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Biodiversity for a Livable Climate

Biodiversity for a Livable Climate

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        • How Life Saves the PlanetLearn how biodiversity can reverse global warming
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        • Miyawaki ForestsLearn about our mini-forests
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        • About UsThrough 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
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We found 49 results for your search.
Compendium Article

Impact of Native Plants on Bird and Butterfly Biodiversity in Suburban Landscapes, Burghardt, Tallamy & Shriver 2008

In this study, the insect and bird populations of six pairs of suburban yards were measured. Each pair contained one conventionally landscaped yard containing native canopy trees and a mixture of native and non-native shrubs, grasses and understory trees; and one yard with native species only (canopy, understory, shrub and grasses). The level of plant…
Video

Quinton Zondervan & Lucy Alexander: Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ A welcome from Quinton Zondervan, President of Green Cambridge, and Lucy Alexander, Policy Coordinator for the Climate Action Business Association (CABA), on behalf of their organizations which sponsored our conference. Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Urban…

Program, Videos, Slides – Cambridge 2015 – Urban/Suburban Farming

Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global WarmingProgram  Conference Home    Program    Nature Walk    Sponsors/Partners   Speakers Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming Sunday, May 3, 2015, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Morning session, 9:00 – 12:00: 9:00 Opening Remarks Quinton Zondervan, President, Green Cambridge and Michael Green, Program Director, Climate…
Conference

Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming

   Program    Nature Walk    Sponsors/Partners   Speakers Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming Conference Home Sunday, May 3, 2015, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Science Center, Hall C, Harvard University 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts A conference for climate activists, gardeners, scientists, educators, homeowners, public officials, the business community and others concerned about our…
Post

The NS wildfires are not ‘natural’ disasters: climate change, forest management, and human folly are all to blame

Four forestry specialists offer their views on how to reduce the wildfire risks. The Wildfire story that no one is talking about.  The media is full of stories about the causes and cures for the massive forest fires raging around the world.  Those fires have finally hit close to the Bio4Climate home in New England…

Featured Creature: Smooth Greensnake

Which creature is nonvenomous, changes color throughout its lifetime, and is native to the Nearctic region?  The Smooth Greensnake! (a.k.a. Grass Snake)  During Memorial Day weekend several weeks ago, I went on a camping trip with my partner and two friends, Sophie and Griffin. Griffin has a special affinity for snakes, and so as we…
Video

Bioregional Food Systems with Hannah McDonald

This presentation, given by Hannah McDonald from NOFA/Mass and the Western MA Regenerative Food System, touches upon the state of our materials economy, how investing in food systems sets the stage for systems change, and why it’s important to have a bioregional focus. Recorded at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, the event concluded with…
Compendium Article

Compendium Vol. 5 No. 1: The ecological role of native plants

Bio4Climate has been studying the Miyawaki Method of reforestation over the past several months. This 50-year-old technique involves densely planting native forest species from shrub to canopy layer to create tiny, fast-growing urban ecosystems[3]. Members of our staff have joined local efforts to establish Miyawaki “mini-forests” in Cambridge, MA, in Los Angeles, CA, and one…
Compendium Article

Native plants article summaries

The following articles lay out a few key ecological concepts and terms that may be helpful to become familiar with for the growing number of biodiversity-conscious people and organizations that are beginning to plant more native plants on their land. Native plants, native ecosystems, and native landscapes: an ecological definition of “native” will promote effective…
Speaker

Jon Way

speaking at Climate, Biodiversity, and Survival: Listening to the Voices of Nature
Jon Way has a B.S. (UMass Amherst), M.S. (UConn Storrs), and doctorate (Boston College) related to the study of eastern coyotes/coywolves. He is the author of 2 books: Suburban Howls, an account of his experiences studying eastern coyotes in Massachusetts, and My Yellowstone Experience, which details – in full color – the spectacular wildlife, scenery, and hydrothermal features that…
Compendium Article

Compendium Vol. 4 No. 1: Blessed Unrest

In continuation of the “blessed unrest” section of previous issues of the Compendium, the following sketches illustrate how people everywhere are seeing that humanity depends on nature for both our physical and spiritual wellbeing and our survival. As this awareness takes hold, people act to protect and restore not only the land, but also our…
Compendium Article

