Paul Gilding is an Australian environmentalist, consultant, and author. Gilding, a former executive director of

Greenpeace International Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to ...

, and a Fellow at University of Cambridge's Institute for Sustainability Leadership, is the author of ''The Great Disruption: Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring On the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World'' (2011). In 2012, Gilding delivered a presentation on the thesis of his book at the 2012

TED conference TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

titled ''The Earth is Full'', which earned him press attention. He lives in southern

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

with his wife and children.

Career

Gilding started his career as an activist in his early teens, focusing on

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n ''

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

'' and

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

land rights. While serving in the

Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

, he also became involved in the nuclear disarmament movement. According to an interview on '' AlterNet'', Gilding's experience in anti-nuclear politics led to a greater awareness of environmental issues and led him to join

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

in the 1980s, becoming involved in

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

s against corporate polluters. Between 1989 and 1994, Gilding served as the executive director of

Greenpeace Australia Greenpeace Australia Pacific (GPAP) is the regional office of the global environmental organisation Greenpeace. Greenpeace Australia Pacific is one of Australia's largest environmental organisations. Origins and formation Greenpeace Australia ...

and, later,

. Gilding serves on the advisory board of

The Climate Mobilization The Climate Mobilization (TCM) is a grassroots environmental advocacy group working toward large-scale political action against global warming. It believes that the crisis of climate change requires a national economic effort on the scale of the ...

, a grassroots advocacy group calling for a global economic mobilization against climate change on the scale of the American home front during World War II, with the goal of 100% clean energy and

net zero Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the " ...

greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

''The Great Disruption''

In ''The Great Disruption'', Gilding posits that the

financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...

is a symptom of human civilization growing beyond Earth's ability to support it, and is tied to the threat posed by

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

and other forms of

environmental degradation Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment (biophysical), environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; an ...

. Because of this, Gilding calls for an end to the whole concept of exponential

economic growth Economic growth can be defined as the increase or improvement in the inflation-adjusted market value of the goods and services produced by an economy in a financial year. Statisticians conventionally measure such growth as the percent rate of ...

, which he blames for the consumption and waste that has led to both the economic and ecological crises facing mankind and modern civilization. Furthermore, in a departure from many environmental writers — such as

James Lovelock James Ephraim Lovelock (26 July 1919 – 26 July 2022) was an English independent scientist, environmentalist and futurist. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the Earth functions as a self-regulating sys ...

Clive Hamilton Clive Charles Hamilton AM FRSA (born 12 March 1953) is an Australian public intellectual and Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE) and the Vice-Chancellor's Chair in Public Ethics at Charles ...

Richard Heinberg Richard William Heinberg is an American journalist and educator who has written extensively on energy, economic, and ecological issues, including oil depletion. He is the author of 14 books, and presently serves as the senior fellow at the Post C ...

and

James Howard Kunstler James Howard Kunstler (born October 19, 1948) is an American author, social critic, public speaker, and blogger. He is best known for his books ''The Geography of Nowhere'' (1994), a history of American suburbia and urban development, ''The Long ...

— Gilding argues that people will work together through the climate crisis and that humanity as a whole will eventually act in time to save civilization, ''albeit'' too late to prevent catastrophic consequences; Gilding bases this argument on the ingenuity of past generations in the midst of crisis, particularly

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Gilding also believes that the global economy will fully embrace

sustainable energy Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Most definitions of sustainable energy include considerations of environmental aspects such as greenh ...

when societies fully accept the reality of climate change and abandon

fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels m ...

resources.

References

External links

PaulGilding.com
– official website *
Short biography

– a ''New York Times'' column by

Thomas Friedman Thomas Loren Friedman (; born July 20, 1953) is an American political commentator and author. He is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who is a weekly columnist for ''The New York Times''. He has written extensively on foreign affairs, global tr ...

discussing the themes of Gilding's book * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilding, Paul Living people Australian corporate directors Australian environmentalists Australian non-fiction writers Australian soldiers Climate activists Non-fiction environmental writers People associated with Greenpeace Sustainability advocates Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people)

Career

''The Great Disruption''

See also

References

External links