If protecting and restoring the climate is the existential work of our generation then we should probably just pay people to do it.
This is not how it usually goes for human catastrophes. We forget how extremely lucky we are to actually know the answers to the climate crisis.
This is not like the COVID-19 crisis, where uncertainty plagues our every decision. History shows what’s worked for past pandemics, but can’t guarantee 100% efficacy today because this virus is so new. Like ‘born in 2019’ new.
Climate breakdown is not new, and the story is pretty much unprecedented in it’s level of corroboration now across seven decades of continuous scientific discovery.
If we stop polluting the atmosphere with 50 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases every year and reverse the destruction of Earth’s incredibly diverse and beautiful ecosystems — the most powerful carbon capture and storage systems on the planet — the energy hitting us from the sun will escape back into space like it used to and our planet will stop burning.
For the technically inclined reader, here’s the equation:
🏭 🛢️ ⏬ + 🌲 🐼 ⏫ = 🌍 💖
We know the answers, but moving the world to action is another story. We haven’t completely solved for that part yet. But hey I don’t know — maybe just paying people to do the good work of restoring the planet would help move things along?
I don’t love carbon offsets like I don’t love money, but I do love forests and the people connected to forests. Actually I love the entire diversity of life on this planet. And I’m part of a team that’s been building one of the most progressive forest carbon projects in the world to protect all these things.
We’re on the solutions side of the equation and carbon offsets are definitely not the only thing we’re building right now, but they can be part of the answer.
The idea is to pay citizens to take care of the special Acadian forest — one of the most diverse and threatened forests in Canada — by storing as much carbon as possible on the land for as long as possible. It’s a challenge that literally tens of thousands of family forest owners are ready for, and our movement is growing every day.
People can actually do this and protect the climate if we make it their day job. Paying people to do the most important work on the planet today makes sense to me.
“The single most urgent, emergent, immediate risk is to combat COVID-19, and its health, economic and social consequences. But the single most important intergenerational responsibility is to protect the planet.” [1]
— Ángel Gurría, Head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
[1] ‘Put a big fat price on carbon’: OECD chief bows out with climate rally cry. The Guardian. February 17, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/17/oecd-chief-angel-gurria-environment-covid-price-carbon
