ECONOMY VERSUS ECOLOGY?
How nature is helping us save the climate, biodiversity
and our economy 13
From landfill to circular vision 15
Lessons from the pandemic 19
From Paris to your own backyard 21
Chapter 1 NO BUSINESS ON A DEAD PLANET
The hard truth about economics, nature and society,
and the unique opportunity of Earthshot thinking 25
Why do we think the way we do about nature? 25
Sowing seeds of professional doubt 29
Blundering with nature 31
There are (too) many of us 32
We build and eat away 33
We massively overlook climate change 35
We are emitting too much 36
We are tearing down biodiversity 37
We live by the delusion of the day 38
It’s the economy, stupid 40
It’s the environment, stupid 41
The dream we have never dreamt before 43
Natural disasters are climate disasters 43
Lessons to be learned from the COVID pandemic 45
Do we put on glasses with black, grey or pink lenses? 46
Nine planetary boundaries 47
From Moonshot to Earthshot 50
A giant leap towards a healthy world 50
Nature as the main healer 55
Leadership in times of crisis 59
COVID as the green flag for Earthshot 66
Chapter 2 BIODIVERSITY, CLIMATE AND AGRICULTURE SOLUTIONS
What exactly are we talking about? 71
Biodiversity, where everything is connected
to everything else 73
Biodiversity as the silent foundation of our existence 74
How everything in nature is related to everything else 79
Pigeonholing is not a solution 82
Natural resilience outside the boxes 86
Taking natural resilience into account 89
Climate, the biggest task 91
The climate concerns us all 91
The uncomfortable truth about greenhouse gases 93
World leaders as climate protectors 99
Citizens as climate protectors 103
A green revolution: acting beyond the boxes 106
Agriculture, as the key agent of change 109
Pigeonholing agriculture 109
Agricultural alarm bells 111
Far too large carbon footprint 112
Far too much nitrogen 113
Far too much water needed 114
Far too many farm animals 114
Far too much meat consumption 115
Ashoka, Everyone a Changemaker 119
A pact for open space 119
The answers of organic farming 120
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Chapter 3 TOWARDS A DIFFERENT ECONOMIC MODEL
The (Re)connection Model: inspiration for a pact
between ecology and economics 125
The value of nature 126
The tourism industry reappraised 129
New: bringing nature into the equation 132
The (Re)connection Model explained 135
Economy and ecology 135
An ethical and local response to global challenges 138
Power lines 141
(Re)connecting nature with nature 141
(Re)connecting people with nature 143
(Re)connecting businesses with nature 144
(Re)connecting policy with practice 145
The underlying principles of the (Re)connection Model 147
Carrying capacity of nature 147
Smart zoning 147
The impact zone 148
The focus zone and the core zone 149
Unlocking on a landscape scale 150
Paid or free access? 152
Integrated and inclusive approach 152
Results: fourfold return 153
Nature Bank is the best bank in the world 154
New funding models 155
Climate investments outside the budget –
Intergenerational Planetary Loan 158
A Green Tax Shelter and the voluntary carbon market 160
Earth on the stock market 161
Chapter 4 WHAT CAN WE DO?
Give nature back its rights 167
In which language could a new story be written? 168
Nature’s rights 171
The Universal Rights of Nature 177
The UN Declaration of Human Dependence on Nature 177
From UN Blue Helmets to UN Green Helmets 183
Hope – how can you contribute 186
Something is nothing until nothing is something 194
Getting to work 198
About the Author 215
