We Need a New Climate Story
Nature is Climate
Biodiversity loss is not just the result of climate change, it is a primary driver of climate change. Only solutions that prioritize this web of life will create a truly livable climate for all.
As Featured In
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Tiny Forest: Big Impact
Leaders in bringing this urban forestry method to create pocket forests everywhere
Restore Nature – Cool the Planet
Only nature has the ability to both cool the planet and lower greenhouse gas levels. Our planet is already too hot and too dry to maintain a stable climate and support life. These 4 Climate Keys are interlocking pieces of the cycles we must repair to quickly stop warming and start cooling the planet.
Cool
Healthy ecosystems full of biodiversity create direct cooling effects for our hot planet. More Nature = Less Heat.
Hydrate
Keeping water in the ground supports plants, crops and people. Beavers, insects and microbes are part of the Infiltration Team
Plant
Planting for biodiversity creates healthy ecosystems. Forests sequester carbon and use water vapor to move heat away from the Earth
protect
Indigenous leadership and wisdom can help us. Stop deforestation, industrial ag, mining, and pollution that kill off biodiversity.
Replace with regenerative practices
Q: What about atmospheric Carbon Dioxide – you know – the greenhouse effect?
A: It’s an important part of the story, but not the whole story. Learn More.
Who We Are
Bio4Climate Tells the Hidden Stories
For nearly a decade we have looked behind, around, and under the prevailing climate narratives for the missing pieces of the puzzle. We continue to bring you authors, ecorestoration specialists, and scientists from around the world who explore the interlocking systems that create a livable climate.
Get Involved
Biodiversity Day in Danehy Park on Saturday, May 3rd
On Saturday, May 3rd from 3 pm to 5 pm ET Join Native Plant Community Gardeners, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate (Bio4Climate), and Boston Birding for an afternoon of nature, learning, and community fun.
Featuring:
🎶 Live music
🦉 Bird-watching tour with Mari Badger (Boston Birding)
🌳 Miyawaki forest tour (Bio4Climate)
🌼 Native plant walk
🎲 Nature-inspired games for all ages
Learn about our upcoming Native Plant Pollinator Garden—a new project to bring more biodiversity and beauty to the heart of the park.
We’ll guide you through the future site,…
Wildfires Fact & Fiction — May 1, 8, 15 & 22
Wildfires are a very real threat, and we should be prepared. Unfortunately, we have been sold a range of false solutions (e.g., fuel reduction, forest thinning and prescribed burns), all at taxpayer expense.
Wildfires Fact & Fiction will equip you with the most essential knowledge to protect homes and communities, while giving our forests what they really need, which is to be naturally rehydrated and nurtured as ecosystems. Discover how thriving ecosystems, including beaver ponds, help protect communities from wildfires, and learn actionable solutions that could reshape wildfire prevention policies.
Join us for Wildfires Fact & Fiction: How…
Thaw and Freeze: The ecological, geological, and human stakes of a warming Arctic
A rapidly changing Arctic is reshaping everything. Polar bears navigate shrinking expanses of sea ice, thawing permafrost threatens coastal villages, destabilizes infrastructure, and exhales methane, and warming temperatures push more species northward into a greener arctic. These transformations are profound, and their impacts can extend far beyond the region’s ecologies that depend on them.
What do these changes mean for wildlife, humans, and the climate? How is all of this going to play out in different regions and ecosystems around the world? Does understanding these changes and seeing them with your own…
Regenerating Life: Upcoming Screenings
Regenerating Life is a groundbreaking film that reframes the climate crisis by focusing on nature’s power to heal our planet. It reveals how the biosphere egulates Earth’s climate and how its destruction has driven global warming.
The film highlights regenerating ecosystems like forests, fields, and wetlands, restoring the water cycle, and embracing sustainable practices like regenerative agriculture that draw CO2 from the atmosphere, cool the planet, revive freshwater systems, and create abundant food and thriving communities.
Visit Hummingbird Films for upcoming screenings.
Stopping Ecocide: Can International Law Prevent Mass Environmental Destruction?
