Drawdown



Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
by Paul Hawken

Main Points:

  • Drawdown (noun)- the first point in time where greenhouse gases peak and go down on a year to year basis. Began in 2001 when Paul Hawken read the IPCC's Third Assessment. Right now the greenhouse gases are 470 ppm (50% greater than pre-industrial age), and if you add the other gases (nitrous oxide, etc.) it is over 490 ppm. We had never been above 300 ppm before 1937. We want an inflection point at around 482 ppm. The plan was written by 63 research fellows, 128 advisors, and 40 outside science reviewers. 80 models and 20 that are "to come". Model both the carbon and financial impact.
  • Previous Plans "the solutions that are offered out there are proverbs" (Scientific American): Forego fossil fuels, move closer to work, consume less, be efficient, eat smart. Or (Union of Concerned Scientists): Change the car you drive, make your home air tight, use power strips in home entertainment, wash clothes in cold water, and buy less stuff. 
  • Rank by 2050- carbon impact- stop putting carbon into the atmosphere (conservation, efficiency, or substation) or sequestration (forests, farmlands, etc.). Measured in number of gigatons of CO2 reduced or sequestered. 
  • Net Cost- cost compared vs if you were not going to do this.
  • Net Savings- Over the lifetime how much would it cost? 
Examples:
  • Improved Rice Cultivation- rice is a source of methane. Anaerobic before then, should place the plants farther apart and increase production. One farmer walking across a field. $519.1 Billion net savings, 11.34 Gigatons of CO2 reduced, no net cost. 
  • Offshore wind- 14.1 Gigatons reduced , $572 Billion net cost, and $274.6 Billion net savings.
  • Coastal wetlands- 3.19 Gigatons reduced and 53.34 Gigatons of CO2 protected
  • Nuclear - 15.81 Gigatons reduced, $0.88 Billion Cost, and $2 Trillion in net savings.
  • Rooftop Solar- 24.6 Gigatons CO2 Reduced, $453 Billion Net Cost, $3.46 Trillion Net Savings
  • Educating Girls- 59.60 Gigatons of Reduced CO2. If girl isn't taken out of middle school, she gets to choose to be a woman on her own terms. Her rate of reproduction goes from 5 on average down to a reproduction rate of 2. 
  • Forest Protection- 6.2 Gigatons reduced, and 896.2 Gigatons of CO2 protected
  • Tropical Forests (Rain Forest protection and restoration)- 61 Gigatons of CO2 reduced
  • Women Smallholders- 80% of the food is produced by small farms. And 80% of those small farms are women, and the other 20% are big agriculture. This has a reduced CO2 of 2.06 Gigatons and $87.6 net savings. The solution is that she gets the same seeds, food, and tools that men have. 
  • Reducing Food Waste (#3 Solution)- 
  • Plant Rich Diet (#4 Solution)- 66.11 Gigatons, reducing the annual intake of protein until which point you are healthy. Raising the caloric protein content for those who have insufficient nourishment. 
Surprising things:
  • Food sector is larger than the energy sector for global warming (Food is 8 of the top 20): Reduced Food Waste, Plant-Rich Diet, Silvopasture, Regenerative Agriculture, Tropical Staple Tree Crops, Conservation Agriculture, Tree Intercropping, Managed Grazing
  • Energy is 5 of the top 20 : Wind Turbine (Onshore), Solar Farms, Rooftop Solar, Geothermal, Nuclear. If you add Offshore Wind and Onshore wind it would be #1, not refrig. management
  • Top Solution: Refrigeration Management- HFC's, gases in refrigeration and in AC have huge global warming potential 1000x CO2  
  • Educating Girls (#6) and Family Planning (#7) - 59.6 Gigaton x 2 = 119.2 GT of CO2 which also becomes the biggest solution. "Number one solution for global warming is empowering girls and women."
  • Every year we drawdown 6-7 ppm from plants. 
Coming Attractions: Ideas that are above or below the horizon, 20 innovations of the future
  • Marine Permaculture- big frames made of recycled PET underwater, with pumps that are actuated by rise and fall of the water, and have tubes in the thermocline that bring up cold nutrients come up. 97% of heat from global warming is going to the oceans, not the land. So this gets waters to move.
  • Hydrogen-Boron Fusion- Dr. Glenn Seaborg was the founder. Baseload power that can be restarted easily if a reactor goes down.
  • Repopulating the Mammoth Step- bringing animals back to the sub-Arctic circle. If there are grasses there and horses/reindeer/etc, the temperature of the soil goes down by 2 degrees which protects methyl hydrates in the permafrost.
  • Cow walks on the beach- Cows that eat seaweed produce more milk. Asparagophysis taxaformis if you feed it in a 2% level, methane production is reduced 70%. Kelp growth can also deacidify the oceans. 


Listen to Paul Hawken talk about Project Drawdown and the work that his team is currently doing to reverse global warming effects! 

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