Introduction

Addressing the range of crises that confront the world today requires a fundamental shift in our perceptions of reality. The climate is changing, largely as a result of the use of fossil fuels to power an economy of haste, waste, and resource depletion. As a result of human encroachment, wildlife habitat has been diminished in many areas by more than 95%, leading to the loss of species some view as the sixth mass extinction. Biodiversity loss may lead to ecological collapse even more quickly and severely than climate change, and in reality, the two reinforce each other. Many species that cannot withstand the effects of climate disruption are also decimated by habitat loss, pollution, and the accumulation of plastics and other toxic wastes in the environment.

This book is divided into two major themes: (1) reducing greenhouse gas emissions and (2) restoring soil and ocean health as a means of drawing down carbon and other pollutants from the atmosphere, restoring a healthy biosphere in the process. These are the areas of focus we have chosen to work on as a nonprofit. Each of them represents a paradigm shift in our thinking about the future, and this is the aspect that we want to focus on in this book.

But first, we must truly understand the nature of the challenges that we face. We humans do not easily shift our perspectives; when we do so, it is often because of profound insights into the nature of reality that leave us unable to “unsee” what we have just seen.

To take a visible example, we in the West have been taught to admire vast green swathes of lawns, when in reality we should appreciate that what we’ve done is to impose an invasive monoculture on what was a native habitat at one time. When you realize that all the golf courses and manicured front yards are actually a severe degradation of the natural environment, you are seeing them with new eyes as an opportunity for landscape regeneration.

But we need to speak out and articulate the reality that we’re seeing, and highlight the people and stories that we’re seeing that are doing something about it.