Thomas Linzey – Turning Defense Into Offense

Thomas Linzey portrays the provocative successes of conservative townships in Pennsylvania to challenge the validity of corporate rights, claim local self-governance and reclaim democracy. Linzey is the innovative attorney and co-founder of the Democracy Schools and the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. Introduction by Kenny Ausubel, CEO and Co-Founder of Bioneers.

Find out more about Thomas Linzey and how you can engage with his campaigns and efforts by visiting the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund or follow @celdf.

 

Severn Cullis-Suzuki – Remember the Future

Severn Cullis-Suzuki discusses our responsibilities toward future generations; how to heal our disconnection from nature and each other; and how to draw from the best of ancient traditions and modern innovation to build a sustainable future. Cullis-Suzuki, daughter of David Suzuki, graduated from Yale with a B.S. in ecology and evolutionary biology, and is on track to outpace her father as an activist. She founded a children’s environmental group at age 9, addressed the Rio Summit at age 12, and hasn’t stopped since, starting several groups and projects and becoming a dynamic, luminous light in a new generation of eco-leaders.  Introduction by Nina Simons, Co-Founder and President of Bioneers.

This speech was given at the 2003 Bioneers National Conference.

Find out more about Severn Cullis-Suzuki and how you can engage with her campaigns and efforts by visiting her homepage and the David Suzuki Foundation where she is a board member.

Gloria Feldt – Riding the Leadership Wave

A gut level fear of conflict, from deep in our cultural memory, can keep women from realizing their transformational leadership aspirations. But embracing controversy strengthens our power to create social good. Gloria Feldt shares her personal journey from timid teen to nationally prominent women’s rights leader.

This speech was given at the 2010 Bioneers Conference.

Find out more about Gloria Feldt and how you can engage with her campaigns and efforts by visiting Take the Lead.

Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui – Biocultural Conservation in the Amazon

Chief Almir portrays his people’s struggles to survive by protecting their culture and rainforest since they made First Contact with the Western world in 1969.

“Today, we are 1,300 Surui. Before first contact, we were 5,000. That really woke us up because we knew that if we didn’t do anything, our people could end. We became even more worried when we saw that our forests would go together with us. We had to find a way to create dialogue with the rest of the world to find a way for our future. One of the ways that we found we could communicate is through the Internet and through technology, and in that way reach the rest of the world and make our contribution.”

In this astonishing presentation, Chief Almir Surui of the Amazon’s Surui tribe shares the journey that resulted when the Amazon’s Surui people first encountered the encroachments of Western civilization in 1969. Their chief, Chief Almir’s father, confronted the bulldozers and armed men with his bow and arrow. Over the years, the Surui population dwindled to a fourth of its size at first contact, and the surrounding rainforest was similarly decimated. Chief Almir Surui was sent by the tribe to college in a quest to learn how to save their way of life, where he encountered Google Earth on the Internet. He showed up on the doorstep of the Google-plex seeking help. A team from Google Earth Outreach journeyed to the Amazon, where it trained the Surui and 12 other tribes in how to map their lands and use the Internet to tell their story. The rest is history.

Chief Almir Surui is the chief of the Amazonian Surui tribe who are employing the high technology of Google Earth to attain the conservation of the rainforest and their survival. Led by Chief Almir, the tribe has created the first REDD carbon forest business plan to conduct sustainable ventures from the forest. His opposition to logging, mining, agricultural and other development interests in favor of more sustainable ventures in western Brazil has made him the target of death threats and violence.

(Interpreted live from Portuguese by Vasco Van Roosmalen from Amazon Conservation Team).

This speech was given at the 2009 Bioneers National Conference.

 

Gary Hirshberg – Win7 Economics

If we can make radical changes in how we think about our relationship to nature and economic growth, we will see restored, vibrant ecosystems and healthy, prosperous farmers, cows, consumers, employees, investors and future children. So says the iconic food entrepreneur Gary Hirshberg, CEO of Stonyfield Farm, the world’s largest organic yogurt company that he helped start 27 years ago. In 2005, he was named managing director of Stonyfield Europe, a joint venture with Groupe Danone (France). A visionary sustainability activist for over 33 years, Gary is working with large companies to reduce their health-care costs by motivating employees to adopt self-care practices.

This speech was given at the 2010 Bioneers National Conference.

 

Dr. Gabor Maté – Toxic Culture

The Canadian physician and best-selling author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts is a brilliantly original thinker on addiction, trauma, parenting and the social context of human diseases and imbalances. Contrary to the assumptions of mainstream medicine, he asserts that most human ailments are not individual problems, but reflections of a person’s relationship with the physical, emotional and social environment, from conception to death. Mind and body are not separate in real life, and thus health and illness in a person reflect social and economic realities more than personal predispositions. In other words, personal responsibility cannot be separated from societal responsibility and changing the world.

