EP #35: Paul Hawken - Carbon, the Book of Life | Why We Declared War on the Wrong Thing

Paul Hawken has spent more than fifty years asking the same question in different registers: what does it look like when human commerce rejoins the community of life rather than consuming it? He was a 19-year-old press coordinator for Martin Luther King Jr.'s march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. He cured his own lifelong asthma through food at 19, and went on to found Erewhon, one of the first natural food companies in America. He co-founded Smith & Hawken, wrote nine books translated into 30 languages across 50 countries, and co-founded Project Drawdown, which modeled the 100 most substantive solutions to reverse global warming. His most recent book, Carbon: The Book of Life, reframes carbon not as the villain of the climate story, but as the invisible thread connecting every living thing on Earth. In this rich and wide-ranging episode, Paul unpacks the ideas behind Carbon, exploring: The first breath: how a ten-day rice and tea fast at 19 cured an asthma that three doctors and a lifetime of medication never could, and what that taught him about the difference between fixing a symptom and restoring a relationship Why he now says Project Drawdown failed by his own measure, what's wrong with "Net Zero" as a target, and the difference between stabilizing the overflow and draining the tub Carbon as "the currency of abundance, the central bank of evolutionary growth, and the most socially adept entrepreneur in the pantheon of life," and what it means that this is not the language of a pollutant The naming problem: how the Enlightenment turned forests into cellulose, soil into dirt, and animals into objects, and why our climate response keeps failing because it uses the same framework that created the crisis What it means that humans are 0.01% of living biomass, and what the other 99.99% knows about running stable carbon cycles for hundreds of millions of years without summits, frameworks, or pledges The economics of a whale, valued at over two million dollars alive versus forty thousand dead, and whether pricing nature protects it or just folds it into the logic that nearly destroyed it The hidden world beneath our feet: mycorrhizal networks connecting 90% of land plants, 2,500 gigatons of carbon stored in soil, and why losing just 8% of it would dwarf current fossil fuel emissions Why cooperation, not competition, is the actual operating principle of the living world, and what that says about the economic system we've built on top of it Awe versus optimism: why Paul says he isn't optimistic, but is in awe of the people making a true difference, and what that distinction means in practice This is a deeply personal and quietly radical conversation about commerce, the body, and what it might mean to stop fighting carbon and start rejoining the community of life that has been regulating it all along. Learn more about Paul's work at paulhawken.com, and find his latest book, Carbon: The Book of Life, wherever books are sold. 🎙️ What is Impact in the 21st Century? Impact in the 21st Century is a podcast that celebrates the impactful work being done around the globe and shares the stories of the inspiring individuals behind it. 👤 Who hosts the podcast? Aaron Friedland is a National Geographic Explorer, PhD Candidate in Econometrics at UBC, and Founder of the Simbi Foundation. 🦻 Who makes it sound good? Tom Foster is an Award-Winning Recording Engineer and Cinematographer, Up-and-Coming Composer, Film Scoring Student at Berklee College of Music, and Head of Audio & Music for the Sea Change Project. This podcast is brought to you by Simbi Foundation & The Goood Life.