Calling someone an “animal” means they’re less than human – not worthy of respect, rights, or even of life itself. But in truth — and in biological fact — human beings ARE animals. Scientists continue to find that intelligence and what we call “consciousness” appear to saturate all of nature. Clearly it’s high time to think differently about just what it means to be an animal. Can we know what it’s like to be other-than-human? How can we see into the minds of animals? Visionary naturalist, author and conservationist Carl Safina says that the first step is paying attention and observing. And, he suggests, if we had humility, we’d have everything.
Artist Lisa Ericson on Surrealism and Nature
Terrarium II by Lisa Ericson
Painter Lisa Ericson has been described as “a multi-hyphenate, utilizing her visual talents as an artist, illustrator, and designer to craft meaningful images.” Based in Portland, OR, Ericson’s enthralling artwork manages to be simultaneously hyper-realistic and wildly imaginative. In many ways, this perspective exemplifies precisely what is needed to surmount many of the most pressing issues facing us today: a combination of pragmatism and creativity. Her clear love and admiration for nature’s intricate genius is immediately apparent when faced with her work. Bioneers has annually chosen an artist and piece of artwork to provide the look, feel and visual inspiration for our annual conference. We were overjoyed when Lisa was willing to donate an image of her painting, Terrarium II, to Bioneers as the featured image for the 2018 annual Bioneers Conference. Terrarium II is part of a series of paintings displaying different species of turtles carrying collections of ecosystems on their backs. The images evoke beauty, bounty and fragility and one can’t help but recall creation stories of many Native American tribes that refer to our collective home as Turtle Island.
Bioneers caught up with Lisa following the conclusion of her recent show at Antler PDX to talk about her art and her life as an artist.
BIONEERS: How long have you been an artist? Where did you go to school or get your formal training?
LISA ERICSON: I got serious about art in high school and went on to major in painting at Yale. I struggled to find the time and energy after I left school to pursue art outside of my regular non-art related job and ended up not doing much painting for about ten years. I took classes in graphic design and spent time doing freelance graphic design and website design work, but eventually, after that lost decade, I found my way back to painting. This time around, older, hopefully wiser, when I had a chance to get back into painting, I didn’t look back. That was five years ago now and I’ve been working steadily ever since.
BIONEERS: Where does the magical realism come from?
LISA: I like to take the wonder of the natural world and tweak it just a bit. I enjoy the play of the hyper-realistic way I paint and the surrealistic subject matter.
BIONEERS: Can you talk a little bit about your process, praxis and theory?
LISA: Well, I paint from photographs and I have a rather lengthy and intense process of putting together a composite image to I work from. I work out my ideas, as well as composition, light, and color during that time. When I’m happy, I print out the composite image, transfer the sketch on to a panel and start painting. I work in acrylics and I always start by painting the black background, leaving the white under the image so it has a much light and glow as possible when it’s fully painted. I usually do an under-layer, getting the basic color/values down. Then I do an intensely detailed final layer.
BIONEERS: Are your images meant to bring awareness to “environmental” issues?
LISA: Yes. Although my pieces are far from scientific – I take whatever liberties I feel a piece needs – they often have their roots in current environmental issues. The whole series of mini mobile coral reefs connected to fish began after I read about the massive bleaching incidents happening on the Great Coral Reef a few years ago. The series of mobile habitats on the backs of turtles started with ideas of animals being displaced from their habitats due to climate change or other human-related factors.
BIONEERS: What is your favorite accomplishment as an artist?
LISA: Maybe it’s because of my history, but I feel a sense of accomplishment and deep satisfaction whenever I finish a piece. My favorite time with my work is when they’re all hanging up in my studio before a show.
BIONEERS: Who are some of the artists that you’re excited about at the moment?
LISA: I think Jeremy Geddes is pretty phenomenal. I love Tiffany Bozic’s work. And I admire the work of a lot of the artists in my own Portland art community – Josh Keyes, Zoe Keller, David Rice – as well as some of talented people I’ve shown with – Josie Morway, Lindsey Carr, Vanessa Foley.
BIONEERS: Why did you decide to donate to Bioneers?
LISA: I don’t think there are many issues more important right now than taking better care of our planet, and I love the idea of using nature’s own systems as inspiration for human ingenuity.
Thanks to Lisa for the interview and use of her images. Be sure to check out her website and Instagram.
Young Climate Activist Dissed By Gubernatorial Candidate: An Interview with Rose Strauss
On July 18th, Rose Strauss, an 18 year-old college sophomore, attended a Town Hall meeting near Philadelphia hosted by Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner (R). Strauss asked Wagner a question about campaign donations from fossil fuel companies. His response, calling her young and naïve, made national news.
Rose Strauss and her colleagues responded rapidly, leveraging Wagner’s remarks into action to support the vital effort to get fossil fuel money out of politics. Al Gore recently tweeted, “If being ‘young and naive’ is holding our leaders accountable and demanding a sustainable future, call me #YoungAndNaive.” Recent numbers show a boom in youth voter registration, with registered voters under 35 outnumbering those over 64 in Pennsylvania.
Bioneers first met Rose Strauss when she was awarded a Bioneers Youth Leadership Scholarship to attend the Bioneers Conference as part of a cohort from the Marin County Youth Commission. Arty Mangan, Director of the Bioneers Youth Leadership Program, spoke with Rose recently.
ARTY: Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner said “You are young and naïve” when you called him out in public about the $200,000 in political donations that he received from the fossil fuel industry, and his statement that climate change was a result of people’s body heat. How can you cut through the corruption of politicians and the cynicism of the people who think like that?
ROSE: Politicians say these kinds of things because they’re being funded by people with fossil fuel objectives. It’s good for them when the public is uneducated. Mr. Wagner is perpetuating these lies because he’s being funded by fossil fuel executives.
I am part of the Sunrise Movement. We think a great way to stop that from happening is by making sure politicians are not taking contributions from the fossil fuel industry. At Sunrise, we have a No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge to get politicians to commit to not taking money from fossil fuel executives or front groups.
ARTY: During this incident, there was laughter and applause when Wagner condescendingly called you “young and naïve.” Yet in a Teen Vogue article you wrote that the incident left you feeling empowered. How do you explain that?
ROSE: It left me feeling empowered because I spoke up to someone who has power and was talking down to me. His response was so demeaning and so patronizing, but at the same time so ridiculous that I was excited that we could turn that response and his perspective and his words into something that a lot of people would see. They’d know that this politician has these beliefs. It was empowering, knowing we could take what he said and turn it into a call to action.
ARTY: You’ve really done that. In the Teen Vogue article, you also wrote, “Fossil fuel executives and lobbyists get away with their pay-to-play politics because they corrupt our democracy in the shadows, and it’s our role to bring their actions to light.” Speaking truth to Scott Wagner is an example of that. How do you plan to do more of that in the future?
ROSE: A big thing that we do at Sunrise is canvassing and talking to people. I think that’s one of the most impactful things you can do. Politicians and fossil fuel executives have millions of dollars, but what we have is people power. We can counteract the power of money by talking to people, educating them, making sure that we’re standing up for what we believe in, and making sure that climate change is a central issue that’s being solved. Canvassing is a really great way to do that, as well as registering people to vote. Ultimately, we choose our politicians. Educating the general public about climate change and the political system is so important.
ARTY: What is the Sunrise Movement? What are its goals?
ROSE: Sunrise Movement is a movement of young people fighting to solve climate change. We do this by ending the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics. This includes things like confronting politicians at Town Halls, like I did, or at public events to challenge them to take a better stance on climate change.
We also get politicians to sign a No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge, as I said before, which over 800 candidates and other politicians have already signed.
We also are working to make climate change an urgent political priority. Another way that we do this is by electing leaders who we think will fight for our generation’s future. I’m in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, where we’re working to get Katie Muth and Danielle Otten elected. They take really strong stances against climate change and also have signed a No Fossil Fuel Money pledge. We’re canvassing to get them into office. That effort is youth led.
ARTY: How did you become a climate activist?
ROSE: Ever since I was young growing up in the Bay Area, I have always had a really intense love for marine biology and the ocean. Climate activism was a natural segue for me, going from loving animals to seeing them disappear faster than I could study them. My focus shifted from studying the biology aspect of it to focusing more on conservation; that eventually led me to this climate change fight.
The first time that I was exposed to climate change was looking at the impact on marine systems. I started Bay Area Youth for Climate Action. We focused on educating youth about politics and how they can make a change, and we worked hard on the campaign to get coal out of Oakland by hosting conferences and doing outreach and education to youth around the Bay Area.