Gardening advice from indigenous food growers

https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/05/20/garden-advice-indigenous-food-growers/ Covid19 has been an additional stressor on many Native American communities already burdened by deprivations from centuries of ongoing injustice. According to Julie Garreau, project coordinator of Cheyenne River Youth Project, which operates a 2.5-acre youth garden in South Dakota, gardens are a source of both food and healing. “Gardens represent so much more,”…
Compendium Article

Compendium Vol. 3 No. 2: Adaptation and Urban Resilience

The industrialization that has built today’s splendid high-tech cities isolated us from the land and water sources of the materials fueling this progress. Our cities scarcely reveal that the oxygen we breathe, the food we eat, the purification of waters, and to some extent the bucolic weather patterns we have long relished have been gifts…
Compendium Article

Compilation of article summaries on adaptation and urban resilience

Global change and the ecology of cities, Grimm et al. 2008 Whereas just 10 percent of people lived in cities in 1900, now more than half the global population is urban and that proportion continues to grow. Cities occupy less than 3% of the Earth’s land surface, but generate 78% of global CO2 emissions and…
Compendium Article

Mitigating New York City’s heat island with urban forestry, living roofs and light surfaces, Rosenzwieg et al. 2006

Urban heat islands are created when solar energy is absorbed by non-reflective, impervious, and often rather dark surfaces, such as asphalt, stone, metal, and concrete, which are ubiquitous in cities. Exacerbating this solar energy absorption effect are abundant amounts of heat released from vehicles, factories and air conditioners, for example, as well as pollutants trapped…
Video

Jon Way: The Many Lives of The Changing Coyote

Relatively little is known about the fascinating coyotes in the east It is a remarkable animal, being one of the only carnivores to actually increase its range and distribution in the past one hundred years. Coyotes have taken over as top predator in all environments in New England, from wilderness parks to city greenbelts. Along…

Voices of Nature – Program

Listening to the Voices of Nature– Program – Conference Home    Speakers    Program    Sponsors and Partners This program is arranged as cycles, the way Nature does it with water, carbon, sunsets, seasons, dust to dust and phoenixes arising from the ashes.  All of our talks are connected to one another in ways both obvious and subtle.  So rather…
Video

Dan Medina, Emily Landis & Claudio Ternieden: The Small Water Cycle as a Climate Tool

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Healthy soils and water cycles are closely intertwined. Opportunities abound to restore fresh and saltwater wetlands, and to manage urban, suburban and rural water flows in ways that help cool the planet. Nature has fascinating and powerful systems…
Video

Dan Medina, Emily Landis, Claudio Ternieden: The Small Water Cycle as a Climate Tool Panel Q&A

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Healthy soils and water cycles are closely intertwined. Opportunities abound to restore fresh and saltwater wetlands, and to manage urban, suburban and rural water flows in ways that help cool the planet. Nature has fascinating and powerful systems…
Conference

Scenario 300: Making Climate Cool!

Let’s pull carbon out of the atmosphere and bring down the higher temperatures brought about by global warming – safely, inexpensively, low-tech, with a broad range of benefits. It was a great conference!  Video links are directly beneath the title of each presentation, below.Downloads: Conference Program,  Book List,  Take Action!, Carbon Unit Conversions Scenario 300: Making…

Program – Harvard 2016 – Power and Promise of Biodiversity

The Power and Promise of Biodiversity– Program – Home    Speakers    Program     Scroll down to program for videos and slideshows!——————————We are telling the story of biodiversity. “Biodiversity, a contraction of ‘biological diversity,’ generally refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth. One of the most widely used definitions states it in terms of the…

Sponsors and Partners – Tufts 2015

Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming – Sponsors & Partners –   Home   Program   Speakers Our partners support us and in many instances are doing similar work. We share logos and links, and we ask our partners to announce the conference on their websites, Facebook pages and in newsletters.  Our sponsors work with us as partners do,…

