If I have not contacted you for a while, I apologize. I remain as committed as ever.
Given our polycrisis, including the need to cool the planet, our challenge is evolutionary. I have coalesced ideas about a new kind of social change movement based on improving human functioning into a short book:
It reviews Kitchen Table Conversations as a tool for conversations about the economic-industrial system we need to change, and shows how people on the street can become leaders in their own right.
I made a fable about how this vision might unfold. It gives a feel for possibilities.
Becoming an Evolutionary Catalyst also introduces the League of Evolutionary Catalysts – a vision of skilled communicators who are willing to drive this vision.
My earlier book, Inner Work: Resolving emotional triggers introduces ways we can help people improve their own emotional functioning.
Both books have been turned into short courses:
I recently discovered a fresh approach to dealing with global warming. As I will discuss, there are reasons to suppose that neither reducing fossil fuel emissions nor sequestering carbon is likely to have any effect on global warming over any timeframe that matters.
But there is one approach that could be extremely useful, which is regreening desert and arid areas to restore the Earth’s natural cooling system. Our challenge is to make this a public aspiration.
Understandably, many knowledgeable people are in despair about dealing with global warming. I will give references below that discuss in detail why regeneration provides a hopeful path forward.
A strong regeneration movement is already thriving, but we need much more if we are to have a planetary influence. In my view, regeneration on the scale needed can only be done with government commitment.
Which brings me back to the idea of a new kind of social change movement based on helping people function better both mentally and emotionally. In democracies, generally governments will only spend money on good things if there is public will. (Even then, as we know, there is no guarantee, given the influence of vested interests in politics).
If only a few of us champion transformational ideas, our influence will be limited. So my vision is to engage thought leaders and leaders of established organizations. This is one of the things members of the League of Evolutionary Catalysts do.
If you care about the future, I invite you to consider becoming a member of the League yourself.
Aligned, we can accomplish a great deal more than we can achieve on our own. There is a small learning curve, because some of the ideas and communication techniques are innovative.
One group that I reached out to is the Global Compassion Coalition (GCC).
The Global Compassion Coalition has a large vision – millions of people championing compassion – and they offer trainings. I was invited to become a Founding Sponsor of the GCC, and the courses I mentioned above will be offered on their website.
However, to be frank this is not the same as their leaders encouraging GCC members to become leaders in their own right by acting as citizen-educators.
This completes my update. More about regeneration for planetary cooling is below.
Regeneration as a way forward with global warming
It is increasingly obvious to many that global warming is ramping up.
The bad news is that the two most commonly accepted solutions to global warming will have no effect in the near term. I’ll talk about that in a moment.
The good news is that the Earth has a natural cooling system, which is life itself. Forests, savannas, the oceans and microbes in the soil and the atmosphere interact in complex ways that have the effect of cooling the Earth.
These two short videos introduce the idea:
I developed a slide deck to support citizen-educators in communicating about planetary cooling. It has clear images that tell the story. It is useful for one-to-one conversations – which are our most effective way of affecting people’s thinking.
Because the issue is so critical – will we pull back from catastrophic global warming or not? – I suggest that you inform yourself by taking the time to watch these longer videos and read the articles. (Actually, they are fascinating!)
-
Walter Jehne How Healing Water Cycles can Cool the Climate
-
Walter Jehne The soil carbon sponge
-
Alpha Lo The Water Web
Rob Lewis Millan Millan and the Mystery of the Missing Mediterranean Storms
-
Ellison et al Trees, forests and water: Cool insights for a hot world (a technical article with references).
·NOAA The Ocean’s Carbon Balance (a reference for the assertion oceans release carbon in the atmosphere)
Why emissions reduction is not working
Emissions reduction is the most common approach to global warming. Themes include shifting to 100% renewable energy, electrification, and Net Zero Emissions.
Unquestionably we need to reduce emissions. It is imperative to stop making things worse. However, after decades of IPCC reports, COP meetings, National Geographic articles and protests … fossil fuel use is actually going up.
Why? Most immediately, it’s because fossil fuels are essential for the industrial production that drives our growth economy, as well as for heating, transportation and agriculture. Currently the increasing investments in renewable energy only add to the total energy available for manufacturing; they do not reduce the use of coal, oil and gas. Without prior planning, any significant reduction in industrial production will catastrophically collapse our economy.
Since most people in the developed world feel that their jobs, their mortgages and their superannuation depend on economic growth, fossil fuel use will not reduce until people recognize the connection with our climate emergency, and become willing to tighten our economic belts.
Resource demand is amplified by population growth and increases in affluence. In the long run, reducing population is critical.
If this assessment is correct, then the only solution to reducing CO2 emissions is mobilizing public acceptance of the need to slow the economy, and working out how to take care of people in the process.
Why sequestering carbon will not work
Drawing down excess carbon from the atmosphere to reduce the greenhouse effect may seem like a sensible thing to do. People advocate reforestation, building soil carbon, seeding iron filings to feed ocean plankton, and various technological means for taking carbon out of the atmosphere.
Surprisingly there is a reason why none of these will have significant effect on atmospheric CO2 levels within a timeframe that matters. It has to do with simple physics.
The oceans have absorbed about 50 times more CO2 than the atmosphere. Like CO2 bubbling up from a fizzy drink, any reduction in atmospheric CO2 will be replaced by CO2 outgassing from the ocean.
Conclusion
So, we have two almost shocking assertions:
-
Barring resource depletion, economic collapse or nuclear war, emissions will not go down unless we intentionally slow the economy.
-
Even if we magically reduce emissions tomorrow, CO2 levels will remain high
for probably hundreds of years.
We have a wonderful line of solution:
-
Regenerating arid lands on a massive scale.
We are also in ecological overshoot driven by population and economic growth. Unresolved trauma playing out on the world stage is also an aspect of our current situation.
Therefore our challenge is to evolve a compassionate life-affirming culture. The good news is that there are ways to improve both mental and emotional functioning.
I urge all of us to devote a portion of our efforts to this. More specifically I would be pleased if you would become an active colleague in the League of Evolutionary Catalysts.
Warmly,
Andrew
Andrew Gaines
Inspiring Transition
andrew.gaines@InspiringTransition.net
www.InspiringTransition.net
Greta Thunberg will have reason to hope when she sees that mainstream society is committed to turning things around.
#nvaction #gr8transition
