Getting the planet moving is an attractive plan. People will take part if it's fun and easy and they can do something, anything, with other people locally. After all, fossil fuels aren't phasing themselves out so if enough people do something then politicians might notice and suddenly develop signs of 'political will'. New policies might blossom like petals on a global green renaissance and the planet will have moved beyond fossil fuels and the risk of runaway climate chaos. Phew!
It would be nice wouldn't it?
My moving planet experience was different. It wasn't a rally, unless 5 people can be called a rally. It was held locally but we weren't thinking locally. We were thinking what can a handful of people do that really makes the planet move? What can be done now that hasn't been done before during four decades of sustainability initiatives that haven't initiated sustainability? Not much?
Plenty actually. We made ourselves hot drinks (on a carbon-negative twig-powered cooker) and spent a pleasant 2 hours in the sun sorting out a comprehensive solution for climate change. No, I'm being modest. Climate change can't be solved as a single issue so we actually sorted out the global economy so markets can in future reverse the many problems they've been busily worsening all this time.
Does that sound useful? I hope so. The proposed solutions are up on a crowd-sourcing site called the Climate CoLab run by MIT. Anyone can post their ideas for the economy and the climate. The best ideas will be presented to top US and UN climate policy makers who will then have to think why they shouldn't happen - or maybe they'll just make them happen?
The first proposal reshapes the whole economy from linear (waste-making) to circular (waste-cutting and resource-making). This would lead society rapidly towards zero-emissions and beyond. The second proposal deals with the deadly neglected burden of accumulated greenhouse gases by exponentially expanding the also neglected potential of photosynthesis and biochar.
Please use the links below to check them out and add your tips as a comment. The proposals need to be robust as possible to withstand the rigours of judges who might not be looking for solutions on this scale. If you like them please click 'support' and tell your friends - thanks!
1. Fix the System! Switch the whole global economy from waste-making to resource-making. This 'circular economics' can reverse all the interconnected mega-problems such as climate, loss of nature, resource depletion and economic decline.
2. Carbon-negative biochar economies. Biochar is charcoal added to soils to regenerate food-growing and forests. This proposal aims to maximise biochar's massive untapped potential as a whole system solution that can be localised everywhere.