Resources

Resources Be sure to check out our Compendium of Scientific and Practical Findings Supporting Eco-Restoration to Address Global Warming, a collection of evidence of widely available positive environmental outcomes possible. Back issues of  our informative and entertaining newsletters are available here. Below are videos, websites, books and papers addressing a wide variety of issues in biodiversity,…
Video

Mel King – From the Past, Into the Future

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Featuring Mel King, Community Activist, State Legislator, Affordable Housing Advocate, MIT Faculty As a State Legislator, Mel King was a leader in the effort to preserve agricultural land in Massachusetts. He founded the South End Technology Center and…
Video

Jennifer Lawrence, Duke Bitsko, Lenni Armstrong, Ellen Mass: Eco-Restoration as Climate Activism

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Jennifer Lawrence, Sustainability Planner for the City of Cambridge, speaks on the City’s ongoing Vulnerability Assessment on climate change, and some possible measures the City can take to improve its climate resilience. Duke Bitsko, landscape architect with Chester…
Video

Phil Colarusso, Jonathan Bates, Luisa Oliveira, Joy Gary, Bruce Fulford Q&A

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Phil Colarusso, Boston Office of the EPAJonathan Bates, Permaculturist, Co-Author of Paradise LotLuisa Oliveira, Landscape architect, City of SomervilleJoy Gary, Urban Farm Grower, Revision Urban Farm, Dorchester, MassachusettsBruce Fulford, Owner, City Soil Part of the Urban and Suburban…
Video

Joy Gary – Urban Farming for a Shelter and a CSA

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Revision Urban Farm is an innovative community-based urban agriculture project that grows produce in its own fields and provides access to affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food to residents of the ReVision Family Home and its extended community.…
Video

Bruce Fulford – Compost for a City

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Featuring Bruce Fulford, Owner, City Soil. The linkages between urban farms, conservation foundations, and municipalities can all reinforce the power of urban agriculture. Bruce Fulford describes creating agricultural land in an urban setting. Presented at the Urban and…
Video

Jonathan Bates – From Bare Ground to Urban Paradise on One-Tenth of an Acre

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Featuring Jonathan Bates, Permaculturist, Co-Author of Paradise Lot. A neglected Holyoke house lot is re-born as a thriving edible forest garden with a wide variety of edible plants and trees. Jonathan Bates offers an overview of how he…
Video

Luisa Oliveira – Enabling and Protecting Urban Agriculture

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Featuring Luisa Oliveira, Landscape architect, City of Somerville. Luisa Oliveira led the team that developed an urban agriculture ordinance for Somerville, the first in New England. She speaks on the traditions, benefits and value of growing urban food,…
Video

Phil Colarusso – Blue Carbon: The Shore Less Traveled

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Featuring Phil Colarusso, Boston Office of the EPA. Wetlands and coastal waters are exceptionally effective at storing carbon as well as performing many other ecosystem functions. Phil Colarusso tells us how cities and the global climate benefit from…
Video

Thomas Akin, Eric T. Fleisher, Charlotte O’Brien, Allison Houghton Q&A

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Thomas Akin, State Resource Conservationist, USDA Natural Resources Conservation ServiceEric ‘T’ Fleischer, Consultant, Harvard Landscape ServicesCharlotte O’Brien, Biochar EntrepreneurAllison Houghton, Permaculture and Gardening Teacher Part of the Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming Conference, organized…
Video

Allison Houghton – Permaculture Gardens

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Featuring Allison Houghton, Permaculture and Gardening Teacher. Permaculture methods for ecological design are especially useful for bringing productivity and biodiversity to urban settings. Allison Houghton shares some methods for planning and growing successful garden spaces. Presented at the…
Video

Charlotte O’ Brien – Biochar Basics

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Charlotte O’Brien, Biochar Entrepreneur Biochar is soil amendment made from biomass that leads to fertility and improved plant health and growth. It was developed by indigenous people in the Amazon hundreds of years ago and has excited broad…
Video