Going away to college, I was looking for something where I could be politically engaged in fighting for climate change, and Sunrise was just the perfect opportunity for me. When I saw the ad on Facebook for Sunrise, I was like, “I can’t not do this. I have to go.” So here I am. Sunrise has seventy Fellows who are working on the midterm elections. There are also different hubs all around the country that are working with Sunrise. It’s a pretty big movement.
ARTY: There’s no doubt that the world is a challenging place. There seems to be a new crisis on a daily basis, and the climate issue is certainly one of, if not the largest, crises that we’re facing. As a young person, how do you maintain a positive view of the future? What’s your advice to other young people?
ROSE: I think it’s really easy to get a nihilistic attitude toward the future. If you look at the science closely, climate change has pretty dire impacts on the Earth, if we don’t do something about it relatively soon. But I think that it’s important to look at all of the technology that we have and imagine a world in the future that’s run on renewable energy and exists in conjunction with nature. I think that’s something that’s possible, and it’s something we need to continue to work towards. Envisioning that future is really inspiring to me.
Also, keep with the movement, stay with a group of people who also are working on this issue, because it’s really easy to feel super alone when you’re working on climate activism, especially if you’re not around people who care. Finding a group of people who also care will inspire you and keep you going. Join the Sunrise movement or a similar movement in your community.
ARTY: How can more young people be activated in the fight for climate justice?
ROSE: I would say look at community. A lot of people don’t realize that there are environmental justice and climate justice issues happening right in front of them. I find it’s a lot easier to organize people around intersectional issues, not just climate change. People who are into feminism or are into LGBTQ issues or immigration, you can take that group of people and take that passion and connect it to climate change, and work on it in a super intersectional way.
For more people wanting to get involved, find issues in your community, and start something. You can start a campaign and get involved with local politics. Make sure your voice is being heard, because living in a democracy is a privilege and you have to take advantage of that. That’s a super important thing to do. Vote.
ARTY: When you talk about intersectionality, I think about the comments by Wagner. He disrespected you on multiple levels: as a young person, as a woman, as a knowledgeable activist. When you stood up to him, It uncovered multiple biases of his. Was that a strategic move planned by Sunrise or was that your individual action?
ROSE: We planned on going to the Town Hall, and I was planning on asking the question. That part was definitely planned. We did not plan for the response he gave, but as demeaning and shocking as it was, it was also a really great way to get people involved with what we’re doing.
ARTY: What do you see as the best solutions for climate change?
ROSE: I think the best solutions are getting fossil fuel money out of politics. That’s a really important one because once that happens all of the other options that we have for climate change will start being turned into policy and legislation. We can see that happen because we have the technology. We have renewable energy that works, but the big issue is that we have these political barriers. We need people power to push it forward over fossil fuels. That’s a super important step.
ARTY: You were a Bioneers youth scholar a few years ago, did that experience have any influence on your activism?
ROSE: It definitely does. I was super inspired by everything I heard at Bioneers. It taught me more about climate change, and one thing that really struck me—I’m not sure exactly who was speaking—but the person was talking about the power of story. That really changed the way that I talk to people about climate change. That’s a big value that Sunrise holds, using stories to change people’s minds instead of just facts. That’s something I really got from being at Bioneers, which was awesome.
ARTY: What is your message to your generation?
ROSE: To all the young people out there, keep fighting, keep getting involved, we’re creating a movement, I feel the energy right now, and I feel like there’s a shift in energy. I feel like we’re actually making some real progress. So many young people are starting to become engaged with climate change activism. We need to keep this momentum going.
Hope Where It Counts: How a 25 Year-Old Activist Moved Into Local Politics
Coming on the heels of the 2016 Presidential election and the Women’s March, 2018 has seen a record number of women running for political office at local, county, state and federal levels. Recent primary victories by Stacey Adams in the Georgia gubernatorial race and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the 14th District in NYC have made headlines. These are national races but the same movement is taking place down-ticket at the local and state level, where policy decisions that often impact people the most on a day-to-day basis are frequently made. In June, Chloe Maxmin won the Democratic primary race for state representative in her home district in Maine. Maxmin is all of 25, a young woman running for office while many of her peers are beginning graduate school or trying to sort out a career. For Maxmin, however, who began organizing at 12, this is simply the next logical step in her mission to build a social movement that speaks for her generation.
Bioneers was honored to host Chloe Maxmin as a Youth Keynote Speaker in 2014, fresh off receiving a Brower Youth Award. She discussed her leadership of the Divest Harvard campaign, a complex effort that marked a major turning point in the overall Divest/Invest movement, which now counts nearly $6 trillion in assets divested, thanks in many ways to passionate organizers like Maxmin who pioneered the movement on college campuses.
Bioneers caught up with Chloe earlier this spring to discuss this latest step in her powerful journey to change the world by empowering youth to lead the way.
CHLOE: My name is Chloe Maxmin. I’m 25 years old, and I’m from a small town in Maine. I have been a climate justice organizer for 13 years, since I was 12 years old, and that journey has brought me to a lot of different places. Where it’s brought me right now is to an understanding that we need profoundly effective and powerful social movements to influence our political system, and we need really strong politicians in office to respond to those movements and enact the kinds of policy changes that we need.
BIONEERS: Can you give us a little insight about how that path led you to where you are now?
CHLOE: It’s been a long, winding road. This has been in the back of my mind for a while, but only in the front of my mind very recently.
When I first started out with youth activism and organizing, my focus was very local and it was based in my hometown. I did a lot of work in my high school to get my peers involved with climate justice work and talking about climate change and environmental issues in our community. I started the Climate Action Club at my high school. We did very individual-based work, looking at questions like, “How can you as an individual change your habits and how can we as a school and as a community change our habits so that we’re reducing our impact on the environment?” I learned a lot. It was my first foray into organizing.
But when I got to college, I went through the traditional radicalization process and began to understand that this is a system problem and it’s hard to blame an individual for a system problem or for an individual to confront a system problem. The way that we do confront system problems are with mass movements that build collective power around an issue, and calling on our politicians to respond to that political energy.
I worked on the fossil fuel divestment movement for a long time. I started Divest Harvard, which began with three people and grew into 70,000 strong by the time I had graduated. Divestment was very formative for me because I see it as a more systemic form of organizing. The theory of change behind divestment is that you’re divesting from the fossil fuel industry because you want to increase the stigma so that politicians are less likely to interact with that industry to take money. Divestment is trying to create a new political space and then the idea is that people will then infiltrate that new political space and push forward climate policy. [Editor’s Note: see Bill McKibben’s recent article in Rolling Stone for a deeper dive into the current state of divestment.]
One of the things I noticed as the divestment movement progressed is that the movement was really strong, but we weren’t really pivoting to take advantage of that new political space that we were creating. I wrote my thesis on why the climate movement wasn’t being effective politically in the way that we wanted and the way that we needed, because whether we like it or not, we need politics to solve this crisis.
I learned a lot about how social movements are structured, and how we don’t really like to engage with political systems or with electoral politics. This is a big discontinuity to me because, as I just said, we really do need politics to catalyze the systemic change that we see and need.
I moved back to Maine after I graduated from college to build political power for climate justice because I really think that Maine can be a powerful, bold climate leader. We’re the most rural state in the country. The county that I live in (and is part of my district) is the most rural county and oldest by age in the nation. We have a lot of really unique challenges here which means we can also be a leader in developing really unique solutions for rural places that are confronting climate change and being impacted by climate change.
I still organize and I’m still a grassroots organizer as I campaign. But there’s a really big part of me that is just really tired of begging people in power to listen to me, to listen to my generation, to listen to everybody in my community who are struggling to heat their homes, to feed their families, to ensure that their farms will survive as the weather gets more and more chaotic. I think that we need a new kind of politics that is responsive to the people and always stands in solidarity with the community that politicians come from. And I think that young people are perfectly poised to lead that new wave of political energy.
BIONEERS: What is the dialogue that you use to move your community and help them shift themselves on a personal level?
CHLOE: Organizing in Maine is a very unique experience because it is such a rural place. Organizing is built on connecting the people and building relationships and it’s just a lot harder to do that when you have to drive every place or you don’t have access to transportation. A big part of what I try to focus on here is developing new models for rural organizing in a place like Maine.
I think one of the key messages that I talk about, which I truly believe in, is that this is about our shared love for our home and our community, the land and our way of life, and the people that live here. It’s not about believing in climate change or not. It’s about, “Do you care about where you live?” People do because they live here. How can we use that as a shared foundation to move forward and build your work together?
