

Climate science now indicates that global warming would begin to recede after we achieve zero carbon emissions”.

As the author observes, “for decades it was assumed that if we were able to stop our carbon emissions, the momentum of warming would continue for centuries. So what’s his solution? “The only effective and timely way to reverse the climate crisis is the regeneration of life.” Quite what he means by this statement is the subject of the book.ĭespite this gloom it is a remarkably positive work. The Earth will come back to life no matter what. Hawken asserts “we live on a dying planet”, not in the sense that the planet itself will die. We are given a section on “How to use this book,” and I am sure many of us in the impact investing industry will find its “Action & Connection” appendix highly useful. Nonetheless this is a highly accessible book. When discussing the two dozen Arctic cultures impacted, he just can’t help listing – the Inuit, Yupik, Chukchi, Aleuts, Saami, Nenets, Athabaskan, Gwich’in, and Kalaalli…I was just grateful he resisted naming the other fifteen. “We take, we dam, we enslave, we exploit, we frack, we drill, we poison, we burn, we cut, we kill,” and “the proximate causes of the climate crisis are cars, buildings, wars, deforestation, poverty, oil, corruption, coal, industrial agriculture, overconsumption, and fracking”. Less attractive is the author’s fondness for lists. It is a human problem.” Or even pithier: “We are either stealing the future or healing the future.” “The climate crisis is not a science problem. There are plenty of well-turned phrases that border on political slogans. I would recommend the book for them alone.

And the photographs are simply outstanding. It is no surprise that ‘Regeneration’ is a stylish treatise, somewhere between a press release and a political manifesto. He was a press advisor to Martin Luther King, at the tender age of 19, while holding down a job as a staff photographer for The Congress of Racial Equality on the side. His political credentials are equally impressive. He has founded several impact-oriented companies including Erewhon, using sustainable agricultural methods, and Energy Everywhere. Paul Hawken is one of the environmental movement’s leading voices and has dedicated his life to “changing the relationship between business and the environment”. The debate about climate change has moved on