This speech was presented at the 2012 Bioneers National Conference.

Greg Sarris – Betting Big on a Native Dream

Greg Sarris describes how his people (descendants of Coastal Miwok and Southern Pomo) are using their understanding that they have always been a part of the natural world to embark on a major commitment to position themselves as “keepers of the land” once again. Using ancient ethics and aesthetics of place, bolstered by casino revenues, the 1,300 member tribe has partnered with county and state officials to secure and restore large tracts of open space, as well as to convert local farms to the production of organic produce for the low-income and needy, thus creating a model of local restoration and sustainability. Sarris is the Tribal Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and professor of Native American Studies at Sonoma State University.

This speech was given at the 2012 National Bioneers Conference.

Find out more about Greg Sarris and how you can engage with his campaigns and efforts by visiting his personal website and the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.

 

Michael Brune – emPOWERed

Hungry for good news? Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune tells the story of how an inspiring grassroots coalition has achieved hundreds of victories against Big Coal over the last several years. He depicts a new, localized approach to fighting climate change effectively and outline what each of us can do to help clean energy such as solar and wind become the dominant source of power by the end of this decade. The Beyond Coal campaign, including recent funding of $50 million from Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City, has helped block 166 (and counting) new coal plants over the past decade, with major impacts on reducing global greenhouse gas and mercury emissions. The Mother Jones magazine headline says it all: “How a Grassroots Rebellion Won the Nation’s Biggest Climate Victory.” In 2008 he published the book Coming Clean — Breaking America’s Addiction to Oil and Coal.

Find out more about Michael Brune and how you can engage with his campaigns and efforts by visiting the The Sierra Club or follow him @bruneksi.

This speech was given at the 2012 Bioneers National Conference.

Rev. Fletcher Harper – Greening our Faiths

This courageous Episcopal priest — Executive Director of the groundbreaking interfaith environmental coalition GreenFaith and award-winning spiritual writer and renowned preacher on the environment — illustrates ways in which growing numbers of diverse faith-based groups are offering environmental leadership on issues ranging from renewable energy to environmental justice and reconnecting with the Earth. Fletcher describes GreenFaith’s Certification Program for faith-based sites — a transformative 2-year process through which houses of worship become centers of environmental spirituality, stewardship and justice.

This speech was given at the 2012 Bioneers National Conference.

Carol Jenkins – The Public Square Is Empty | Bioneers

As perhaps never before in our history, Americans are at war — with one another. Divided by race, class, gender, faith and rigid politics, our media has failed us. Instead of the Public Square of information, we increasingly retreat to our own de facto segregated sources of opinion. In this crucial election year of 2012, can we revive the Public Square, and, if not, what happens? Carol Jenkins is an Emmy award-winning former journalist and producer, and founding President of the Women’s Media Center, the groundbreaking nonprofit aimed at increasing coverage and participation of women in the media. In that WMC role, she conceived the acclaimed Progressive Women’s Voices media leadership program, and acquired and expanded SheSource as the largest portfolio of women experts in the country. She explores how to regenerate the public information commons in this polarized age.

This speech was given at the 2012 Bioneers National Conference.

Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world’s most pressing environmental and social challenges.

To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year.

For more information on Bioneers Everywoman’s Leadership program, please visit https://bioneers.org/programs/every-womans-leadership/ and stay in touch via Facebook (bit.ly/everywomansFB) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/Bioneerswomen).

Paul Stamets – Solutions from the Underground

In this Sixth Age of Extinctions, the life support systems that have allowed humans to thrive are eroding. Paul Stamets, the world’s leading visionary “myco-technologist,” shows how fungi and mushrooms can help restore ecosystems, degraded landscapes and human health – fast. Like people, habitats have immune systems, and our close evolutionary relationship to fungi provides the basis for novel environmental deployments of key mushroom species that can lead to greater sustainability and better health.

This speech was given at the 2011 Bioneers National Conference.

Melissa Nelson – Revitalizing Indigeneity

Dynamic indigenous eco-cultural revitalization movements provide compelling leadership models by Native peoples working to maintain and restore their Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). TEK, the art and science of resilience for the sustainability of future generations, is critically needed as a partner to Western science to restore the world’s ecosystems and biological and cultural diversity, including native foods and languages. Professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State, Melissa Nelson is President of the Cultural Conservancy, a Native American nonprofit dedicated to the preservation and revitalization of indigenous cultures and their ancestral lands. She illuminates how the “re-indigenization” movement is inspiring a commitment to reciprocal relationships with place as well as collaborative partnerships among peoples and landscapes.

This speech was given at the 2011 Bioneers National Conference.