BIONEERS: It’s so important to connect with the community. I think a lot of times politicians and policy makers don’t take the time to connect with community, and they don’t recognize that each community is unique, has its own culture and own approach, and its own way of getting in touch with the people.
CHLOE: If I could add one addendum to that, based on the conversations I’ve had with people in Maine and in my community. There’s so much disillusionment around what we can do at the federal level to stop all of this destruction that we’re seeing. In Maine right now, our governor is a very right-wing Republican who has also championed a lot of destructive policies in our state. For us there is also little hope at the state level.
For example, Governor LePage has almost completely decimated the solar industry in Maine through his policies. Luckily we’re getting a new governor this year, so we can right that ship and not all hope is lost.
But there is hope at the local level and I have found that to be a constant source of inspiration for me and folks that I’ve been organizing with because we can tangibly see the difference that we’re making, the movements that we’re building. We can interact with the people who are in positions of making decisions, build really meaningful relationships with them and really change the way that our community operates and thinks about different issues. So it’s all about the local.
BIONEERS: Among other past achievements, you spoke at Bioneers and won a Brower Youth Award. What did you gain from those accomplishments?
CHLOE: The biggest thing that I gained from those experiences were meeting incredible young people who are doing incredible work in their communities. Their vision and their energy, it’s just so inspiring.
One of the things that I really admire about so many of the young people in the Brower and the Bioneers networks — and so many of the young people doing change-making work right now — is that we’re growing up in an age where everyone who we’ve been told are our traditional authority figures, whether governors or presidents, are failing us. They’re not doing what’s right and they’re not fighting for the people. As young people, we could say, “Oh, but they’re the people in authority, we should defer to them because they know what’s best.” But instead this entire generation of youth is saying, “No, what you’re doing is wrong, and we know what’s right. And, yes, we’re young, and, yes, we’ve lived less years than you have, but we have our own type of expertise, and the foundation of our expertise is a moral clarity that cannot be shaken by anybody.” I think getting into spaces where you can experience that kind of passion and purpose is incredible, and I definitely experience that with Brower and with Bioneers.
BIONEERS: Along those lines, how has being a young woman, aspiring to get into local politics, shaped you on a personal level and have you encountered any resistance?
CHLOE: I think what really grounds me in the work that I do and has been the constant throughout my whole life is that I so deeply love and care about my home and my community. That is my core motivation. No matter what happens or who doesn’t want to vote for me or who doesn’t agree with my tactics, that’s okay. It takes all kinds to make the world go ‘round and we need all different kinds of perspectives. But I know in my core what my purpose is and that can’t be shaken.
I feel really lucky to know that about myself. All of us have things, people, places, ideas, causes, pets that we love and care about and are willing to fight for as well. This is something that I talked about when I was at Bioneers. If this is the core motivation of our work, then it’s hard to get sidetracked because we know what we’re fighting for and what our purpose is and it’s coming from a place of love, not from a place of anger or fear.
It’s still early in the campaign, and there’s been some resistance and skepticism, and that’s okay, but I know what I stand for, and I know what I care about, and I know that I will devote my life to this community no matter what happens. That’s all that really matters to me. I’ve been really lucky to have so much support from my friends and family, and from people who hopefully will be my constituents one day. It’s going to be okay.
BIONEERS: I would love to hear about your thoughts on youth voices, the power of that approach, and how you bringing in youth voices to your own campaign.
CHLOE: My entire life I’ve been represented by people who aren’t my age and while those people have been really good politicians, why can’t there be someone my age in office? I think the people who represent Mainers, Americans in any representative political system, should reflect the people who live there.
It’s not just about young people though, it’s about fighting for everyone who lives here right now but youth can be a platform to unite people and create really inclusive platforms. Because it is about everybody, and I think it’s time that we get some young folks in office.
It’s happening all over the country. It’s happening all over Maine. I’m just excited to be part of that movement in my little district.
BIONEERS: Do you have any advice for young people or activists of any background or any age on how to take that first step, how to move past fear, and how to align themselves in a way that’s most authentic for them, how to get started in this journey?
CHLOE: It’s so different for everybody. For me, the foundation of everything is coming from my core motivation and my place of passion. I think finding that place and using that as the rock that you stand on gives you the power to really do anything that you want to do.
I also think it’s really important to have people around you who support you. I couldn’t do this without so many people in my life, in this campaign. The movement of young people running for office is not just about us as individuals but about this generation and about everything that we care about today and the future.
If anyone ever wants to reach out to me to talk about this stuff, just Google me. You’ll find my website and you can just email me.
Biophilic Cities: Embracing the Optimistic Future of Natureful Cities
By JD Brown, Biophilic Cities Program Director
At Biophilic Cities we are nurturing a growing network of partner cities that are working collectively to pursue the vision of a natureful city within their unique and diverse environments and cultures. Applying E.O. Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis to the scale of planning and designing cities, biophilic cities recognize that humans have co-evolved with nature and require a daily connection to nature for our overall health and happiness. This is a vision that embraces the understanding that humans are not separate and apart from natural living systems. The world has entered into what has been termed the “urban century” as increasing global populations congregate in cities. While this growth presents obvious challenges, it also presents an opportunity to provide meaningful access to nature for populations that traditionally have had the least access to nature and where such access can have an exponential positive impact on health, well-being and quality of life.
Credit: Curridabat
There is no single model for a natureful, biophilic city. The Biophilic Cities Network is a diverse set of partner cities that draw solutions from their varied experiences, cultures and landscapes. The vision of Phoenix, Arizona as an arid city rich in nature is one that embraces its native, xeric landscape. This vision is very different from that of Singapore, a “city in a garden”, that is lush in green vegetation.
In Curridabat, Costa Rica, the city is transforming itself into “Ciudad Dulce” (Sweet City) by cultivating pollinator habitat across the urban landscape. This initiative, under the leadership of Mayor Edgar Mora and with the support of broad public and private partners, has received international recognition. It embraces the health benefits that result with the creation of nature-based infrastructure. In particular, the initiative aims to create new opportunities for access to nature in economically marginalized communities and to engage these communities in the co-design of public “sweetness spaces”.
In Wellington, New Zealand, a coalition of partners that includes local government is undertaking an ambitious effort to increase the biodiversity of native song birds across the city through a campaign entitled Predator Free Wellington. Through the control of invasive predators, the effort seeks to reclaim the city’s pre-human biodiverse origins. Two decades ago, a 500-plus acre predator free sanctuary on the outskirts of the city called Zealandia was established with dramatic resulting increases in native biodiversity. From this early success story, communities across the city have embraced new found opportunities to experience seemingly lost biodiversity and the result is an unprecedented level of civic ecoliterarcy and engagement in conservation efforts.
In Pittsburgh, the city has established an EcoInnovation District, the first of its kind, which seeks to invigorate underutilized commercial districts by planning and designing a neighborhood that is rich in opportunities to access nature. Biophilic include the reuse of vacant lots, improved access to fresh food through community gardens, and the planting of new trees and green infrastructure to capture stormwater and reduce the heat island effect. The project was recognized by C40 Cities in its report Cities100 for creating local solutions for climate change. The EcoInnovation District is one project among many that the city is pursuing to address the impact of its industrial history.
This is a small sample of how our partner cities are designing and implementing initiatives that bring nature into their cities as a source of healing and source of inspiration. Important lessons are learned and shared as the partner cities convey their experiences and collaborate in an effort to broaden the scope of how and where human-nature initiatives are implemented.
The Strength of the Network
There is tremendous value in the Biophilic Cities Network as a central organizing structure to address complex societal challenges. A resilient network includes engaged, yet dispersed connections across organizations and individuals pursuing solutions through a diversity of ideas and approaches. The result is the ability to tackle complex challenges that do not fit neatly into a single subject category and require multidisciplinary solutions.
Planning and designing cities with abundant opportunities for human-nature interactions is more complex than it might appear. For example, how to do we create wonderful parks and trails in communities that lack these amenities, and would benefit the most from their creation, without raising property values and driving existing community members away? How do we create greenspaces that are open to the public but not fully occupied by growing populations in need of places to live? These are complex problems impacting cities that require addressing fundamental societal concepts like public access, sustainable economic development and affordable housing. These challenges require drawing ideas from varied expertise and experiences.
Building the Scholarship Behind Biophilic Cities
Located within the University of Virginia, Biophilic Cities brings a multidisciplinary approach to facilitating the network’s collaboration and developing the scholarship underlying the vision of biophilic cities. This includes engagement with organizational partners whose work, in areas such as public health, community resiliency and sustainability, is complemented by applying a lens of biophilia.
