the amount of greenhouse gases removed or reduced and the cost impact\u2014or in most cases, the net savings\u2014of implementation.<\/p>\n The common renewable energy solutions such as wind and solar are there to be sure, and coming attractions include technologies such as marine permaculture<\/a>, the artificial leaf<\/a>, and smart grids<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, some of the solutions are surprising.\u00a0 While solar often jumps to mind when considering answers to climate change, reliance on solar alone doesn\u2019t give humanity \u201ca hall pass to the 22nd Century,” Hawken says. Indeed, solar technology only stands at eighth in terms of impact.<\/p>\n The third most effective solution, for instance, is reducing food waste.\u00a0 Food requires tremendous energy to produce, and is wasted at scale, often ending up in landfills and becoming a source of methane emissions.\u00a0 The fourth most effective solution is the adoption of a plant-rich diet, and the sixth is the education of girls, not something usually associated with climate change.<\/p>\n Educating girls, though, leads to adult women who have fewer, but healthier children (and of course equips them with the knowledge and skills required to better contribute to the fight). An analysis published in Science<\/em> magazine, based on demographic insights gained from South Korea\u2019s rapid rise from among least to most educated countries in the world, claims that if all girls globally attend primary and secondary school, by 2050 there would be nearly 850 million less people on the planet than if we follow the current trajectory.<\/p>\n The Drawdown project truly began in 2001 after the third assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was published, revealing a more pessimistic view than the second, which had in turn been worse than the first.\u00a0 The trajectory was clear.\u00a0 While some hope was signalled to the world when Princeton\u2019s Carbon Mitigation Initiative announced their concept of the eight Stabilization Wedges<\/a>, Hawken felt that a large proportion of its fifteen strategies to stop just short of irreversible global warming were simply unrealistic.<\/p>\n \u201c[E]leven of the fifteen of those solutions were deeply underwater financially,\u201d Hawken says. Also, they \u201ccould only be effected by a large energy utility or car company, generally the most conservative companies in the world, or types of companies. And they would have to be approved by boards of directors who are the holders of conservatism in a big corporation. And they were assuming, or expecting, or asking them to approve something that in fact would cause that corporation to lose serious money for a long, long time.\u201d<\/p>\n To be sure, in 2012 after Bill McKibben\u2019s frightening Rolling Stone article, Global Warming\u2019s Terrifying New Math<\/a>, came out, many of Hawken\u2019s friends and colleagues expressed to him that they felt it was \u201cgame over\u201d.<\/p>\n Hawken felt the opposite. \u201cWell, if that is having such an impact on people then maybe it\u2019s \u2018game on\u2019,\u201d Hawken says.<\/p>\n Hawken then set out to do what no one up to that point had done:\u00a0 compile a list of the hundred most substantive solutions to global warming.\u00a0 70 research fellows from 22 countries proceeded to work for over two years to organize the answer.<\/p>\n There is no solution too small, Hawken explains.\u00a0 In fact, individuals and small communities can effect significant change.<\/p>\n \u201cIndividuals are not just individuals.\u00a0 They\u2019re neighbours, they\u2019re community, they\u2019re cities, towns, villages. They may be a city manager. They may be a facilities manager for a company,\u201d Hawken says.\u00a0 So when \u201can individual sees a solution that is applicable to the agency in which that individual actually is operative, like a city manager, then he or she can then say \u2018Well look, this is something we can do in our town.\u201d<\/p>\n Gideon Forman, Climate Change and Transportation Policy Analyst with the David Suzuki Foundation, said, \u201cI was bowled away at what this small group of 200 people in southwestern Ontario are doing with their renewable energy coop. The scale, you know, being able to power almost 7000 homes with ten windmills.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s emissions free. It\u2019s creating jobs locally, and people who are members of the co-op are making money from their investment,\u201d Forman says.<\/p>\n In well written and accessible language, Drawdown invites individuals, communities, and governments to understand the compounding effect of available solutions. In Canada, the message couldn\u2019t be more timely. The Canadian government has taken a beating in the media recently over climate change hypocrisy. Last month both Bill McKibben<\/a> and David Suzuki<\/a> came out with articles calling out the federal government on its support for fossil fuel infrastructure.<\/p>\n![\"Solar\"](\"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/app\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Solar.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDrawdown\u2019s Origin<\/h3>\n
Actions of the Individual, the Community, and the Country<\/h3>\n
![\"Community\"](\"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/app\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Community.jpg\")
\nThe Oxford Community Energy Co-Op<\/a> in Southern Ontario is an excellent example. About an hour and a half driving outside Toronto, a local community raised $9 million to fund a wind farm with 10 Senvion MM92 wind turbines. By late 2016, it was announced that the turbines were generating 18 megawatts of electricity, powering 6700 homes.<\/p>\n