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Patricia Hardie: Op-Ed in Toronto Star on Nature-Based Solutions and the Climate Crisis

Pretending ‘nature-based solutions’ will solve the climate crisis is perverse and delusional

We cannot hide behind language that tells a bizarre story about how the planet we are in the process of destroying is simultaneously going to save us.

By Patricia Hardie
Sun., Jan. 1, 2023

Every day I walk in the “Hundred Acre Wood” behind my house, which I helped protect with a local land trust and others in my community. It is my spiritual solace, and I am a big believer in nature protection. Sometimes, I notice the unusual changes happening: the frog eggs in the pond that are hit by an unexpected frost; a bird that we don’t usually see this far north, its natural cues off-kilter due to earlier and warmer temperatures.

As I walk, I think about the term “nature-based solutions” we keep hearing lately, suggesting that if we harness the power of nature we can use it to fix the climate crisis.

Read original opinion piece in the Toronto Star… 

“The existential crossroads we are at requires a fundamental shift in the way we see and behave in the world,” Patricia Hardie writes.

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