Our scholarship includes an investigation of forward thinking legal codes and mechanisms that exemplify successful, innovative legal tools and policies adopted by global cities to promote abundant and accessible nature. These Biophilic Codes are varied in their focus and approach but from which we draw consistent themes; themes that can be applied more broadly.
For example, in San Francisco, a homeowner concerned with stormwater flooding in her basement, as a result of run-off from paved surfaces, petitioned the city to convert some of the double-wide sidewalk outside her home into a vegetated landscape and natural stormwater buffer. The city granted the request and the result was a successful pilot project. The petition became the foundation for a sidewalk landscaping permit program administered by the city through which residents can apply to similarly convert paved areas into biophilic features that augment the street landscape and control and treat urban stormwater.
Washington, DC has adopted landscape and design standards for new development with the goal of increasing new green infrastructure to improve air quality, reduce the heat island effect, and to control urban stormwater flows contributing pollution to its rivers and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay. Along with these standards, the city adopted a stormwater rule requiring new development to capture a majority of stormwater onsite through the use of nature-based tools like green roofs, rain gardens, constructed wetlands and improved tree canopies. To provide an incentive to exceed the minimum requirement of capturing 50% of stormwater onsite, the city created a Stormwater Retention Credit trading system, which allows landowners that exceed requirements to capture the value of the biophilic benefits by trading the exceedance as a credit to other landowners that are struggling to meet requirements. In this manner, the city is promoting a market that incentivizes nature-based solutions and increases the abundance of nature across the city’s landscape.
These legal mechanisms illustrate a flexible, adaptable approach. One that permits the planning and design of cities to evolve over time to embrace ecological solutions, which have utilitarian merit but also bring wonder to cities through the introduction of new nature-based amenities.
Another area of scholarship is the development of a growing library of biophilic indicators to help cities assess their progress towards their biophilic aspirations. The indicators are varied in focus and attempt to measure elements that are at the center of what it means to be a biophilic city. As a requisite of joining the Biophilic Cities Network as a partner city, we ask cities to develop a set of indicators that can be assessed and evaluated over time. Partner cities are asked to consider indicators in several broad categories that include the condition and abundance of nature in the city, the engagement of the city’s residents with nature, the pursuit of biophilic policies and governance, and human health/well-being indicators. In adherence to this network requirement, the partner cities are tracking an array of different parameters. Currently diverse, tracked indicators include progress toward overcoming inequitable or unfair distributions of urban nature, wildlife passage creation to enhance or restore connectivity, extent of biodiversity found within the city, and productive reuse of vacant land.
Mindful of Hopeful Urgency
The vision of biophilic cities represents a hopeful future for cities as places where the growing populations that call cities home have the opportunity to connect with and explore nature in the communities where they live and work on an everyday basis. We are mindful of the incredible challenges to this optimistic mindset, including the urgent need for solutions that address climate change and the expanding inequities for life’s most basic needs. We believe that access to nature is one such basic need because of the myriad of positive benefits that result. In natureful cities, we see the opportunity to create places where all residents have housing on streets with abundant access to healthy food and lifestyles, where children are safe and free to learn in the world around them, and where diverse economic opportunities exist that give back more than they take. This is an optimistic vision that we are pursuing at Biophilic Cities that we hope can be shared and can inspire.
Look Beyond the Headlines
This essay was originally published by the Garrison Institute whose mission is to demonstrate and disseminate the importance of contemplative practices and spiritually grounded values in building sustainable movements for a healthier, safer, and more compassionate world.
By John McIlwain
“Only the contemplative mind has the ability to hold the reality of what is and the possibility of what could be.” -Richard Rohr
Reading the headlines these days is a sure way to experience fear and despair. This is especially true about climate change and the environment. After all, what good news is there when Scott Pruitt is finally forced out of the EPA only to be replaced by a coal lobbyist! Headline news like that offers little in the way of hope or optimism. So do we just give up, shrink back in despair, ignore what we read, and just go on with our lives?
The headlines, however, are not all the news. Dig behind them and you will find much that is positive. Here are a few recent examples:
Thanks to rapidly dropping costs for solar and wind power, REN21-The Renewable Energy Policy Network reports that in 2017, globally, “Solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity installations … add[ed] more net capacity than coal, natural gas and nuclear power combined.”
The New York Times reported on July 15, 2018, that:
“The average retail price of electricity in the United States is little changed from 2007, and, adjusted for inflation, prices are actually lower today. This comes as the power sector has reduced carbon dioxide emissions during that same period by 28 percent, according to the Energy Information Administration [E.I.A.].
Wind turbines supplied nearly 15 percent of [Texas’s] electricity last year, up from 2.2 percent in 2007, according to the E.I.A. … Over that time period, the state’s retail electric prices fell to 55 cents per kilowatt-hour, from 10.11 cents, before adjusting for broader inflation.”
Reuters reports:
“The Trump administration wants to…streamlin[e] permitting [for off-shore wind turbines] and carv[e] out vast areas off the coast for leasing – part of its ‘America First’ policy to boost domestic energy production and jobs.”
The ISO Newswire reports:
“On April 21, 2018, the lowest demand for electricity from the New England grid occurred in the middle of the day, not the middle of the night as is usual, due to the growth in solar PV panels tied to the grid.This was an historic first for New England. Meanwhile, California has been adding 2,000 megawatts of solar capacity in each of the past three years, and at one point in April 2017, 64 percent of all electric power on the California grid was solar or wind generated. Its grid is now struggling with how to manage periods of oversupply from solar and wind.”
Behind the grim headlines, the world is shifting. Yes, the process of weaning ourselves from carbon is imperfect, and too slow. That said, the shift is happening around the planet, driven by industry, national governments (except for the U.S.), and in the U.S. by state and local governments. Individual choices are driving it as well; from the cars we buy to the solar panels on our roofs, and even in what we consume each day.
So is the glass half full or half empty? The answer is “yes,” it’s both. That leaves it up to us to choose how we see the world.
We do need to honor our sense of fear and despair, and face them with courage and mindfulness in order not to be driven by them. Remember that underneath is the deep love we have for our planet, and our natural, heartfelt desire for the wellbeing of all life.
As Rohr says, it takes a contemplative mind to hold both “the reality of what is” and “the possibility of what could be,” namely a sustainable, renewable future. The future is not predetermined; it lies in our hands. It is a more powerful choice to see the glass half full despite the headlines, to chose to focus on the broader reality of the changes occurring around us. Optimism is often a choice that requires courage, but living with a sense of possibility for the future brings aliveness and can propel us into positive action, something despair never can.
John McIlwain is an advisor to the Garrison Institute’s Climate, Mind and Behavior program.
Photo by Elijah O’Donell on Unsplash.
Entrepreneurs Who Design Generously: Celebrating Nature-Inspired Innovation With the Ray of Hope Prize
Photo: Team Nexloop accepts the 2017 Ray of Hope Prize at Bioneers, presented by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. Left to right: John Lanier, Executive Director, Ray C. Anderson Foundation; C. Mike Lindsey, Anamarija Frankic, Jacob Russo, all from NexLoop; Beth Rattner, Executive Director, Biomimicry Institute.
These aren’t your everyday entrepreneurs. They understand that truly groundbreaking climate change solutions won’t come from the same take, make, and waste mindsets that have gotten us into our current environmental messes. Instead, they seek to emulate the natural world to create solutions that are regenerative, circular, and generous to all species on this planet.
The Biomimicry Launchpad supports this new kind of entrepreneur. Created by the Biomimicry Institute and sponsored by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, it’s the world’s only accelerator program that focuses on helping early-stage entrepreneurs bring biomimetic, or nature-inspired, innovations to market. Each year, Launchpad teams are eligible to compete for the Ray C. Anderson Foundation’s $100,000 Ray of Hope Prize®. Teams are invited to join the Launchpad either by applying directly, or by participating in the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge, a global competition for university students and professionals to create nature-inspired climate change solutions.
Bioneers celebrates these bold thinkers by presenting the Ray of Hope Prize each year on the mainstage. Sure, it’s a competition, but year after year, these teams form deep bonds, and many go on to collaborate on whole-systems solutions. It’s a great example of how Bioneers fosters connection, collaboration, and community.
Launchpad teams have gone on to win awards and additional funding, appear at conferences all over the world, and participate in other accelerator and incubator programs. Read on to learn more about these teams and what they’ve accomplished in their post-Bioneers journeys:
Collaborating to showcase nature-inspired, closed-loop water systems
Two Biomimicry Launchpad alumni teams are part of a consortium that has won a €10 million grant from the European Union to that aims to demonstrate and test innovations that close water loops, feed the soil, and promote local economies.
