Paul Hawken on Helping Our Planet Heal Itself

It can be so easy to become demoralized or even apocalyptic about the state of our planet. But entrepreneur and activist Paul Hawken believes we have less reason to despair than we think. In fact, Hawken asserts that if we act together, we can end the climate crisis in decades to come. In his new book, Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation, Hawken offers a model of climate activism that puts life at the center of every act and decision and prioritizes our interconnectedness. After all, writes Hawken, “the most complex, radical climate technologies on Earth are the human heart, head, and mind, not a solar panel.”

In a recent episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle editor-in-chief James Shaheen and co-host Sharon Salzberg sat down with Hawken to explore the Buddhist teachings that underpin his approach to activism, particularly the power of reverence and community for long-term activism, because, as Hawken says, regeneration is “something we should always be doing. It’s not as if once we are successful, we can go back to destroying the world.”

Read some excerpts from the conversation here, and listen to the full episode here.