Climate
change is the result of breakdowns in the carbon cycle caused by us:
IT IS A DESIGN FAILURE.
*** *** ***
Anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere make
airborne carbon a material in the wrong place, at the wrong dose and wrong
duration.
It is WE who have made carbon a toxin—like lead in our drinking
water. In the right place, carbon is a resource and tool.
The
world’s current carbon strategy aims to promote a goal of zero. Predominant
language currently includes words such as “low carbon,” “zero carbon,”
“negative carbon,” and even a “war on carbon.”
The
design world needs values-based language that reflects a safe, healthy and just
world. In this new paradigm, by building urban food systems and cultivating
closed-loop flows of carbon nutrients, carbon can be recognized as an asset
rather than a toxin, and the life-giving carbon cycle can become a model for
human designs.
*** *** ***
The
new language signals positive intentions, leading us to do more good rather
than simply less bad. It identifies three categories of carbon:
- *** Living carbon:
organic, flowing in biological cycles, providing fresh food, healthy
forests and fertile soil; something we want to cultivate and grow
- *** Durable carbon:
locked in stable solids such as coal and limestone or recyclable polymers
that are used and reused; ranges from reusable fibers like paper and
cloth, to building and infrastructure elements that can last for
generations and then be reused
- *** Fugitive carbon: has
ended up somewhere unwanted and can be toxic; includes carbon dioxide
released into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, ‘waste to energy’
plants, methane leaks, deforestation, much industrial agriculture and
urban development
Working
carbon is a subset of all three categories and defined as a material being put
to human use. For example, working living carbon is cultivated in agricultural
systems. Working durable carbon is recycled, reused and reprocessed in circular
technical systems; and working fugitive carbon includes fossil fuels used for
power.
The
new language also identifies three strategies for carbon management and climate
change:
- *** Carbon positive:
actions converting atmospheric carbon to forms that enhance soil nutrition
or to durable forms such as polymers and solid aggregates; also recycling
of carbon into nutrients from organic materials, food waste, compostable
polymers and sewers
- *** Carbon neutral:
actions that transform or maintain carbon in durable Earth-bound forms and
cycles across generations; or renewable energy such as solar, wind and
hydropower that do not release carbon
- *** Carbon negative:
actions that pollute the land, water and atmosphere with various forms of
carbon, for example, CO2 and methane into the atmosphere or plastics in
the ocean
Offering
an inspiring model for climate action begins with changing the way we talk
about carbon.
Our goal is for all to embrace this new language and work
toward a Carbon Positive design framework; and in doing so we may together
support a delightfully diverse, safe, healthy and just world—with clean air,
soil, water and energy—that is economical, equitable, ecological, and elegantly
enjoyed.
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