Paul Hawken and his team of community activists, researchers and writers are creating the sequel to Drawdown entitled Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation.
By providing a roadmap for collective action, the book addresses the grave warnings issued by the IPCC and the Alliance of World Scientists signed by members from 156 countries. They call for successive 50% reductions in global emissions in each of the next two decades if our planet is to avoid exceeding 1.5˚C rise in global temperatures. The scientists urgently want to “avoid untold suffering due to the climate crisis.”
The world is rapidly awakening to the gravity of the situation. Certain informed individuals, communities, companies, cities, colleges, and countries are asking how they can help. Currently, there is no document, book, or website that instructs individuals and organizations how to accomplish the goal in a precise, grounded, science-based format.
Ending the climate crisis in one generation means sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere as much as possible while decreasing emissions of greenhouse gases as soon as possible. To accomplish this, public awareness and urgency are critical to achieve a worldwide collective and committed effort.
Still much of the public in general, despite the urgent warnings by climate scientists, remains uninvolved. Providing both the framework to understand the issue and the direction in which to take action, Regeneration seeks to activate our leaders, negotiators, CEO’s, politicians, NGOs, and all citizens to come together and create a practical, doable, science-based outline for a precise course of action. This book and accompanying video, website, and app will provide such a course.
The Global Cooling Prize is rallying a global coalition of leaders to solve the critical climate threat that comes from growing demand for residential air conditioning. By harnessing the power of innovation, we can provide cooling solutions that enhance people’s lives without contributing to runaway climate change.
How? This groundbreaking competition is designed to incentivize development of a residential cooling solution that will have at least five times less climate impact than standard Residential Room Air Conditioners units in the market today. This technology could prevent up to 100 gigatons of CO2-equivalent emissions by 2050, and put the world on a pathway to mitigate up to 0.5˚C of global warming by 2100, all while enhancing living standards for people in developing countries around the globe.
The Good Food Institute (GFI) is reimagining meat production and working to accelerate alternative protein innovation. They’re building a world where alternative proteins are no longer an alternative. They exist to make the global food system better for the planet, people, and animals.
Globally, meat consumption is the highest it’s ever been. According to the UN, global meat production is projected to double by 2050. With plant-based meat, cultivated meat, and fermentation, we can mitigate the environmental impact of our food system, decrease the risk of zoonotic disease, and ultimately feed more people with fewer resources.
GFI is developing the roadmap for a sustainable, secure, and just protein supply. They identify the most effective solutions, mobilize resources and talent, and empower partners across the food system to make alternative proteins accessible, affordable, and delicious.
Learning Accelerator
Buildings account for nearly 40% of greenhouse gas emissions. Building Decarbonization (BD) involves the design of buildings so that they contribute zero or near zero carbon emissions.
Widespread adoption of decarbonized buildings requires a rethinking of how we design, operate, and retrofit buildings. Much of the technology needed for BD exists today but few building professionals are familiar with these options, how to apply them cost effectively, the role that public policy will play in this market transformation, and how they can be involved to influence and implement such policies.
Approximately 800 colleges and universities in the U.S. teach architectural design, engineering and construction management (AEC) with courses focused specifically on building sustainability, but there is very little focus on BD.
We aim to accelerate the teaching of BD throughout the U.S. AEC classes by creating the first U.S. online Building Decarbonization Learning Accelerator (BDLA) with curated materials that will help college faculty and students teach and learn BD.
Changing the course content at universities is a high leverage, low cost way to accelerate BD by quickly creating a pipeline of talented young professionals that will graduate understanding how to implement solutions.
Over the past decade, polarization and social division have been on the rise. These trends have been plaguing our key institutions, including the public and private sectors, faith-based communities, and educational institutions. Many people are demonizing those who differ from them and viewing the world through the lens of "us versus them." Increasingly, individuals are assailed for expressing doubt in their group’s beliefs or for displaying curiosity about other belief systems. This contemptuous climate has resulted in a deep enmity across lines of difference and a breakdown in constructive discourse. These trends have eroded our democratic norms, led to a lack of shared reality among our citizens, and pose an increasing threat to our democracy.
We believe that to sustain a free, pluralistic society, we need to be able to live, learn, and work alongside those who differ from us. We need to make space for difference and find ways to constructively navigate the tensions that will inevitably arise from those differences.
OpenMind builds educational tools that are evidence-based, practical, and scalable to equip classrooms, workplaces, and communities with the mindset and skillset to communicate and collaborate across differences. Our goal is to reach millions of Americans and help them recognize our shared humanity, embrace our differences as strengths, and work together to solve our collective challenges.
Civil Rights Under Law
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law works to secure equal justice for all targeting discrimination faced by African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities. The Lawyers’ Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to enlist the support and leadership of lawyers across the country in the work needed to combat racial discrimination and inequality – work that continues to be vital today.
Their Election Protection coalition works to ensure that all voters have an equal opportunity to vote and have that vote count. Made up of more than 100 local, state and national partners, Election Protection uses a wide range of tools and activities to protect, advance and defend the right to vote. Election Protection provides Americans from coast to coast with comprehensive information and assistance at all stages of voting – from registration, to absentee and early voting, to casting a vote at the polls, to overcoming obstacles to their participation.
VoteAmerica is a nonpartisan organization founded by a small team of elections and technology experts. They provide millions of low and no-propensity American voters with tools to help register to vote, vote by mail, etc. in order to ensure higher voter turnout.
When We All Vote is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization that is on a mission to increase participation in every election and close the race and age voting gap by changing the culture around voting, harnessing grassroots energy, and through strategic partnerships to reach every American.
Launched in 2018 by co-chairs Michelle Obama, Tom Hanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Janelle Monae, Chris Paul, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, When We All Vote is changing the culture around voting using a data-driven and multifaceted approach to increase participation in elections.
League of Women Voters envisions a democracy where every person has the desire, the right, the knowledge and the confidence to participate. They believe in the power of women to create a more perfect democracy.
The League of Women Voters of the United States encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.