Diverse ecosystems represent the greatest climate action technology at our disposal. But what recourse do we have when nature itself is under attack from the world’s biggest political and economic powers?
The movement to codify ecocide, that is, the intentional (or negligent) mass destruction of an ecosystem, as an international crime is gaining traction, particularly in Europe and in nations disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change. As a crime and an area of practice, ecocide law is reserved for the very worst of the worst. Think…
2024 Midwest Beaver Summit
Bio4Climate is excited to co-host the 2024 Midwest Beaver Summit alongside many outstanding environmental nonprofits, land trusts, restoration practitioners, and other organizations dedicated to conservation, implementing coexistence strategies, and cultivating awareness of the importance of beavers as keystone species in our ecosystems.
- 11:00 AM – 11:10 AM: Introduction11:10 AM – 11:50 AM: Session 1: Beaver Wetlands, Flooding, and Drought – Dr. Emily Fairfax, University of Minnesota
- 11:50 AM – 12:25 PM: Session 2: Who Speaks …
This Week
News and Insights
- They call him "Yoda for scientists." But to Bio4Climate’s Jim Laurie, John Todd has always been a wonderful mentor, and a friend.
They first met at the New Alchemy Institute in 1988, when John was building systems of bacteria, microbes, plants, fungi, and animals—self-organizing communities capable of breaking down toxic wastes from agricultural and septage lagoons.
It changed the trajectory of Jim’s career as a scientist, steward, and curious mind.
Guided by John's breakthroughs in these eco-machines, Jim went on to design and construct his own living ecosystems, capable of breaking down toxic industrial pollutants like ammonia, chloroform, and BPA.
In 1995, John Todd designed an EPA-backed Vermont Eco-Machine housed in a greenhouse, and Jim moved to Vermont to operate it. That greenhouse treated municipal sewage to a high standard, even through the bone-chilling New England winters.
These were not just experiments in biology; they were critical turning points for Jim, moments when he saw firsthand that nature, when nurtured (if not always fully understood), could often repair humanity’s worst environmental damage.
John’s words still guide Jim to this day. "When you include all kingdoms of life, nature is self-organizing and relentless."
- Last week we talked about the arrival of new data painting a clearer picture of what we already know: that the planet’s land is drying out—and fast. Soil moisture levels are dropping across large parts of the Earth. And not just in historically dry regions, but in places once thought to be stable too.
The data shows where the land is drying. But it doesn't tell the full story of what happens next, or how we can fix it...
Events and Community
- Our Looming Water Crisis: Is It Already Here?
Join Taunton Area AAUW for a free virtual conversation with a few familiar faces exploring the urgent realities of the global water crisis, and what we can do about it.
Featuring author Judith D. Schwartz, Voices of Water Director Zuzka Mulkerin and Bio4Climate Associate Director of Regenerative Projects Alexandra Ionescu in conversation together on nature-based solutions for restoring water cycles, building resilience, and protecting this most essential resource.
Open to all with an interest in water, ecosystems, and climate solutions.
Register Here for Our Looming Water Crisis
- Essex County, Mass. | What does it mean to love a forest?
Join author & forester, Ethan Tapper, at Veasey Park to explore the deep connection and meaning behind loving a forest on May 5th, 2025.
Tapper, author of How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World, will lead an exploration of what it means to care for forests and other ecosystems at this moment in time.
Prior to Ethan’s talk, at 6:00, all are invited to tour the new Miyawaki Forest on the Veasey property with Massachusetts Master Gardener, Dianne Plantamura.
Transformation in Mexico
Eco Restoration Works
Watch what happens! A degraded landscape in Mexico is transformed by regenerative management. It took only two years (the arrow points to the same tree).
Tell nature’s climate story, the story of connection and life.
― Beck Mordini
Stay on top of the Climate Conversation
Through education, policy and outreach, we promote the great potential of inexpensive, low-tech and powerful Nature solutions to the biodiversity and climate crises, and work to inspire urgent action and widespread implementation of many regenerative practices.