Eric ‘T’ Fleischer – Compost Tea Time

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Featuring Eric ‘T’ Fleischer, Consultant, Harvard Landscape Services. There are many challenges in improving urban soils. Eric Fleischer reviews these challenges and focuses on Harvard’s successful soil-enhancement project using compost tea applications. Presented at the Urban and Suburban…
Video

Thomas Akin – Cover Crops

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Featuring Thomas Akin, State Resource Conservationist, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Cover cropping is a soil health-building practice gaining currency in cropland agriculture but also well suited to improving urban soils. Soil-incorporated cover crops provide large volumes of…
Video

Nathan Philips, Eric Olson, David Morimoto, David Lefcourt Q&A

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Nathan Phillips, Earth and Environment Department, Boston UniversityEric Olson, Brandeis UniversityDavid Morimoto, Biologist, Lesley UniversityDavid Lefcourt, Arborist, City of Cambridge Presented at the Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming Conference, organized by Biodiversity for a…
Video

Nathan Phillips: The Ecology of the City

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ An overview of our modern urban ecology, shaped and profoundly altered by human actions. Our relationship with our urban ecosystem can be improved if we recognize the threats that we bring through development and technology and the ways…
Video

Eric Olson: Biodiversity in the City

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Featuring Eric Olson, Brandeis University. Biodiversity contributes significantly to our resilience and quality of life. Eric Olson addresses the presence of countless non-native species of plants and animals in our cities, how we can take steps to re-establish…
Video

David Morimoto: A Walk in the Urban Woods

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Featuring David Morimoto, Biologist, Lesley University. The extraordinary wild spaces that still remain in our cities benefit our spiritual and mental health, not to mention the quality of the air and water. David Morimoto shares slides of the…
Video

David Lefcourt: City Trees

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Featuring David Lefcourt, Arborist, City of Cambridge. David will discuss how a municipality, with active citizens and volunteers, can get the greatest benefit from its trees for climate and biodiversity. Presented at the Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming…
Event

May 2015 Potluck, Presentation and Discussion in Cambridge

Sunday, May 10, 2015
5:00 p.m. Potluck, Presentation and Discussion in Cambridge: “Discuss Questions Raised at the Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming Conference.“ View event details.

April 2015 Newsletter

Upcoming Conference: Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming, Speaker profile: Mel King, Catching Up with Jim Laurie

Pre-Conference Nature Walk

Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming– Nature Walk –  Conference Home    Program    Sponsors/Partners   Speakers Pre-Conference Guided Nature WalkSaturday, May 2, 2015, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.$20, sliding scale, limited to 15 participants David Morimoto, Associate Professor of Biology, Lesley University, will be our guide as we visit the Alewife Reservation near the Alewife…

Speakers – Cambridge 2015 – Power and Promise of Biodiversity

 Conference Home    Program    Nature Walk    Sponsors/Partners   Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming-Speakers –  Conference Home    Program    Nature Walk    Sponsors/Partners
Conference

Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming, Washington D.C. 2015

Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming, Washington, DC Promoting the power of nature to remove excess carbon from the atmosphere where it does untold damage, and restore it to the soils where it supports abundant life and helps reverse global warming. Source: http://bostongreenschools.org/ Saturday, September 26, 2015, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  Moot Court RoomDavid A.…

Sponsors and Partners – Cambridge 2015

Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming– Sponsors and Partners –  Conference Home    Program    Nature Walk    Sponsors/Partners   Speakers Our partners support us and in many instances are doing similar work. We share logos and links, and we ask our partners to announce the conference on their websites, Facebook pages and in newsletters.  Our…

Sponsorship/Partnership Guidelines

Conference Home    Program    Nature Walk    Sponsors/Partners   Speakers   Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming May 3, 2015 Harvard Science Center 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts Guidelines for Conference Partnership and Sponsorship Biodiversity for a Livable Climate welcomes the participation of individuals, organizations and businesses who share our concern for restoring global ecosystems to…

Conferences

Conferences To view the videos from each past conference, please visit the main page or the program page of each conference . . . and check out our Introductory Playlist. Nature’s Solutions as National Policy In 2021, we kicked off a series of mini-conferences on nature’s solutions as national policy. Starting in June, we began fostering…

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