Paul Hawken on ‘Carbon’ at AMP

On Saturday, May 31, the American Mural Project in Winsted, Connecticut hosted renowned environmentalist and best-selling author Paul Hawken for a free talk and book signing centered around his latest release, “Carbon: The Book of Life.” AMP founder, Ellen Griesedieck moderated the discussion, which drew a crowd of environmentally conscious attendees from across the region.

“We have made carbon the culprit,” Hawken said. Though, with his newest book, Hawken hopes readers “fall in love with who we are, where we are, and how much we are intricately, beautifully, exquisitely interconnected with the living world, as opposed to seeing it as something that you have to fix.”

Hawken, a pioneering voice in the global climate conversation, is widely known for his influential works “Drawdown” and “Regeneration.” In “Carbon,” he offers a poetic and profound exploration of the elemental force that binds all life on Earth. Moving beyond the typical doom-and-gloom framing of climate issues, Hawken reframes carbon not as an enemy but as the central thread of existence — present in every living being, tree, breath, and story. The book thus proposes a renewed relationship with our natural world.

Brian Gersten

During his talk, Hawken emphasized that climate solutions must be rooted not in fear, but in reverence and wonder. Hawken did not shy away from discussing our current environmental predicament with the audience in attendance. “The climate movement has failed,” he said. “It really has failed because [it] ignores the innate qualities of human beings and children that want to reimagine who they are, where they are, and how they create more life on Earth.” According to Hawken, “regeneration is the only path forward for the Earth.”

The American Mural Project, home to the largest indoor collaborative artwork in the world, provided a fitting venue for an event focused on collective action and environmental imagination. Find Hawken’s book at Oblongbooks.com.