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.
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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.
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Trees & Forests — Wildlife, Wildfires, Water Cycles & Climate Change — starts December 5
Forests are more important than most of us realize. Forests make rain, cool the temperature, and send moisture to regions around the world.
In many cases, forests have become monoculture “tree plantations” for the timber industry, lacking biodiversity and moisture. In a biodiverse forest, the soil soaks up water like a sponge, preventing wildfires, drought, and providing an abundance of food, water and shelter for a myriad of microbes, insects, birds, mammals and amphibians.
In this course, you will never look at forests the same way again!…
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…
Biodiversity 11: Warming Oceans, Moving Shorelines & Sea Level Rise – with Jim Laurie
What can be done to break the ocean’s fever and cool the planet?
With the oceans warming rapidly causing larger storms and hurricanes, forecasts for sea level rise ranging from 2 feet to 20 feet by 2100, and polar regions warming three times faster than the rest of the world, humanity may be facing the most challenging time in its history.
Join us for this 12-week course starting September 18. Classes are hosted on Zoom from 12 – 2pm ET and 7 – 9pm ET. Participants…
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
- If you haven't noticed, we talk a lot about the water cycle here. And for good reason–from the soil to tree-top canopies, healthy ecosystems are fuel for the local and global water cycles that keep things cool. But it's not just about rain and evaporation. A research team led by the Alfred Wegener Center found that much of 2023's record high temperatures could be attributed to declining low-cloud cover in key regions, reducing the planet's ability to reflect light and heat back into space.
- "...and it did all of that with the wings of an owl, the belly of a penguin, and the nose of a kingfisher." The more-than-human world has learned what works in context over billions years. Biomimicry is the practice of studying and emulating nature's forms, processes, and systems to solve our own challenges, ideally in a way that creates conditions conducive to all life. Even if you're not building a bullet train, you can learn from nature in your own ecosystem – consider how other species harvest water, capture energy, recycle materials, form symbiotic relationships. What can you learn from them?
- There's so much to love in this interview with Zoë Schlanger (author of The Light Eaters, required reading for Bio4Climate's recent Biodiversity 11 course). But what sticks with us right now is how she bottles the desire we all have to connect with and understand the world around us, "I think that words are all we have, and for those of us who are not super acquainted with scientific jargon, we have to use these words like 'language' and 'intelligence' and 'desire' to talk about plants, in part because these are the metaphors that we have at hand. It’s the closest thing we can understand that gives us this little bridge of understanding between plants and ourselves."
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.