The practice of change
Climate change is the talk of the moment with more and more players coming to the field from various angles. With technology evolving at what seems to be an ever increasing speed, it is for most of us very hard to discern what is the right path to follow. Should we rely solely on new technologies to figure out a way to restore the balance in an instant? Or should we trust that nature will fix itself as it has always done throughout past millennia? We seem to be very undecided, too many view points can create confusion, while more and more of us suspect hidden agendas when solutions are proposed. If we offer to plant trees we might be labeled as greenwashing supporters, if we offer to build devices removing CO2 from the atmosphere we might be labeled as temporary fix not addressing the real issue. Wherever we look it seems that we cannot reach a consensus regarding the modus operandi suitable to tackle our issues with climate. The struggle is real, maybe because we keep thinking about an elusive silver bullet that could solve it all in one shot.
So what. There is no question we have probably the coolest planet in our solar system at least from a human being perspective and despite all the talks to find others like it throughout the universe, it makes complete sense to do our best to keep it that way.
Instead of following the OMG! We are in so much trouble but there is nothing we can do anyway (You know this type of line of conduct when it comes to climate change after being told ad nauseam that we cannot keep going the way we do as a global community and yes it can be crushing at a personal level to feel your own insignificance.), we have started to look at it as a gigantic puzzle, one piece at a time and how to connect them all. Deep down we know that this is a game of connecting the dots, there is no ONE solution to fix it all, there are plenty of solutions that need to be implemented, one project at a time.
This is what we do at Biodiver.City.
We are building a network of competencies restoring biodiversity through the realization of projects, making sure these projects tick what we call the triple win bottom line:
1. Rebuild natural capital, soil carbon and biodiversity.
2. Build social capital within cities.
and
3. Build up capital from impact investment.
During our journey we found out that identifying change of practice is the first step that needs to be taken. We heard Gandhi’s sentence so many times “Be the change you want to see in he world.”, its relevance unchanged, we can build the world we want as long as we are ready to walk the talk. Let’s clarify that we are not about fomenting a revolution, we are about finding practical solutions for the soil, “soilutions”, that can help fixing our current issue with climate. It can be resumed to this: Too much of a good thing in the wrong place. Yes, too much CO2 in the atmosphere and not enough C in the soil.
Now why would anyone want to change their practice? Old habits die hard, right? Getting out of our comfort zone is challenging to say the least and how many times do we hear: “We’ve always done it that way…”. There must be an incentive of sorts and it has to be something different than “We are all about to die.” which does not seem to do the trick, probably due to its triviality.
Wealth is a good incentive for change. A practice that results in wealth creation will most likely be adopted rather than one that doesn’t. It does not take too long to think about lots of trades following that trend, the appeal being so strong in some cases that other concerns like collateral damage or even legality can be simply dismissed. This is also a bone of contention when it comes to sustainable development goals, between scientists, green activists and companies trying to reach their carbon neutrality while still making profits. What could be the path of collaboration between parties following different goals, saving the planet and making money? Is there such a thing as reconciling these two?
We know ways to achieve such a feat with a concerted collaborative approach, working on scalable projects backed by data. We will be discussing this in details, please stay tuned.
