September 6, 2019 At this week's Fortune Global Sustainability Forum in Yunnan, China, there was a lot to get depressed about: global temperatures are climbing, the icebergs are melting, sea levels are rising, our rivers and oceans are choking on plastic, landfills everywhere are overflowing with trash, our rainforests are going up in smoke, and the planet's population of wild animals is teetering on the brink of what some experts call the Great Extinction.
When I asked climate expert Hal Harvey yesterday how long we have to cope with climate change, his answer was succinct: minus 10 years. It was almost enough to make me want to wander off into the beautiful Yunnan mountains, abandon all faith in capitalism—and for that matter humanity itself. But not quite.
In our concluding session, two of the conference's most visionary thinkers urged us not to fear the future. "Don't be afraid, be curious," exhorted the brilliant Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde. "I don't believe in utopia, I believe in protopia: designing prototypes for solutions that create a better world and that can be realized. As humans, we learn, we fail, and we evolve. Stop whining and worrying. We need to fix it."
Roosegaarde showed how he has attempted to do just that—with elegant towers that suck smog from the sky and turn it into jewelry, giant kites that harness enough wind power to light up a city, and lasers that shoot space debris out of the sky.
Bill McDonough, who has championed the concept of The Circular Economy for more than three decades, challenged the idea that entropy—the steady collapse of the universe—is an immutable law. As humans, he argued, we have the power and the obligation not just to slow the spiral of environmental destruction but reverse it.
Indeed, Bill—who figured out how to transform the roof of Ford Motor's giant River Rouge factory into a verdant meadow, designed a textile mill for blue jeans that doubled as a water purifier, and helped Herman Miller create office chairs that are completely recyclable—inveighed against the very term "sustainability" as a mantra of underachievement. "If someone asked you to describe your relationship with your wife," he asked, "would your answer be 'sustainable'?"
Leaders of business and government, he argued, should think of themselves as more than just the planet's janitors. They must aspire beyond mere "maintenance" and instead seek to create "beauty and magic" in tackling environmental challenges. Or as Bill so eloquently put it: don't just grab a mop, reach for a paint brush.
Over the past three days, amid the doom and gloom, speaker after speaker came forward with practical—and profitable—proposals for how to realize that vision. You can sample many of those conversations on Fortune.com.
We also hope you’ll take a look at Fortune‘s latest newsletter, The Loop, which is written by Eamon Barrett. The Loop promises to give you the information you need on corporate environmentalism, and the technology and policy advances shaping the future of sustainability. Check out the first edition and subscribe here.
News below.
Clay Chandler
clay.chandler@fortune.com
@claychandler
No comments:
Post a Comment