As part of the HYDROUSA grant, the Mangrove Still design, a desalinating still inspired by mangrove ecosystems, and the BIOCultivator, a growing/composting system inspired by lizards, will be included in a pilot project on Greek islands. This wide-scale grant project will incorporate different nature-inspired solutions to create a regenerative system that will produce fresh water for agricultural and household use, plus create jobs in the region. The Mangrove Still system will be used to produce freshwater for a greenhouse, and the BIOCultivator design will be adapted into a compost cultivator that will be used to fertilize and irrigate soil.
Alchemia Nova CEO Johannes Kisser is leading up the development of the biomimicry applications in the grant, along with Regina Rowland and the team at Bioversum, a new NGO that develops projects that apply the principles of biomimicry and circular economy and design.
Teaming up to collaborate on food system solutions
The 2016 Ray of Hope Prize-winning team, LifePatch (formerly BioNurse) is collaborating with the Mangrove Still team (described above) to develop a joint project that utilizes both of their designs to address both water and soil issues resulting from climate change. By combining the Mangrove Still’s affordable and efficient desalination design with LifePatch’s biodegradable, low-cost way to restore degraded soil, they aim to create a whole-systems approach to helping agricultural communities suffering from water scarcity and desiccated soil. The Mangrove Still team was previously awarded a grant from Dubai Expo 2020 and used those funds to test their system in Egypt, India, Namibia, Cape Verde, and Cyprus. Both of these teams are jointly applying for funds to test their combined technologies.
Prototyping a resilient water management system, inspired by nature
Team NexLoop won the 2017 Ray of Hope Prize for their water management system for urban food producers, inspired by the way living systems capture, store, and distribute water. Since their win, they have spoken at conferences around the world, including the National Science Festival in Croatia, and are focusing on developing a field-ready prototype. They have identified four international pilot sites and have been actively applying for additional funding to carry out these pilots.
Accelerating an indoor farming system
Team Hexagro created a modular growing system that enables people to grow fresh food in indoor settings. Since their Launchpad experience, they’ve displayed their designs at conferences all over the world, including at a technology display in Lyon, Milan Design Week, Seeds and Chips in Milan, Tech Open Air in Berlin, and at universities in Costa Rica and Slovenia. They’ve also participated in multiple startup pitch events, bootcamps and incubators, including the Katana Bootcamp in Stuttgart, Germany, where they were selected as the #1 pitch out of 100 teams participating in the bootcamp, the Kickstart Accelerator program in Switzerland, and the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan competition in Singapore. Most recently, the Hexagro team was accepted to Singularity University’s SU Ventures accelerator program.
Don’t miss out! Six new international Biomimicry Launchpad teams will be coming to Bioneers this year to showcase their nature-inspired climate change solutions. You can find out who the next 2018 Ray of Hope Prize winner is and meet all of the 2017-18 teams on Saturday, October 20th. Learn more about the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge here and the Biomimicry Launchpad here.
In Memory of Ralph Paige: Champion of Black Farmers
As I walked toward the meeting hall crowded with farmers, I could hear a buzz of joyful collegiality. I opened the swinging door and took a step inside and instantly the room fell silent. As the only white person in a group of about 200 Black farmers in Alabama, I got a small fleeting taste of what it means to be other. Uncomfortable and self-conscious, I froze in awkward pause.
Ralph Paige, a man of sizable physical stature, lifted his head, looked around and with a smile on his face said, “Who let the white folks in?” Everyone, including me, cracked up. The laughter pushed the silence aside and the tension dissipated. The group fell back into jovial conversation and I entered feeling relieved by the unconventional welcome.
That was Ralph. He knew full well the realities of racial distrust, but it didn’t prevent him from bringing people together to work for justice and to improve people’s lives.
When I first met Ralph, about 20 years ago, he was the Executive Director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives (FSC) and was a Bioneers board member at the time. As the Project Manager for the Bioneers Restorative Development Initiative, I was organizing some of the first organic farming and medicinal herb trainings in the Deep South for FSC farmers.
The FSC grew out of the civil rights movement in the 1960’s to support Black farmers and help them retain land ownership. According to the 1910 Census of Agriculture, Black farmers numbered over 200,000. By the year 2001, those numbers were estimated to have shrunk to 19,000.
In a 1992 New York times article, Douglas Bachtel of the University of Georgia said, “Farm declines seemed to have plateaued for whites in the last decade or so, but black farmers are on their way to extinction.”
As a testament to the work of the FSC under Ralph Paige’s leadership, the population of Black farmer’s rose to 33,371 in 2012.
Hard fought victories came despite the fact that the FSC was the target of institutional discrimination. In the early days of the FSC as Black voter registrations increased in counties where they organized farmer co-ops, the FBI inexplicably raided their office and confiscated all their files. After a lengthy delay, they were returned without any explanation.
In 1992, Ralph and the FSC led a caravan of Black farmers to Washington DC to protest the discriminatory practices of the USDA. In 1997, the FSC helped provide legal assistance to Black farmers to join the class action suit, Pigford v. Glickman, against the USDA. The successful lawsuit awarded $2 billion to 15,000 claimants–the largest civil right judgment in the history of the United States. Lead attorney for the class action suit, J.L Chestnut, said, in a Bioneers keynote presentation, that up to that point, no one had ever heard the words Black farmer and billions of dollars in the same sentence.
When tragedy struck in the form of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Ralph garnered the cooperative power of the FSC to aid thousands of farmers, fishers and families who suffered loss of home, loved ones and livelihoods.
A life-long civil rights warrior, Ralph Paige died of congestive heart failure on June 28. He worked tirelessly, at the expense of his own health, to help Black farmers be accorded the same opportunities as anyone else. His work invigorated rural southern communities culturally and economically. Ralph was a politically savvy operator with a big heart.
His legacy is apparent in the 200 units of low income housing, the 18 community credit unions, the 75 farmer cooperatives and the award-winning rural training center that the FSC built under Ralph Paige’s 30-year leadership, despite the roadblocks of discrimination and the racially rigged system that he helped break a few holes in.
Putting Carbon at the Center of Agricultural Policy
Excerpted from an Interview with Calla Rose Ostrander
Calla Rose Ostrander is an environmental consultant to the Marin Carbon Project, and formerly Climate Change Coordinator for the city of Aspen and Climate Change Project Manager for San Francisco.
When I was the Climate Change Project Manager for the City of San Francisco, John Wick gave a presentation in the Office of the Department of Environment on how the Marin Carbon Project (which John co-founded) was working to promote farming practices that draw carbon from the atmosphere and capture it in the soil. He shared his rigorous peer-reviewed published papers and a carbon-offset protocol that he had created around the concept of soil carbon sequestration. It included a whole methodology for farming that fit into the existing USDA infrastructure. I had never seen anybody do their homework quite like that. He had designed the pieces to transition the entire agricultural system. The research and trials had been done and he had found the framework in which to embed it into the agricultural system: the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and California’s Resource Conservation Districts.
That meeting led to an invitation to work with the Carbon Cycle Institute. They had a system, they did the science, they involved the right government institutions and the right stakeholders, and were supporting the farmers. There was an ecosystem of organizations and individuals to help scale it up. I was able to come in and help take all of that out to the broader landscape.
Levers of Power: Economy, Infrastructure, Funding and Storytelling
My background is international political economy, which is how you understand the levers of modern Western society, how politics intersect with economics, and how culture, religion or science – or whatever your basis is – shapes politics. As a political economist, my job is to assess things like the need for a market policy to drive organic materials out of landfills and out of dairy ponds and into compost.
When we burn carbon, we create energy. When we eat carbon, we get energy. When we put carbon in compost and spread it on the soil, it gives energy to the system. Carbon is the physicalized way that we share energy on the planet.
The challenge is that the current economic framework doesn’t recognize the exchange of energy as inherently valuable. When exchanged in a positive way, there is an abundance of carbon within the terrestrial system. It challenges the idea that the scarcity of carbon is what creates its value. Carbon is one of the most abundant elements on the planet and is what life is built on–that is the basis of its value.
We’re not going to change the economic paradigm tomorrow, but we are trying to look at all the ways in which our socio-political and market-based culture creates value, and then help shape it so we can begin to move that energy exchange in a positive abundant direction instead of in a single direction–into the atmosphere. Carbon is an untapped resource that can be actively harnessed if humans take a responsible role in the carbon cycle.
