Overview
Most people are overwhelmed when it comes to the thought of climate change, which is preventing us from taking action. An estimated 92% of people are disengaged from the topic and feel they don’t know what to do. But today, I want to share some good news with you that will leave you feeling hopeful instead of hopeless in terms of saving our planet. Just like we use Functional Medicine to get to the root cause of disease in our bodies, we can come up with an actionable, results-oriented plan when we look at the root cause of our climate crisis.
On this episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy, I was thrilled to sit down with Paul Hawken to talk about his framework for healing the planet in a way that dramatically changes the outlook of our world for future generations. Paul and I dive into the complex topic of climate change by looking at what it means to move from a destructive, extractive relationship with the planet to one that is instead regenerative.
The flooding, burning, and other extreme weather events we see are devastating, but they have served one purpose—they’ve taken climate change from a concept to an experience, hopefully making it apparent to more people how imperative it is to take action right now. You might be surprised to learn that climate scientists actually have some good news to share about the potential for us to reverse climate change. By restoring critical areas of our environment to drawdown 9% more carbon, we can offset all the excess carbon in the atmosphere since the industrial revolution. Bump that up to 14% drawdown, and we would handle future carbon emissions between now and 2050 and set the global stage for continued improvements. But it won’t happen on its own; we have to take action. Paul and I discuss how to encourage people to do that and how many of the solutions would create meaningful jobs and other economic benefits.
The food system is the single biggest cause of global warming, soil loss, chemical poisoning, and destruction of rainforests and oceans. A regenerative food system would reverse these assaults on our environment and climate while reversing the chronic disease epidemic in the process and providing additional benefits to the economy. We talk about some examples of that paradigm shift that are already providing us with encouraging data. By 2030, we could create engagement, action, and noticeable results to avoid the worst of global warming. I hope you’ll tune in to learn how.
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