Paul Hawken
Paul Hawken ( born February 8, 1946) is an American environmentalist and bestselling author.
Life
At the age of 20 he moved to Boston and studied philosophy under Michio Kushi Macrobiotic Aveline Kushi and. He wrote hundreds of articles, including newspapers and magazines including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Washington Post, Business Week, Esquire and others. He mainly deals with ecological-economic issues and is committed to sustainable changes in the relations between economy and environment. He also works as an entrepreneur and business consultant. He founded two trading companies for green products. 1992, his company Smith & Hawken was awarded the "Environmental Stewardship Award". His books have been translated into 26 languages and sold in over 50 countries. Paul Hawken is co-founder of the international initiative TNS ( " The Natural Step ").
Views
Paul Hawken calls for a radical rethinking and a new form of economic activity. The company should ignore the services of nature any longer. The nature has been since the 18th century on a larger scale of people destroyed as in all historical epochs before. All the world's ecosystems, forests, grasslands, rivers, oceans and even the atmosphere are greatly endangered. Nature is pushed back everywhere on our planet and renewable resources threatens to exhaust themselves. In his view, there is life itself on the decline and we run the risk of losing the natural capital of the earth because we allow him no material value. We behave as if nature's services are worthless. According to Paul Hawken opinion, this leads to a big disaster. Because the value of these natural services is almost infinite. A forest provides, for example, not only wood and oxygen, it also binds carbon dioxide. The roots of the trees stabilize the soil and protect against erosion, floods, and more. There is no technique in the world that can replace this complex system of the planet.
According to Paul Hawken and other scientists, such as Frederic Vester and Robert Costanza, the value of the natural capital stock would amount to 400 to 500 trillion if a price for the services of nature would have been recognized. Each year, the nature of human society provides a benefit of $ 33 trillion in the form of fruits that grow, water is purified in the rivers, CO2, which is absorbed by plants, and much more.
Already about a third of this natural capital was destroyed by the people. Species were wiped out, cleared rain forests, destroyed farmland and pollutes the air. Every year, each person would stand on the world, a sum of $ 70,000 from the natural capital. This makes it clear how much natural capital is still available. According to Paul Hawken opinion it uses humanity but ruthless and without sustainable prosperity to generate. If all the people of this world would be living at the current resource consumption in America, with the same lifestyle and the same wealth of Americans, one would need for 12 earth.
Paul Hawken, the humanity in his work a way out. It provides the industrial capitalism his concept of "eco- capitalism " against. This all forms of capital is recognized as having a value. In her book, collapse or circular economy, the authors Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins point to a wealth of examples that show that a sustainable, efficient, natural economic system is possible.
In his book " We are the change" (English " Blessed Unrest " ), he compares " the movement," Hawkens collective term for individual movements around the world who work for social change, ecology, and the rights of indigenous people, with an " immune system of the Earth ": " The joint activity of hundreds of thousands of non-profit organizations can be considered as the immune system of humanity that protects us from harmful influences such as corruption, economic failure development and environmental decay. "
Awards
- Esquire Magazine award for the best 100 People of a Generation, 1984
- One Hundred Visionaries Who Could Change Our Lives, Utne Reader, 1995
- Creative Visionary Award, awarded by the International Society of Industrial Design
- Green Cross Millennium Award for Individual Environmental Leadership, awarded by Mikhail Gorbachev, 2003
- Four honorary doctorates
Works
- We are the change. Why saving the earth is full already under way - and hardly anyone noticed, Publisher: Hans- Nietsch -Verlag (September 2010), ISBN 978-3939570905
- Collapse or recycling. Growth along the lines of nature, Publisher: Siedler Verlag (July 2001), ISBN 978-3886806041
- Eco - capitalism, Riemann Verlag ( March 2000), ISBN 978-3570500101
- The Magic of Findhorn. A report Publisher: Hugendubel Heinrich GmbH, ISBN 978-3880340558
- Out of control: Diary of not the invitee to the WTO summit in Seattle in '99, Publisher: The Green force, ISBN 978-3922708186