Citizen Science: DIY Knowledge To and From the People

Activists, scientists and grassroots groups are leveraging new technology and collaborative networks to accurately monitor the quality of the environment, expose governmental and corporate abuses, and enable large-scale ecological research to understand the web of life in the age of climate disruption. Hosted by Teo Grossman, Bioneers Director of Strategic Network Initiatives. With: Severine v T Fleming, Farm Hack; Shannon Dosemagen, founder/President, New Orleans-based Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science; Brian Haggerty, co-designer, USA National Phenology Network, a multisectoral climate change research program using citizen scientists to monitor seasonal behavior of U.S. flora and fauna.

Recorded Saturday, October 18, 2014 at the national Bioneers Summit Conference in San Rafael, California.

The Golden Rule: Restoring the Earth by Restoring Human Dignity | Paul Hawken

“There is an environmental movement and there is a social justice movement. If they could truly become one movement the transformation would be unimaginable.

When a black child in Oakland winces at the thought of an ancient tree being cut down in northern California, and when an ex logger in northern California winces at the thought of a teenager, a black teenager in Oakland, being cut down on those streets, then we’ll know that day has arrived.”

Could Western civilization’s oldest ethical instructions of the Golden Rule hold acute relevance to our planetary environmental crisis? Could restoring respect for human beings be the key to restoring the health of the planet? Author Paul Hawken has been tracking the rapid proliferation of nonprofit, non-governmental organizations around the world. It boils down to this: Taking care of nature means taking care of people, and taking care of people means taking care of nature.

A Return to Wholeness: Storytelling as a Healing Art | Rachel Naomi Remen

“The future may depend on our remembering that everything has in it a dream of itself. That the seeds of wholeness and the seeds of needed change are already present in all events and all people and every one of us. That the wholeness of the world can only be restored one heart at a time.” So says doctor and healer Rachel Naomi Remen. She has cultivated a new generation of doctors practicing whole-person medicine, with an unlikely message: Bless others out loud. The wholeness of the world is restored one heart at a time.

Find out more about Rachel Naomi Remen and how you can engage with her campaigns and efforts by visiting rachelremen.com

Beyond the Bar Code: The Local Food Revolution | Michael Pollan

Because industrial agriculture is the single most destructive human activity against the environment, what we put on our collective plate and how we grow our food are going to be among the most decisive factors impacting the fate of the Earth and public health. Few journalists have done more than Michael Pollan to serve up food for thought about our diet and food systems. He reports on the burgeoning worldwide growth of local food economies and a true Green Revolution.

Find out more about Michael Pollan: http://michaelpollan.com/

The Seaweed Rebellion: Saving the Earth by Saving the Oceans | Michael Stocker, Anne Rowley…

Perhaps we should call it Watershed Earth. We’re made of water, totally dependent on it, yet it in turn depends on us to play our part in a good way. Mother Ocean is the primary regulator of Watershed Earth. But the marine news is heartbreaking. Ocean defenders Michael Stocker, Anne Rowley and David Helvarg illuminate both the peril of noise and plastics pollution and the promise they see in the Seaweed Rebellion to save Mother Ocean, and ourselves.

Find out more about Michael Stocker http://ocr.org/about/who-we-are/, and David Helvarg https://bluefront.org/ 

Jaguars, Goats and Acequias: Cultivating the Landscape of a Wild Earth

Do you think of the wilderness as something far away? Not in the age of climate change and human population growth. The real wilderness is always underfoot—the complex systems underlying life on Earth that we barely understand. It’s our inheritance, our guardianship to understand traditional and indigenous knowledge of Earth as a vast, cultivated landscape. Land managers such as Miguel Santistevan, Lani Malmberg and Peter Warshall celebrate the fact that we are all gardeners. They reveal brilliant innovations and ancient wisdom for how to get good at it.

From Kingdom to Kin-dom: Acting As If We Have Relatives | Brock Dolman, Paul Stamets and Brian Thomas Swimme

From the microbes to the mammals, all life shares far more in common than what makes us different. In other words, it’s all relatives. If we knew that literally we are water, that we are mushrooms, that we are stardust—instead of shredding the web of life, might we start acting as if we have relatives? Bioneers Brock Dolman, Paul Stamets and Brian Thomas Swimme reveal inspiring reflections in the gene pool that show life as a kin-dom, not a kingdom.

Becoming Fully Human: The Covenant of the Original Instructions | Winona LaDuke, John Trudell and Evon Peter

The Original Instructions represent the ancient empirical wisdom of Traditional Ecological Knowledge earned over generations and millennia by people living closely with the land and each other. They also comprise disarmingly simple counsel: be thankful, enjoy life and attend to the inner pollution that results in outer pollution. Indigenous leaders Winona LaDuke, John Trudell and Evon Peter voice these ancient instructions, which hold the keys to our survival as a species in the historic transition to a truly sustainable world.

Justice or “Just Us”: Environmental Justice as a Universal Human Right | Clayton Thomas-Muller, Shawna Larson and Maryanne Hitt

The current industrial system generates 94 percent waste. It all lands somewhere, often ultimately in our bodies. A society that wastes its resources also wastes its people. Why are low-income communities and communities of color the perennial human sacrifice zones? Courageous environmental justice advocates Clayton Thomas-Muller, Shawna Larson and Maryanne Hitt are successfully rejecting this new form of toxic colonization from Alaska to Appalachia. They tell us we all have a right to clean air, water and land- the right to a healthy environment.

Green-Collar Jobs: Laboring into the Next Economy

Labor leader César Chavez helped ban DDT. Truckers are helping address appalling asthma rates at the filthy port of Los Angeles. And inner-city clergy, not suburbanites, led the latest victory against the big-box WalMart stores sprawling over community open space. Unlikely allies? Environmental justice and labor leaders Manuel Pastor, Maria Elena Durazo and Rev. Alexia Salvatierra show us that in a truly sustainable economy, everybody is an environmentalist—and a healthy environment depends on economic justice.

Digital Democracy: The Cyberworld of Citizen Activism | Brad Friedman, John Stauber, and Joan Blades

Garbage in, garbage out, as the early computer innovators remarked about information. A vital free press is the single most important feedback loop in a democracy. New media including especially the Internet have challenged the supremacy of corporate media concentration and junk news. A brave new wave of activists such as Brad Friedman, John Stauber and Joan Blades are using digital media to restore the democratic lifeblood of a people’s media. They’re giving voice to the voiceless, checking and balancing corruption, and providing liberty and access for all.

Labeling GMOs: Lessons Learned and Next Steps

GMO labeling initiatives in California and Washington State lost narrowly because a powerful alliance of Big Ag and Big Food spent millions to confuse the public. Find out how you can join the national campaign for your “Right to Know.” Hosted by Arty Mangan, Bioneers Food and Farming Director. With: John Roulac, founder/CEO, Nutiva; Stacy Malkan, a leader of the California and Washington GMO labeling campaigns; Gopal Dayaneni, Movement Generation Planning Committee Member.

Recorded Sunday, October 19, 2014 at the National Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, California.