To affect policy change, consistency is needed across the scientific models between the State of California and the USDA, which requires additional research. Once we get consistency, the state and the feds are going to accept the models and then programs can be brought online.
In order to get funding passed, we need legislators from Southern California because the leaders of our California government are primarily based in Los Angeles. I moved there to understand who the constituency is, what they care about, how we engage them, how the idea of Carbon Farming and carbon sequestration brings value to them, and then how to mobilize them to tell their representatives that it is important.
How we, as a movement, communicate to the outside world needs to be cohesive. Kiss the Ground wanted to make a movie about soil and climate change. We needed to make sure that that first story animation said the things that everybody in the movement agreed on, that we got the science right, that we didn’t overstep it, that we said things that everybody from my scientist to my advocates and my politicians could agree with. Once we’re all saying the same thing, we then have shared values and the language needs to communicate that. Working with Kiss the Ground to write the movie created vocabulary cohesion, and therefore helped to align political and social will, which is crucial to take the body of work to scale.
The Framework: Carbon Farm Plans
The model that the Marin Carbon Project developed is to build Carbon Farming into Conservation Agriculture. USDA Conservation Agriculture Programs have been around since the post-Dust Bowl era within the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which created Conservation Districts across the country.
The Marin Carbon Project and The Carbon Cycle Institute looked at all the practices currently in Conservation Agriculture that focus on carbon and enhancing terrestrial or soil carbon. Instead of a Conservation Plan they created a Carbon Farm Plan that puts carbon at the center, because when you manage for carbon, you manage for water, you manage for nutrients, you manage for productivity and energy. That’s why it is a replicable model.
There are approximately 33 Resource Conservation Districts (RCD) in the State of California that have Carbon Farm Planning programs, meaning a rancher or farmer could go to their RCD and get assistance designing a carbon farming plan. Having a Carbon Farm Plan makes farmers and ranchers eligible for existing subsidies through the USDA Resource Conservation Service as well as California’s Healthy Soils Initiative.
Most agricultural soil systems are highly degraded and impacted and are facing challenges from extreme weather. Ranchers or rangeland managers don’t have a lot of capital. These are systems that operate on very small margins and they’re challenged by increasing land prices. They stay on the land by working it.
Even though a one-time application of compost is like magical medicine for the soil, compost is expensive and we’re going to need a lot more of it. The price needs to come down on one side for the rancher, but probably needs to go up for the producer to be profitable. Subsidies and more ways of farmers producing their compost on farm are needed.
To be successful means getting enough carbon back in that soil system so that it can be highly productive, and that’s not just compost. There are 34 practices “officially” approved by USDA and there are hundreds of other conservation practices for natural resource conservation and improving soil health. Those that specifically increase soil carbon sequestration are the ones that we put together into the Carbon Farming Plan. Colorado State University (a key partner in the development of the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory protocols) and the USDA are using the tool that we created for California, the COMET-Planner, which evaluates potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions by adopting NRCS conservation practices. It’s also being applied internationally.
Next Steps: What’s Needed?
A lot of farmers and ranchers are already doing many of these practices. They need monetary and technical support to manage for carbon on their properties.
In addition to government subsidies, private sector investment is needed. Local infrastructure is really important for supply chain development and keeping the value closer to the farmer. Right now, most of the wool that’s produced in California–even though it’s some of the highest-grade quality–gets thrown away because there’s no way to bring it to market. You have to send it to Texas or China to get washed and then there is the problem of where to send it once it’s washed to get spun or milled, and how to make the fabric. What we’re doing now is looking at how we can support a manufacturing infrastructure around local fiber systems that are climate beneficial, because that’s going to bring a value back to the farmer or rancher and value to the soil by building organic matter.
Fibershed founder, Rebecca Burgess, has built a community in California of over 140 small to mid-scale producers and is working with North Face by producing value-added products with wool that was produced in a climate-beneficial manner using Carbon Farming practices. We’re looking at what is it that those local producers need in order to successfully make these practices happen on their operations.
There are wonderful organizations that we’ve partnered with – CAFF, CalCAN, Californians Against Waste – who are doing advocacy. What was missing was the smaller, mid-scale producer voice at the table. We are helping those types of producers organize and have their own lobbyists because in order to get government money, you have to show up at every meeting and every hearing, and go to the offices and talk to all the people. That’s how policy gets made, that’s how money gets distributed. You’ve have to know who your legislators are and talk to them. John Wick is currently funding a project to connect the small-scale Northern California climate beneficial producers to a lobbying group that can represent them so that they can have a voice at the table.
There’s a framework, there are funding streams, and now it’s a question of listening to people who are already doing this work as well as those who are interested. What do they need to continue or what they need to do more of it? A model is in place that can live on its own within existing infrastructure. New resources like education and more funding can be funneled towards that infrastructure. There are structural things that still need to be changed, but the model is active, right now, on the agriculture landscape in California.
More Layers of Life Per Acre: Creating a Rich Farm Ecology by Paul Muller
By Paul Muller
Paul Muller, a partner at Full Belly Farm in California’s Capay Valley, has been farming organically for 33 years. Full Belly Farm is designed to maximize the layers of life per acre–plant, soil microbes, insects, and animals–while harvesting as much sunlight as possible and growing over 70 different fruit and vegetable crops. Paul explains how Full Belly Farm is working to sequester soil carbon as part of Bioneers Carbon Farming series.
California’s environment is incredibly complex, with a great variety of agricultural expressions. When thinking about carbon, there’s a set of solutions that may have a common feel in grasslands. However, in irrigated agricultural or orchard systems, or growing corn and soy in the Midwest, your approach to carbon ends up being very different. We know from the work of the permaculturists that rainfall, temperature, everything that influences the soil all determine how you manage your environment to sequester more carbon.
I’ve been practicing organic farming for 33 years and some of the knowledge that we now know about soil systems–how plants take in CO2 through photosynthesis to build their own plant tissue, as well as how they deliver carbohydrate exudates into the soil to feed micro life– are all new ways to look at what we are doing during our tenure on this planet and how we manage the vegetation on it. I think the arc of the universe is moving, inevitably, toward the understanding that we can not violate nature for very much longer
Most landscapes have been degraded by human use. We must now try to keep as much energy in the system as possible. In the last 150 years in this country, the knowledge of managing systems in a way that is scale appropriate to human beings who were intimately tied to a place has been diminished, and that has destroyed rural America. Who is going to manage carbon on the farm? The human component of that kind of management system has to be regenerated.
In the changing landscape of California agriculture, increasingly there are people who don’t actually farm the land, who are landlords and who hire someone else to farm. Oprah Winfrey owns a good deal of land in the Dixon area where she’s farming almonds. It’s doubtful that she does a lot of almond farming herself. TIAA-CREF is a large institutional retirement fund who is growing 25-30,000 acres of almonds. People like that need to develop the tools and the consciousness of stewardship. But they only see it as an investment. There are hundreds of thousands of acres being farmed by people who are only trying to maximize their return. Carbon doesn’t fit in that equation. What fits in that equation is how many nuts or how many tons of hay or whatever crop you are harvesting off of that piece of ground.
Modern farming systems are based on the plough. All the science and tools came from the notion that to turn the soil was the way you made agriculture productive, and that the best way to manage land is to keep it bare. The opportunity being missed is that bare land does not harvest sunlight. The bare field is not taking CO2 out of the air, the soil micro life is not being fed, life is not being supported in the soil. We have a lot of work to do to convince farmers that they’re losing money if the rainfall that hits bare ground doesn’t infiltrate because of poor soil structure due to lack of microbial life. Agriculture is a fairly violent form of livelihood, if you don’t think about all the life in the farming environment. We have to think about solving for a different pattern. We have to think about how we value carbon, how we measure it, how we begin to put that into the economic equation.
Agriculture can come to the rescue and be part of solving the problem of how we deal with carbon in the atmosphere. How we structure that in terms of policy is very important, because the food system contributes approximately 30% of the annual greenhouse gas emissions.
We’re going to need new thinking about how we create and defend the biological depth and richness with farmers who are dedicated to place; people who are noble. As a farmer for 33 years, I am tied intimately to my land even in a physiological way. My very gut bacteria are tied to the processes that I’m doing on my soil, and everything that I eat from it. That’s true for every person who is eating product from my farm. They are tied to me in an intimate way. We continually give customers the information about how they’re helping us defend the biological richness of our farm, how they too are responsible for the activities on the farm.
At Full Belly Farm, our primary goal is to is grow soil. I’m not a scientist, but I see a lot of life in the soil, there’s flocculation of the system. Through observation, I find that soil fungus and bacteria have a certain smell. So in a very visceral way, I understand what soil looks like when my farming practices are are treating the land well.
