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First an overview then five updates:
Overview
Project Drawdown is the most comprehensive plan ever created to reverse global warming.
About 200 advisors, mostly PhDs, compiled a list of 100 solutions then ranked them.
It tells us the best ways – dollar for dollar – to either reduce greenhouse gas emissions or sequester carbon from the atmosphere.
This helps us invest our resources in the best places.
For example, Drawdown solution #1 is “refrigerant management.” Refrigerators contain chemicals which heat our Earth 1,000 – 7,000 times more than does carbon dioxide. We must recycle them properly.
And when we do… it’ll have 8x the positive impact than if everyone switched to electric vehicles!
This is so important that the EPA has a program – GreenChill – to help grocery stores reduce refrigerant leakage (and save money!). Indiana has about 700 grocery stories. Guess how many take advantage of this program?
One!
Can you say low hanging fruit?
So we’re not investing our resources in the right places. Why should you care?
Because we don’t have much time left.
The largest group of scientists ever assembled before in history – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – says we must reduce emissions 45% by 2030.
Why?
To avoid triggering “feedback loops” which could spiral global warming out of anyone’s control.
This would cause various catastrophes including massive crop failures, food shortages in the western world, possibly as many as one billion “climate refugees,” etc etc etc.
Project Drawdown not only helps us to avoid this hellish future but also to create a better future – one our ancestors prayed for.
Most of the solutions are things we’d want anyway like reducing food waste, educating girls, and regenerating our soils. And many of the solutions are profitable. You and I just need to scale them.
So Drawdown is a framework. It’s a roadmap for everyone – policy makers, executives, entrepreneurs, educators, active citizens.
And that’s where Indiana Drawdown comes in.
Phase 1 of Drawdown was finishing the research at an international level. Success. The book even became a bestseller.
Phase 2 is bringing this framework into local communities, states, regions. This will inspire action and improve decision making.
There are groups doing this all over the world – from Europe and Australia to Georgia, Michigan, and Illinois.
Kansas City even hosted an all day event for 120 elected officials.
Indiana Drawdown takes these 100 solutions and asks, “Which ones are most relevant for us? And how can we stitch them together to reduce our emissions 45% by 2030?”
Because half of all emissions in the US come from 10 states. Indiana is one of them.
When we come together, when we lead with vulnerability and step outside of our silos, when we educate ourselves and collaborate, when we use the Drawdown framework to speak the same language… we in Indiana can have a MASSIVELY positive impact on the world.
This email is just the beginning.
Five Updates
1) Project Drawdown selected Indiana Drawdown to present at first international conference.
We published reflections on the conference, and they’ve been viewed by over 200 people so far.
We also organized an out of the ordinary, immersive art installation at the conference to evoke imagination among attendees.
2 ) We’ve identified about 300 entities in Indiana already implementing Drawdown solutions.
Many of these people don’t realize how important their work is. We’re reaching out to them to encourage them, connect them to one another, feed their stories to local media, and more. A public database of these entities is coming soon.
3 ) Interviews with some of those entities published, and more on the way soon.
Interviews published so far:
- Katlin Rupp, Co-founder of Indy Veg Fest (Solution #4) – If they were a country, cows would be the 3rd worst emitting one in the world. Katelin co-founded IndyVegFest – a free, annual event celebrating plant-rich diets. A side gig with no money… in meat-happy Indiana. Three years later? 5,500 attendees!
- Daniel Overybey, Architect (Solution #79) – According to the Pope’s climate advisor, we can get most of the 45% reduction in emissions simply by focusing on buildings. Daniel has the unique honor of participating in designing more Indiana LEED certified square footage in Indiana than anyone else.
- John Williamson, Founder of K12 Food Rescue (Solution #3) – The food we waste is responsible for roughly 8 percent of global emissions. Thanks in part to John’s leadership, Indiana is a leader in reducing food waste. His organization partners with 900 schools nationwide.
- Jim Lowe, Associate VP for Facilities Planning and Management at Ball State University (Solutions #27 and #42) – Thanks in part to Jim, Ball State cut their utility bill by $3,000,000 annually while also cutting their carbon footprint in half. He also chairs the President’s sustainability working group.
Interviews coming soon:
- Hoosier Electric Vehicle Association (Solution #26)
- Cultivate Culinary (Solution #3)
- Shawn Naylor of IU (Solution #18)
4 ) Daniel Poynter to be present in massive, non-violent, peaceful, civil disobedience action in London Monday Oct 7.
Did you know the British forbade their Indian colony from collecting their own salt from the ocean? They had to buy it from the British. So Ghandi walked to the sea to defy this order.
And did you know 60,000 of his countrymen followed on foot and were arrested by the British?
This for national sovereignty.
How much more are we all willing to sacrifice for the future of all life on Earth?
Project Drawdown is about knowledge. It’s the path forward.
Knowledge is one thing. Courage to act is completely different.
Extinction Rebellion is an incredibly effective climate activist movement sweeping the world. It’s rooted deeply in non-violent civil disobedience, in the tradition of Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Here’s a short, moving video. And here’s a longer lecture describing XR’s context and strategy.
Last spring, they shut down five bridges in London leading to 1,100 arrests. Before this action, the British public and government did not recognize we’re in a “climate emergency.” After this action, they did. Both in public polling and national legislation.
The power of 1,100 peaceful people and a little peaceful disruption!
This Monday, XR is planning to disrupt London again, one of the world’s centers of power. And they plan for it to be much, much bigger.
Daniel Poynter will be there. We’ll see what’s going to happen!
5 ) Are you interested in attending an Indiana Drawdown un-conference?
In private conversations, more and more people are asking for an in-person Indiana Drawdown event. It’s starting to take shape.
If this email has a particular call to action, it is this:
Please contact us if you’re interested in attending an Indiana Drawdown event. Please also explain why. This will help us make it happen sooner rather than later.
∞,
Indiana Drawdown
P.S. Please also forward this blog post to all of your friends who are worried about global warming. That’s a majority of the public already. And almost everyone wonders, “What can I do?” Educating them about Indiana Drawdown will help them channel this fear and anxiety into a productive channel.