Bill McKibben – The Climate Fight Gets Hotter | Bioneers

The award-winning environmental journalist, author, Co-Founder of 350.org, and leading global climate activist surveys the landscape of climate action, including the remarkable holding action by 350.org and others to suspend approval of the Keystone XL pipeline carrying Canadian “tar sands” oil, the “biggest carbon bomb” on the planet.

“Most of the people we work with around the world are poor and black and brown and Asian and young, because that’s what most of the world is made up of, and oddly, they’re as interested in the future as anybody else. They’re maybe more so because if you’re in some of these places, the future bears down on you with enormous speed.”

This speech was presented at the 2012 Bioneers Annual Conference.

 

Michael Pollan – Beyond the Barcode

Michael Pollan, author of the Omnivore’s Dilemma, encourages us to put our faith in relationship rather than technology and regulation. Pollan is perhaps the foremost critic of the American and global food system and advocate for transforming that system.

“Local food economies are our best hope for checking the drift toward the total global economy. And with food is where these economies begin. A revolt is underway across this country — a revolt of the small producers and consumers. And some of the most important politics today as I said, are happening at farmers markets.”

This speech was presented at the 2006 National Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, CA and is part of the Ecological Food and Farming Collection, Vol. 1.

John Mohawk – Survive and Thrive

In this expansive tour of human civilization leading to today’s climate crisis, Native American scholar John Mohawk explores the interrelationship of climate change and human evolution. For most of our history as hunter-gatherers and farmers, we retained an intimate knowledge of the natural world that supported us, especially plants. That knowledge, he observes, is being lost at radical rates today. Re-establishing our intimacy and kinship with the plant world is key to surviving dramatic climatic changes. He shares insights about the “Native American pragmatism” that successfully balanced the practical with the spiritual for thousands of years.

“All of the survival techniques we learned about our relations to cultivars and everything at this hour stands in peril. And our relationship to wild plants stands in peril. The big human relationship to our cultural heritage is on the verge of extinction, and we need to change that.”

This speech was presented at the 2004 Bioneers National Conference and is part of the Indigenous Knowledge, Vol. 1 and Nature, Culture and Spirit, Vol. 1 Collections.

 

Peter Warshall – Dreaming New Mexico

Peter Warshall gives a guided tour of this ambitious initiative — a dream that asks, “How do we want to be nourished in the next 15 to 25 years?” Dreaming New Mexico’s (DNM) on-the-ground surveys gave way to vibrant maps that illuminate the state’s agro-ecoregions.

Peter, who co-directed Bioneers’ Dreaming New Mexico initiative, worked for more than 40 years on conservation, biodiversity protection and community development projects in Africa, Latin America and North America for the U.N., USAID, various conservation groups and businesses and Native American Governments. His multi-faceted areas of expertise included natural resource management, watersheds, conservation biology, biodiversity assessments and conflict resolution and consensus building between divergent economic and cultural special interest groups. He was the Sustainability and Anthropology Editor of the Whole Earth Catalog from 1973-1996, and worked as a consultant for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Ethiopia. Closer to home here, he worked for the Point Reyes Bird Observatory on migratory bird habitat conservation. Peter received his B.A. in Biology and a Ph.D. in Biology and Anthropology from Harvard University. He served on the board of directors of the All Species Foundation, Sky Island Alliance, and World Innovation Foundation.

This speech was given at the 2010 Bioneers National Conference.

Danny Glover on Reimagining Social Movements

Actor, director and activist Danny Glover explains his view on social movements. This speech (of which a clip is featured) took place at the 2013 National Bioneers Conference.

“It’s gonna take us stepping out, not knowing, stepping further, not just where the system itself allows us to step out, but beyond where the system allows us to step out.”

 

The White Buffalo Souldiers

Lyla June Johnston and Desirae Harp, The White Buffalo Souldiers, perform an original song about unity and togetherness. This performance took place at the 2013 Bioneers Annual Conference.

“This is the reconciliation of blood-lines, skin tones, and histories. Only by forgiving one another and acknowledging the atrocities, honoring the womb and living out the prophecies. Only then can we begin to heal our relationship with this sacred turtle island.”

 

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, Nina Simons and Ilarion Merculieff on Women’s Leadership

Three bioneers, including Co-Founder Nina Simons, discuss women’s leadership. These talks (of which short clips are featured) took place at the 2013 Annual Bioneers Conference.

“We can call each other into healing and strength and greater leadership, not only with our voices and our listening, but also with our eyes, with our dreams and intuition, and with the insight of our inner-vision.” -Nina Simons

 

Climbing Poetree Perform

Multimedia artists Alixa Garcia and Naima Penniman, the duo behind Climbing PoeTree, present their original spoken word poetry.

“I wonder if the sun debates dawn
some mornings
not wanting to rise
out of bed
from under the down-feather horizon

if the sky grows tired
of being everywhere at once
adapting to the mood
swings of the weather…”

This performance was given at the 2013 Bioneers Annual Conference.

Find out more about Alixa Garcia and Naima Penniman and how you can engage with their campaigns and efforts by visiting Climbing PoeTree.

Ecological Design: Janine Benyus, Jason McLennan and David McConville

Janine Benyus, Jason McLennan, and David McConville describe how our lives are related to nature and ecological design. These speeches (of which clips are shown) took place at the 2013 Bioneers Annual Conference.

“The universe matters, because we are the universe mattering.” -David McConville

 

Billy Parish – 100% Clean Energy for and by the People | Bioneers

This leading young change-maker turned entrepreneur is showing how, in this generation, we can shift from fossil fuels to a world 100% powered by clean energy, and we can do it in a way that makes all of us richer, healthier and happier. The only way it will happen is if we get involved and take power into our own hands. Solar Mosaic, the company he co-founded, is employing revolutionary crowdfunding techniques to democratize investment opportunities and spread distributed energy.

This speech was presented at the 2013 Bioneers National Conference in San Rafael, CA.

 

Joshua Fouts – The Emerging Imagination

Visionary media innovator Joshua Fouts calls this time “The Imagination Age.” From sudden revolutions in the Middle East to “unimaginable” natural and human made technological and economic disasters, our world is in a state of radical transformation and readjustment. At the same time, powerful new media are emerging that could presage a hopeful new global culture and economy. Joshua illuminates how extraordinary new tools — virtual worlds, games and the worldwide web — can leverage global cultural empowerment and educational reform, amplified by creativity, collaboration, art and music.

This speech was presented at the 2011 Bioneers National Conference.

Lynne Twist, Atossa Soltani & Franco Viteri With a Message From the Amazon | Bioneers

Lynne Twist, Co-founder of The Pachamama Alliance, Atossa Soltani, the Executive Director of Amazon Watch, and Franco Viteri, President of the Governing Body of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (GONAE), share the situation of the Ecuadorian Amazon and the indigenous people who inhabit it.

“Four percent of the population are the guardians of eighty percent of the world’s biodiversity. And that is no coincidence.” -Atossa Soltani