Arsenio Mataka – California Climate Leadership

Introduction by Tom Hayden. The stratification of American society, along racial and economic lines, is built into the distribution of pollution. How is the movement towards clean energy and a low-carbon economy dovetailing with climate justice and the efforts of frontline communities? Arsenio Mataka, Assistant Secretary for Environmental Justice and Tribal Affairs for CalEPA, walks us through the state of the state and provides key recommendations for forward progress. Prior to CalEPA, Arsenio served as directing attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. from 2010-2012, were he fought for justice alongside some of the most exploited communities in our society.

This speech was given at the California Climate Leadership Intensive, hosted by Bioneers as a supplement to the 2014 Bioneers National Conference.

 

Tom Hayden – California Climate Leadership Closing

What will it take for people to move beyond ideology towards a comprehensive solution to the climate crisis? Drawing on the historical lead-up to the New Deal, Tom Hayden pulls from the public and the personal to sketch a new story for our time.

Tom Hayden was one of the leading figures of the student, civil rights, anti-war and environmental movements of the 1960s, went on to serve 18 years in the California legislature, where he chaired labor, higher education and natural resources committees. Following his legislative career, he directed the Peace and Justice Resource Center where he continued to be a leading voice for peace.

This speech was given at the California Climate Leadership Intensive, hosted by Bioneers as a supplement to the 2014 Bioneers National Conference.

Nina Simons – Loving Life Together Toward Wholeness

“How do we bring our best selves to loving the tattered and scarred fabric of this mysterious web of life back toward wholeness?”

Nina Simons, Co-Founder and President of Bioneers, offers her opening remarks for the Bioneers 2014 Annual Conference.

 

Alisa Gravitz – Field Notes from the Green Economy

Alisa Gravitz, President and CEO of Green America, affirms that companies do listen to customer concerns, and energy and water conservation is a matter of their survival. Thanks to battery storage technology, solar and wind are knocking dirty energy off the grid. CSAs and farmers markets are booming, helping reverse the prevalence of childhood illness. As with biodiversity in nature, respectfully engaging unlikely allies is our best strategy for making meaningful change.

This speech was given at the 2014 Bioneers National Conference.

Find out more about the work of Alisa Gravitz at the Green America website.

See related media in our Green New Deal Media Collection.

Paul Stamets, Katsi Cook and Jeffrey Bronfman – Plant Sacraments and the Mind of Nature

Can plants help people access the intelligence in nature—the “mind of nature”—that we must learn to understand in order to supersede our ecologically destructive habits? This panel features Jeffrey Bronfman, founding member of the União do Vegetal church of the United States; Paul Stamets, master mycologist; Katsi Cook, renowned Mohawk midwife and environmental activist. Hosted by J.P. Harpignies, Bioneers Associate Producer.

This panel took place at the 2014 Bioneers Annual Conference. Video shot and edited by Bjarni Thor Haraldsson.

Explore our Visionary Plant Consciousness & Psychedelics media collection >>

Sandra Steingraber – The Environmental Life of Children

The brilliant health researcher, cancer survivor, bestselling author of Living Downstream, and the most articulate advocate for a toxic-free environment since Rachel Carson, describes her health battles, motherhood and activism. She shows the environmental links to many cancers (including hers) that the medical establishment refuses to look at. She focuses on the effects even tiny amounts of chemicals can have on the fetus and small children, and challenges our collective failure to address our global ecological unraveling or control toxic chemicals. She has faith that an environmental human rights movement will emerge to usher in a far more conscious era.

This talk was given at the 2008 Bioneers Annual Conference and is part of the Everywoman’s Leadership, Vol. 1 and Ecological Medicine, Vol. 1 Collections.

 

Nina Simons – Women, Purpose and Power

In this inspiring talk, Bioneers Co-Founder Nina Simons shares what 20 years with Bioneers, and years co-leading Cultivating Women’s Leadership workshops has taught her: Effective women’s leadership arises from natural feminine qualities (that are also present in men). By allowing the intelligences “in our bodies, hearts and bones” to guide us – generosity, intuition, vulnerability, fear and love – we can create relationships that make leadership the province of each of us, not just the few.

This speech was given at the 2009 Bioneers Annual Conference and is part of the Everywoman’s Leadership Collection, Vol. 1.

See more from our Everywoman’s Leadership Program >>

Jensine Larsen – The Electric Pulse of Women Transforming our World

Growing up in rural Wisconsin, Jensine Larsen scoured news publications for the voices of women teachers. When she couldn’t find them, at 19 she took off for the Amazon, where she gathered stories and shared them back home through outlets such as NPR and Air America. Larsen brims with excitement about the global rise of women’s leadership and its relationship to the communications revolution that she catalyzes and supports through World Pulse, an online media platform she designed to turn up the volume on women’s stories across the globe.

This speech was given at the 2009 Bioneers Annual Conference and is part of the Everywoman’s Leadership Collection, Vol. 1.