Sacred Headwaters #13: Practical Inspiration
Things can seem pretty grim both globally and specifically in North America. But it's important to take a step back and look at some of the positive steps towards transformative change.
Sacred Headwaters is a bi-weekly newsletter that aims to guide a co-learning process about the existential issues and planetary limitations facing humanity and about how we can reorient civilization in a way that will enable us to thrive for centuries to come. If you’re just joining us, consider checking out the first issue for some context and read through the other issues when you can. The newsletters are not strictly sequential, but this exploration is meant to build on knowledge and understanding over time. Subscribe below if you haven’t already, and please share with friends, family, and colleagues who may be interested:
Issue #13: Practical Inspiration
Climate grief is a documented and real phenomenon, and unfortunately, learning more has a tendency to make it worse, not better. In North America in particular, it can feel like we’re incredibly far from where we needed to be two decades ago, let alone where we need to be now. That feeling is disappointingly well-grounded in reality (as we’ve learned throughout the course of this newsletter), but that doesn’t mean there isn’t or can’t be cause for hope.
When I introduce concepts like the planetary boundaries framework, doughnut economics, and degrowth, they may seem academic, or even if applicable, somehow impossible to reach. Looking around in many of our countries, it can be difficult to imagine a transition to a system of governance that respects and values anything other than capital — values such as the natural world, future generations’ ability to thrive, or even the cynic’s “ecosystem services.” In this issue, we’re going to break the “no current news cycle” rule to look at how cities and countries around the world are beginning to take steps that have the potential to transform everything about the way they live, working towards a real, functional definition of sustainability.
Part of what I’m trying to do with many of the more theoretical-seeming newsletters is to broaden the scope of what we conceive of as possible. We can have a world where everyone’s needs are met, including those of future generations, but it requires thinking far beyond the bounds of the dominant paradigm in every aspect of our lives. The gap between here and there often seems impossibly broad, but over the last six months (pre- and post-pandemic), we’ve seen inspiring changes around the world that, taken alone, may not seem that significant, but, as a signal of what we can do, represent the beginnings of real change.
“The Amsterdam City Doughnut” (30 minutes)
Economist Kate Raworth introduced “doughnut economics” in 2012 (and we read about it in issue #2) as a global framework for sustainability, integrating social welfare and human rights with biophysical “planetary boundaries” to create a new goal for humanity: living within the doughnut. It’s a valuable concept, but it’s easy to get lost between high-level frameworks and actual implementation. In December 2019 (announcement in The Guardian), the city of Amsterdam launched its version of doughnut economics, downscaling the framework to an actionable city-specific level in an effort to guide their policy over the coming decades. There are two really dramatic shifts at play here: first, and perhaps foremost, they are refocusing the purpose of “development” (economic or otherwise); as Raworth would say, they’re changing the goal. Instead of pursuing economic growth as a goal, they are pursuing life within the doughnut. Growth may or may not be a part of that depending on the circumstances. Second, while they are committed to becoming “net zero” (from a GHG perspective) by 2050, they are placing that goal into the context of far more sweeping systemic changes, something that much of the world is still struggling to do. GHG emissions are not the only thing that matter, and more than that, it’s likely that reductive approaches to GHG emissions reduction are likely to fail because of the hard-to-identify systemic issues at play. The city-level doughnut model allows Amsterdam to use a holistic approach to solving their impacts on climate while simultaneously considering other pressing biophysical crises and the needs of Amsterdam’s citizens.
For a little context on how Amsterdam is using the “City Doughnut,” you can look at the city’s “circular economy” policy page.
Global Mayors COVID-19 Recovery Task Force Statement of Principles (5 minutes)
C40 Cities is a global coalition of 96 cities representing more than 700 million people; they have made a commitment to work towards limiting warming to +1.5C. This short statement of principles contains high-level guidelines for recovering from COVID-19 in the world’s largest cities. Most importantly, it draws links between the climate crisis and systemic injustice, calling for recovery efforts to work towards building a better world, not just rebuilding what we had. This document codifies an inspiring set of goals for municipal recovery, but it doesn’t outline actions. That said, many of the signatories are taking real action: London, Seattle, and other cities are permanently opening miles of roadway to pedestrians and cyclists (banning cars); C40’s “Deadline 2020” initiative is supporting cities’ efforts to implement +1.5C compatible plans; and there is an increasingly broad recognition that a “return to normal” is not an acceptable target.
Many of you expressed a desire for more actionable content in this newsletter. This may not seem obviously actionable, but local government — even in megacities like many of the C40 members — is one of the most powerful leverage points that we have as individuals. I am working locally to get our municipality to pass a statement of principles for COVID-19 recovery that is in line with the C40 statement and with similar initiatives from cities like Victoria, BC. You don’t need to be a “community organizer” to organize your community. If you’re interested in working towards something like this in your municipality, I’m happy to provide resources to help get you started and support you in any way I can; please reach out.
Green New Deals and Climate Legislation (15 minutes)
The Paris Climate Accord established “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs), voluntary commitments to country-specific GHG reductions, in 2015. Unfortunately, the NDCs (and the Accord generally) were both non-binding and insufficient, even five years ago. They’re even more insufficient now. But we are (finally) starting to see country-by-country legal commitments to much more ambitious goals with some countries going as far as legally binding themselves to IPCC scenarios for +1.5C (a target that some consider nearly impossible at this point). In South Korea, the ruling party won the first national election held since the pandemic began with a platform focused on climate and a Green New Deal. Spain is on the cusp of passing similar but even more substantive legislation, tying energy transition in with their COVID-19 recovery, banning all new fossil fuel projects immediately, and creating a commission of experts to evaluate progress continuously. The EU was in many ways leading the “developed” world on climate action prior to the pandemic and they are now considering even more transformative goals, including a legally binding commitment for all member states to be net-zero by 2050.
These goals must be taken with a grain of salt (South Korea in particular does not have a strong history in the GHG department), and it’s very much up in the air whether or not these countries can implement the sweeping changes required to achieve them, but what’s inspiring and new is that we’re seeing a growing number of countries make legally binding commitments to science-based emissions scenarios.
Book Recommendation: The Green New Deal, Jeremy Rifkin
In this book, economist Jeremy Rifkin makes a political and economic argument for a Green New Deal in the United States and globally. But more than just arguing that we need one, he argues that the renewable energy sector is growing so fast that “fossil fuel civilization will collapse by 2028” (the subtitle of the book). The Green New Deal attempts to frame energy transition as both doable and almost inevitable, optimistically arguing that the necessary carbon-free economic transformation will take place over the coming decade. His traditional economic arguments are bolstered by the dramatic actions we’ve seen over the last few months from Goldman Sachs, Blackrock, and the Norwegian pension fund as the worlds biggest investors begin to shy away from fossil fuels. That said, if you’ve been a reader of this newsletter for long, you’ll know that I retain a degree of skepticism about “traditional economic arguments:” the financial and infrastructural implications of the climate crisis have been clear for decades, yet we’re only seeing the beginnings of change in the world of finance now, when it’s — according to some — already too late. It’s also important to not lose sight of the bigger picture: greenhouse gas emissions are just one of the planetary boundaries we’re exceeding and a reductive focus on emissions-reduction, even if “successful,” could easily leave us mired in other equally existential crises of our own making.
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