(Don’t hear much about that, do you? Here’s a great Brad Plumer piece on it.)īoth reduced food waste and plant-rich diets, on their own, beat solar farms and rooftop solar combined. Amanda Northrup/VoxĪlso sitting atop the list, with an impact that dwarfs any single energy source: refrigerant management. The number one solution, in terms of potential impact? A combination of educating girls and family planning, which together could reduce 120 gigatons of CO2-equivalent by 2050 - more than on- and offshore wind power combined (99 GT). Alternatives range from farmland irrigation to heat pumps to ride-sharing. It is fascinating, a powerful reminder of how narrow a set of solutions dominates the public’s attention. A set of scenarios show the cumulative potential. In fact, with the exception of a few thoughtful essays scattered throughout, it’s basically a reference book: a list of solutions, ranked by potential carbon impact, each with cost estimates and a short description. Unlike most popular books on climate change, it is not a polemic or a collection of anecdotes and exhortations. The result, released in April 2016, is called Drawdown: T he M ost C omprehensive P lan E ver P roposed to R everse G lobal W arming. With the help of a little funding, he and a team of several dozen research fellows set out to “map, measure, and model” the 100 most substantive solutions to climate change, using only peer-reviewed research. Since the early 1980s, he has been starting green businesses, writing books on ecological commerce (President Bill Clinton called Hawken’s Natural Capitalism one of the five most important books in the world), consulting with businesses and governments, speaking to civic groups, and collecting honorary doctorates (six so far).Ī few years ago, he set out to pull together the careful coverage of solutions that had so long been lacking. Hawken is a legend in environmental circles.

Project drawdown paul hawken