Using Nature to Help Build a Green Economy
In Lewis Carroll’s wonderful book Through the Looking Glass , Tweedledee emphatically declares to Alice: ‘Contrariwise: if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.’ It’s always a struggle to move beyond ‘contrariwise’. There’s a remarkable inertia in large institutions and industry to get the order of things right. Even when the need is a pressing one. Our planet is experiencing a frightening number of environmental crises. Extreme and abrupt climate change, biodiversity loss, soil degradation, ocean acidification and deteriorating water quality are just a few of the many important challenges we face on a worryingly large list. But all are interconnected. Several years ago the United Nations Environment Program launched an ambitious target: for the world to develop a ‘ Green Economy ’, one which is low in carbon, efficient with resources and socially inclusive. By making the shift to a green economy an...