Paul Hawken: Reversing Ecological Collapse

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Jul 6, 2025

Paul Hawken, a renowned environmentalist and author, shares his insights on the intertwined fates of organic farming and climate solutions. He highlights the critical role of soil health in sustaining life and advocates for an inclusive approach to organic practices. Hawken critiques the focus on technology fixes for climate, promoting grassroots regeneration efforts instead. With a call to embrace kindness and community-driven actions, he emphasizes that local knowledge can spark transformative change. His latest work, Carbon, aims to inspire connection and awe in understanding our planet.

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INSIGHT

Soil As The Source Of Life

Soil is the primary source of life and the foundation of our survival as a species.
Paul Hawken argues regeneration of soil and its relationships is central to solving climate and health crises.

INSIGHT

Plants Communicate Like A Distributed Brain

Plants and fungi form complex communicating networks via mycelia and millions of roots.
Hawken describes the plant-root-mycorrhizal system as a distributed "brain" of the plant world.

INSIGHT

Tech-First Climate Plans Miss System Limits

The mainstream climate narrative overemphasizes antagonism and technological fixes like net-zero by 2050.
Hawken argues those fixes ignore scale, entropy, and material limits and thus won't solve climate collapse.

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#230 - Paul Hawken returns to share his hopeful and hard-won perspective on how organic farming and climate solutions go hand-in-hand, and to reflect on the themes in his latest book Carbon. Drawing from his decades of work in food systems and regeneration, he explains why soil is one of our greatest allies and how organic farmers are leading the charge toward a livable, equitable future.

https://realorganicproject.org/paul-hawken-reversing-ecological-collapse-230

Paul Hawken is a climate activist, entrepreneur, and the author of nine books including Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, 2022's best-selling Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation, and his most recent publication - Carbon: The Book of Life. He serves on Real Organic Project's Advisory Board.

You can follow along with his work here:
https://regeneration.org/solutions

The Real Organic Podcast is hosted by Dave Chapman and Linley Dixon, engineered by Brandon StCyr, and edited and produced by Jenny Prince.

The Real Organic Project is a farmer-led movement working towards certifying 1,000 farms across the United States this year. Our add-on food label distinguishes soil-grown fruits and vegetables from hydroponically-raised produce, and pasture-raised meat, milk, and eggs from products harvested from animals in horrific confinement (CAFOs - confined animal feeding operations).

To find a Real Organic farm near you, please visit:

https://www.realorganicproject.org/directory

We believe that the organic standards, with their focus on soil health, biodiversity, and animal welfare were written as they should be, but that the current lack of enforcement of those standards is jeopardizing the ability for small farms who adhere to the law to stay in business. The lack of enforcement is also jeopardizing the overall health of the customers who support the organic movement; customers who are not getting what they pay for at market but still paying a premium price. And the lack of enforcement is jeopardizing the very cycles (water, air, nutrients) that Earth relies upon to provide us all with a place to live, by pushing extractive, chemical agriculture to the forefront.

If you like what you hear and are feeling inspired, we would love for you to join our movement by becoming one of our 1,000 Real Friends:

https://www.realorganicproject.org/real-organic-friends/

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