From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
We can only solve our ecological problems by linking ecology and economy. If we can create the right economic environment, change will happen. If it's more profitable to be efficient than wasteful, we will be efficient.
I started to get concerned about the natural world as a child and there are 2 images that I remember always from my childhood. In London Zoo, I remember the sound of the iron doors that clanged behind us as we went in. And there they were… these wretched creatures, walking up and down their very small caged area. I hated it! I absolutely hated it without knowing why really, at that age. Later in the Kruger, I saw a group of lions, obviously a pride, sitting peacefully and calmly under a tree. And these two contrasting images in a way became symbols for the rest of my life and the way I think about wildlife. One is how not to keep them, and one is how to leave them alone where they should be.
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We need to get out of the peacetime footing that we are on and we need to get onto a wartime footing against this climate crisis. During World War II, the US allocated 50% of GDP roughly to fighting, and I believe we need to get to 50% of GDP sustained over 5 to 10 years.
Cities are the future of humanity. How we design them will determine whether we create sustainable, equitable communities or contribute to further environmental and social decay.
The smartest being on planet Earth is life itself. And if we mimic the intelligence of life, life creates with abundance, not with scarcity. Life does not want to kill the tigers for the deer to survive. Life basically says more deer, more tigers, more poop. Everyone's happy.
Somewhere between a quarter and a third of the entire planetary 'net primary productivity' is today devoted to sustaining this one species- us.
This is transforming the whole of our economy and we are seeing more companies making decisions across those dimensions of risk-return-impact and being judged on the basis of the profit and impact they create. It really turns our economies away from risk-return (where they create profit without counting the huge damage they cause) to risk-return-impact.
Our relationship with the ocean is beautiful – you frequently see people at the shoreline, just in prayer or meditating… connecting with the ocean, letting the waves wash over them… Being around the ocean is our connection to something bigger- you can just lay in the ocean and let your worries wash away.
We don't always see change and activism from the perspective of what we're giving, it's too often about taking things away… Don't eat that… don't do that… don't drive that car… we have to reframe and rethink. Imagine if we told people we could give them the universe back, it's a beautiful gift- but also allows us to save energy, birds, insects and more.
Going around the world thousands of times presents you with the depth, fragility, strength and richness of Earth; and gives you a sense of what 4.5 billion years actually means. I travelled with our Earth as it crossed the Solar System and watched as Winter and Summer swapped- it was like watching the world take one of 4.5 billion breaths.
We will pay to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today, and we'll have to take an economic hit of some kind… Or, we will pay the price later in military terms. And that will involve human lives.