What kind of thinking and action do we need to address climate change at the scale and pace necessary? Fritjof Capra joins me at the Permaculture Education Institute for this climate conversation in the midst of COP26 in Glasgow.
Fritjof Capra is a renowned systems thinker, educator and author has been a scholar-activist for 5 decades. Here I talk with him ab0out his reflections about what is going on in COP26 and the conversations he feels we need to be having, and the shift in thinking and action needed to address the multiple crises humanity faces this decade and beyond.
This is a time to be listening to the elders of the ecological movement, First nations leaders, and connect elders with the youth activism movements.
ABOUT FRITJOF
Fritjof Capra, Ph.D., physicist and systems theorist, is a Fellow of Schumacher College (UK) and serves on the Council of Earth Charter International. Fritjof is the author of several international bestsellers, including The Tao of Physics and The Web of Life. He is coauthor, with Pier Luigi Luisi, of the multidisciplinary textbook and from this created an associated online course, The Systems View of Life . I mentor a group of young people through this 12 week program (designed for university and professional development) each time it is offered, along with students and complexity teacher from Brockwood Park School, and direct sessions with Fritjof too.
TRANSCRIPT
Fritjof Capra Reflections on COP26
I am very happy to give you my perspective on the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. Before I do so I want to say that I share this perspective with many scholars and activists. Among them, I want to acknowledge especially Hazel Henderson, Bill McKibben, George Monbiot, Vanda Shiva, and David Korten who have strongly influenced my thinking.
The latest climate report by the IPCC has told us that we need to cut emissions in half by the end of this decade to have any hope of limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees, as pledged in the Paris Agreement. At COP26, we have heard about complex promises and mechanisms for reaching this goal, but the basic requirement is very simple: we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
In spite of this clear goal, and in spite of the fact that we have the technologies and the money for the transition to renewable energy sources, most governments with major fossil-fuel reserves plan to continue exploiting them, thus threatening the very survival of human civilization. This is true even for nations, such as the United States, claiming to be leading the transition to renewables.
In 2020, governments around the world spent $450 billion in direct subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, while investments in clean energy by that industry amounted to only 1% of their total expenditures. This means that almost everything said by powerful governments at COP26 is a distraction from the crucial task of leaving fossil fuels in the ground.
So, why do our political and corporate leaders spend all those billions of dollars on the destruction of life on Earth? The reason is that politics in most parts of the world is dominated by corporate interests (in other words, there is widespread systemic corruption), and at the core of corporate interests there is an obsession with growth — with the irrational illusion that perpetual economic and corporate growth are possible on a finite planet.
Economists identify economic success with GDP growth, regardless of whether real value is created or destroyed in the process. Money, rather than the well-being of people and the community of life, has become the defining measure of value in our global economy. In this economic system, perpetual growth is pursued relentlessly by promoting excessive consumption and a throw-away economy that is energy intensive, generating waste and pollution, depleting the Earth’s natural resources, increasing economic inequality, and driving the climate crises.
In the words of activist and author David Korten, “money is useful as a tool, but becomes dangerous when embraced as a purpose… We will prosper in the pursuit of life, or we will perish in the pursuit of money. The choice is ours.”
Now, growth is a central characteristic of all life. But growth in nature is not linear and unlimited. While certain parts of organisms, or ecosystems, grow, others decline, releasing and recycling their components which become resources for new growth. This kind of balanced, multi-faceted growth is well known to biologists and ecologists. I call it “qualitative growth” to contrast it with the concept of quantitative growth, measured in terms of the undifferentiated index of the GDP, used by today’s economists. Qualitative growth is growth that enhances the quality of life through generation and regeneration. Qualitative growth includes an increase of complexity, sophistication, and maturity.
Today, we have the science, the technology, and the financial means to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, from quantitative, extractive growth to qualitative, regenerative growth. Let me give you just two examples.
The most effective way to reduce emissions is to replace the combustion of coal, oil, and natural gas by electricity, generated with solar energy, for all our energy needs. Totally electrifying the United States, for example, would reduce our energy use by about one half because electricity is far more efficient than combustion. It would also safe money because renewable energy is now the cheapest energy source; and it would create millions of jobs.
My second example is about planting trees. A recent study by scientists at the prestigious Swiss University ETH has shown that there is enough suitable land around the world to plant 1.2 trillion trees, and that this would remove two thirds of all carbon emissions in human history from the atmosphere.
But advancing scientific arguments and documenting technological achievements is not enough, because our so-called world leaders are not interested in reason and evidence; their only interest is in money and power. This means that we also need political activism.
Fortunately, there are now millions of activists around the world who have chosen the pursuit of life rather than the pursuit of money — from youth movements like the Sunrise Movement, Extinction Rebellion, and Fridays for Future, to the fossil-fuel non-proliferation treaty proposed by thousands of scientists, to movements like Europe Beyond Coal, or the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance. These movements are making their voices heard at Glasgow, and they need our support. They embody the political will and leadership we need for overcoming the climate crisis and protecting the continuation and flourishing of life on Earth.