We look at our farm in terms of layers, we always try to have something blooming. When thinking about the complexity of the farm, we keep in mind the carbon accumulators that serve other forms of life. Carbon accumulators can be mustards and arugula plants growing to seed. All the bee life and the avian life and other living things need pollen and nectar to thrive. We design our system so that carbon sequestration feeds other life forms on the farm.
The place I learn the most from is the bench below our farm where you can look at native soils. We live in oak woodland. Underneath that oak woodland is an understory of all the duff and leaves and things that accumulate under those trees. If you scrape that away, there are layers of decomposition occurring. There are macro-digester, earthworms, beetles, and other things in one layer. There are different levels of microbes all the way through. By understanding a little bit about how nature organizes itself, we can begin to manage our farm and our cultivation to grow crops where we’re going to do some tillage, but do the least amount of damage.
We know why we should till soil less. Tillage releases CO2, so soil structure is generally improved when you don’t till. You have better water-holding capacity, better rain infiltration and a steady release of water in the soil, especially important when we get climate fluxes. Soil organic matter is more stable, fungal populations and other micro life in the soil can be managed and they can be less disrupted. There will be less evaporation, greater soil stability and less erosion. There are lots of benefits to not tilling, but it’s hard to grow carrots without tilling. It’s hard to grow radishes without tilling. We’re still trying to figure that out.
We grow cover crops as a primary piece of our rotation. Every bit of ground will have at least one cover crop, sometimes two cover crops a year, along with the food crop. A winter cover crop of vetch, oats, barley and different cultivars that have different root systems. A summer cover of Sudan grass with cowpeas and buckwheat. The buckwheat flowers attract pollinators and beneficial insects, the cowpeas for nitrogen, the Sudan Grass for carbon. We experiment with different forms of cover crops to see what will work with our roll-down no till system.
We mow down some cover crops to get in that field earlier. We till lightly, and then have a seedbed that has had the benefit of nitrogen fixation, carbon accumulation, and all the pieces that we need for building fertility with what’s indigenous to the farm.
We can also flail mow, but when you flail mow you’re chopping things up pretty fine that digests really quickly in our environment. So flail mowing is not the best tool for keeping carbon in the ground.
If we mowed flowers in bloom, all the beneficial insects would disappear. So we use sheep to browse and move them around gently. They are defecating and peeing, which helps accumulate carbon.
At Full Belly Farm, we grow some tree crops and a wide variety of vegetables year-round. We plant for insect diversity. We’re trying to create a rich ecology on the farm by having as many forms of life and as many layers of life as we can, and still pay the bills and have a farm that’s productive and grows high-quality food.
We think about more layers of life per acre. What we’re trying to do in those layers is grow understory plants for harvest, while harvesting as much sunlight as possible. We’re working to have insect life and soil micro life all thriving in the system.
As part of our multiple-layered systems, we have livestock on the farm, which is a biodynamic concept. They inoculate the soil with their defecation, and they move themselves. You don’t have to get a spreader out, they spread themselves. They work without any workman’s comp and they eat 24 hours a day and they provide inputs just about as often. They are wonderful components in our system. They become part of the farm soil’s digestion process, and they’re creating a stable form of carbon, as opposed to carbon that’s a nutrient that may move more quickly through the system. They’re probably doing a little bit of both depending on how we manage them.
Every day we want to harvest the maximum amount of sunlight. We do that by growing more layers on the farm. In the springtime, there’ll be flowers blooming that will be an incredible hive of insect activity that can exist in an understory of an orchard, provide nutrients for the orchard, and allow rain to infiltrate.
In the end, we want to create more vibrant places where people are inoculated with the very nature of the farm, and that includes our customers. We want to grow places that are beautiful. That’s part of the solution in thinking about carbon, that we’re going to rethink beauty. And we’re going to seduce the next generation with good food.
Can Soil Carbon Sequestration Affect Global Temperatures
By Dr. Whendee Silver
Dr. Whendee Silver is Professor of Ecosystem Ecology in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley. She is researching the biogeochemical effects of climate change and human impacts on the environment, and the potential for mitigating these effects. Dr. Silver is conducting research for The Marin Carbon Project.
It’s getting warmer and we know why. It’s warming because carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases that we emit through our everyday activities are collecting in the atmosphere and re-radiating heat down to the planet. They’re trapping heat and creating the greenhouse effect.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in their 2014 report stated that we need to figure out a way to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere in addition to reducing emissions. You have to do both.
The IPCC 2014 report said that a large fraction of anthropogenic climate change resulting from CO2 emissions is irreversible on a multi-century to millennial time scale. We’ve already passed a threshold, except in the case of a large net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere over a sustained period. So emissions reduction isn’t enough. We have to couple it with carbon uptake from the atmosphere.
Soil carbon holds tremendous potential to take some of that excess carbon out of the atmosphere and put it in a place where it could be stored, not just stored, but also do some good because when we manage soils for increased carbon content, we’re also increasing soil organic matter.
Organic matter is the vehicle to move carbon from plants into soils. Carbon is part of that organic material. When we increase the carbon and organic content of soils, we increase the fertility, the water-holding capacity, and the stability, because organic matter is sticky and keeps soils from eroding. All of these things contribute to sustainability and productivity, so increasing soil organic matter is good management.
Our research is trying to understand the potential of increased organic matter. We want to understand whether or not it is an activity that is not only good management of ranches, but also good for climate change mitigation. Our goal was to answer the question, “Can soil carbon sequestration actually affect global temperatures?”
We found that theoretically and technically, current management could sequester enough carbon to reduce temperatures by .3 degrees Celsius, which was three times more than the baseline target that we were aiming for by 2100. Using all of the possible management practices that exist, the maximum we could reach is almost 2 petagrams of carbon that we could get into the soil per year [1 petagram = 1 billion tonnes].
The analysis we looked at included grazing, changing from tillage to no till, ands some irrigation practices. It didn’t include soil amendments, because there was no global scale assessment of that. I actually hope to do such an assessment over the next year, because it’s really needed.
What lands are available for this? We picked grasslands because they hold a lot of potential. The majority of grasslands are heavily degraded and are very widely distributed. They cover a third of the U.S. land area, a third of the global land surface, and 23 million hectares of grasslands in California make up almost 40% of the state’s land area. It was locally relevant for me, being at U.C. Berkeley, and it was nationally and globally relevant. These ecosystems have tremendous potential to sequester carbon because grasses are looking for water.
All grasslands occur in places where there’s a drought during some part of the year. The plants are pre-programmed via evolution to put a lot of carbon down into roots, and any time there is root growth, you increase the potential to store carbon in that soil.
We found that amendments of livestock manure, which is a very common practice in California, increase carbon dramatically–50 metric tons of carbon per hectare.
This sounds exciting except that cattle manure is a really big source of greenhouse gas, especially when it’s stored in piles or in slurry ponds. In fact, EPA data shows that manure management is equivalent to coal mining in terms of methane emissions. Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas, and manure greenhouse gas emissions are equivalent to mobile combustion emissions of nitrous oxide out of your tail pipes. Nitrous oxide is 300 times more potent per molecule as CO2 over 100 years.
We did additional field sampling on dairies and used computer simulation models to assess whether or not future emissions from livestock management would be balanced by soil carbon sequestration.
Grazing alone and the manure that’s deposited via grazing produce some nitrous oxide emissions. That’s just background condition. Cows emit methane. These are things that we can’t avoid in a grazing system. But when you apply manure, you actually get a lot more emissions of nitrous oxide, a super potent greenhouse gas. Over time, the soil carbon sequestration begins to stabilize, and the net effect is really high emissions, primarily nitrous oxide emissions from the manured system.
That’s why we turned to compost, because composting that material actually decreases emissions. Now we’re measuring greenhouse gas emissions from the composting process, and it appears that it leads to relatively low emissions if done well.
If you were to let manure decay normally it might decay to CO2, but you might also increase methane emissions, so if you can put it in a compost pile and turn that compost pile weekly, it results in relatively low methane emissions and very low, undetectable nitrous oxide. Leaving that material in place would produce nitrous oxide, but putting manure in a well-managed compost system decreases the nitrous oxide emissions.
When we apply the compost on the field, we find very low greenhouse gas emissions. That was a surprise. Compost is hard for microbes to break down, but it does leak a little bit out over time, and increases plant growth. In fact, from a one-time application, it increased plant growth for many years.
With a one-time compost application in 2008, right after the rains came, we saw that the compost sites were greening up faster than the other sites. That compost appears to be staying in the soil.
We see an increase in soil carbon, which is not a big surprise until you realize that we sorted the compost fragments out of the soil samples before we analyzed them. So most of this is likely to be new carbon from plant photosynthesis. We see the increase in growth that leads to an increase in soil carbon, and when we add it all up, we get about 3 metric tons of carbon per hectare over 3 years, or about a metric ton of carbon per hectare per year.
Through collaboration and funding from the State of California, we have now added another component to look at how stable this carbon will be and what the impacts will be with future climate change predictions. We’re using climate models now with our biogeochemical model.
The first sites that we’ve modeled are in Mendocino and Santa Barbara. Mendocino is a wetter site and Santa Barbara is the drier site. What we found is a one-time application of compost in both the optimistic emissions-reduction scenario and the realistic emissions-reduction scenario shows that by 2100 we are still sequestering carbon in those grasslands, in the dry site and in the wet site.
All carbon sequestration has the potential to contribute to climate change mitigation at a global scale. Compost application holds considerable promise as a carbon sequestration approach with many co-benefits. This is good management. This approach is scalable and increases resilience of ecosystems in the face of climate change. This is what our ranchers and farmers really need, so we should be doing it for that reason alone.
We’re finishing the sample analysis and modeling for the NRCS [National Resource Conservation Service] field trials, and I hope to come up with a snapshot of the State of California that other states and maybe even other countries can use to start promoting these practices. We’re really interested in food waste composting and land application, because this is a free carbon source that’s not being fully utilized, and right now is a high-emitting source. If we can get food waste out of the landfills and into compost, we could potentially do even better.
We’re doing life cycle assessment modeling, which may answer the questions: What about alternative uses of that waste? How does anaerobic biodigestion compare with aerobic composting?
We’re also looking into what happens if that waste goes into energy production.
Hungry for solutions? Here are eight bold new ideas, inspired by nature.
This article was originally published by the Biomimicry Institute. Bioneers 2018 will host the presentation of the $100,000 Ray of Hope Prize to one of these innovators in October.
Not everyone looks at a jellyfish and sees a renewable energy solution. But for a team of Georgia Tech students, the jellyfish’s bell-shaped body gave them insight for how to make their tidal energy harvesting design more efficient and effective. Farther north, a team from Cornell University found clues for how to prevent mosquito-borne diseases in the structure of carnivorous plants. For a team from China, the kingfisher’s eyelid provided a whole new way to think about preventing soil erosion. In Taiwan, a team is ensuring that their community can breathe easier by mimicking the Saharan silver ant.
Game-changing ideas begin by seeing the possibilities for a sustainable world reflected in the living systems that surround us. That’s what we celebrate each year in the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge—a competition that asks innovators to create radically sustainable human designs inspired by the natural world.
There are a lot of solutions to celebrate. Eight teams from around the world have been chosen as winners in the 2018 Biomimicry Global Design Challenge. In addition to cash prizes, these teams will be invited to join the Biomimicry Launchpad, an accelerator program for early-stage biomimetic start-ups, to work to bring their innovations to market. At the end of the Launchpad program, one team will win the $100,000 Ray of Hope Prize®, sponsored by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation.
Read on to learn more about how each winning team is working to develop a more sustainable world, using nature as a guide:
FULL CIRCLE
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
This team from Georgia Tech wanted to find a more resilient way to harvest renewable energy, so they created a nature-inspired energy generator that produces clean renewable electricity from underwater sea currents. The design was informed by the bell-shaped body of jellyfish, how schools of fish position themselves, how heart valves move liquid, and how kelp blades are adapted to rapidly flowing water and maximize photosynthesis. Their goal is to create a more efficient way to generate power, decreasing cost, and making this approach available to areas vulnerable to electricity shortage.
HABARI
Utrecht, The Netherlands
This University of Utrecht-based team created an automated, open-source design to protect tea plants from frost damage. Climate change has resulted in more unpredictable night frosts in Kenya, which damages tea plantations and leads to economic losses and unstable incomes for farmers. Inspired by the giant groundsel (Dendrosenecio kilimanjari) and giant lobelia (Lobelia deckenii) plants, both native to Kenya, the team developed HABARI to automatically deploy a mesh where frost deposits, covering the plants and preventing the frost from settling on the leaves. HABARI increases farmers’ resilience to weather conditions, and connects the farms with the local community by using local and sustainable products.
MIST GENERATION + PACE
Taichung City, Taiwan
Graduate students at the Tung Hai University developed the Psephurus Air Cleaner Equipment (PACE) to improve air quality in urban environments. Residents of densely populated cities are at greater risk for health issues due to fine particulate matter in the air. In order to make the air quality in outdoor public spaces better, this team created an air-cleaning device that is incorporated into signage on city buildings. These solar-powered signs have filtering mechanisms inspired by marine creatures like salpidae, paddlefish, and peacock worms, and derived their energy strategy from prairie dog burrows, the Saharan silver ant’s light-reflecting capabilities and more.
ECONCRETE
Tel-Aviv, Israel
This team of marine biologists, engineers, designers, and geologists wanted to develop a better way to create resilience in coastal zones most at risk for climate change-related issues. Current coastal defense systems such as breakwaters, seawalls and revetments, replace natural habitats, creating tremendous pressure on the fragile marine and coastal ecosystems. This team studied natural tide pools, rocky shores and oyster beds to develop a fully functional and constructive coastal defense unit which encourages growth of diverse plants and animals native to the project’s environment.
SOIL EROSION BY NATURE
Chonquing, China
This team worked to develop a way to combat soil erosion problems resulting from the Three Gorges Dam in China—the world’s largest hydropower station. Yearly water fluctuation means that there is a constant erosion problem. The SSE team developed an approach inspired by the kingfisher’s “third eyelid”—a protective, retractable layer that covers the bird’s eyes while it plunges into water. Their device is a mesh structure that covers soil while it is submerged and flushed with water. The device can be retracted after the water level is lowered, ensuring that it will not affect plant growth and damage the ecosystem.
GEN-RAIL
Long Beach, California, U.S.
This California State University at Long Beach team developed Genrail to harness wind generated on urban freeways and convert it into energy, essentially creating a wind farm in an urban environment. This system was developed with Los Angeles in mind but is adaptable to all high-speed roadways. The team replicated the compressible elasticity of the cockroach to create safe impact zones, mimicked the California condor’s wing shape to help create energy harnessing fans, and gathered inspiration from the structure of the desert snail shell to create a system of vacuums aided by the venturi effect propelling the wind forward and providing extra power for the city. Genrail is designed to have a small footprint, be highly efficient, and be easy to produce and implement in cities worldwide.
UPOD
Ithaca, New York, U.S.
This Cornell University team created the UPod, a mosquito-control device inspired by the mechanism of the carnivorous Utricularia vulgaris plant. Higher average temperatures and increased precipitation events due to climate change are contributing to the expanding threat of mosquito-borne diseases like dengue, malaria, and chikungunya. Current mosquito-control strategies can be harmful to people and the environment, so this team developed the UPod to be an environmentally friendly, self-sustaining, reusable and affordable solution. Similar to how the Utricularia vulgaris plant traps prey, the UPod is a solar-powered device that pulls water and larvae into a tightly-sealed water chamber by means of a trap door that functions through a smart sensor mechanism. Larvae are suffocated in the water chamber, and then pumped out as new water and larvae are pulled in. UPod can help individuals, communities and nations take control of larvae populations and prevent the spread of mosquito-borne diseases.
PHALANX INSULATION
Long Beach, California, U.S.
This team, also from California State University at Long Beach, developed a biomimicry-inspired insulation grid meant to be applied to exterior walls of existing buildings. Intended to be used in urban coastal regions like Southern California, this system is designed to reduce interior temperatures of buildings passively without the need for electricity. The system includes three layers. The shade-grid layer has a wavy patterns and reflective surface inspired by the cactus and Saharan silver ant. The air channel layer, inspired by cathedral termites, directs hot air up and out of the system. The capillary layer was inspired by the Saharan camel and wheat, and can collect the morning dew from the air or pull up gray water from an underlying trough. Phalanx requires no electricity, has no moving parts, can be assembled on existing architecture, makes use of otherwise wasted water, and ultimately saves money while it cools.
HONORABLE MENTION:
BUBA – Mexico City, Mexico
The Avian Smog Mask – Toledo, Ohio, USA
Opening – Taichung, Taiwan
This article was originally published by the Biomimicry Institute. Bioneers 2018 will host the presentation of the $100,000 Ray of Hope Prize to one of these innovators in October.