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.
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.
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.
This Week
News and Insights
Australia Recognized by United Nations for Reef Restoration
Along Australia’s southern coast, shellfish reefs were nearly extinct by the time efforts to restore them were underway. The plan to rebuild the lost reefs has now been recognized by the United Nations as one of three World Restoration Flagships. Through these flagship projects, over 1 billion hectares of land will be rehabilitated.
The Australian coastline project is rooted in Indigenous knowledge and practices. Alongside community members and volunteers, scientists and Indigenous experts have worked together to rebuild the reef.
Social Justice Must Be The Root of Environmental Restoration
We couldn’t agree more. Researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) found that “placing social justice at the center of restoration practice remains vital to success, with ecological targets aligned to local social, economics and cultural ones.”
"Too often there is a superficial consideration of justice, creating unjust interactions and outcomes which impede the effective long-term restoration and protection of both nature and human well-being. However, there are increasing numbers of 'bright spots' of just and transformative restoration, many involving Indigenous Peoples, and these case studies provide evidence of what works and illustrate how deeper justice leverage points are actionable in practice." - Prof. Rodriguez, UEA School of Global Development
Miyawaki Forest Program Updates
This week, we’re highlighting Asphalt to Miniforest, a panel on how depaving and miniforests can help cities restore their hydrology, cool neighborhoods, and bring life back to paved places. Caseylee Bastien, RLA, CPSI (Landscape Architect/Ecologist, BSC Group Inc.), Leigh Meunier (Project Manager, Green & Open Somerville), and Max Rome, PhD (Director of Green Infrastructure, City of Boston) joined Alexandra Ionescu, Bio4Climate’s Associate Director of Regenerative Projects, for a conversation on what it takes to restore the water cycle in urban settings.
Max offered a clear framing:
“What we know in New England, is that basically, if we could capture the first inch of rain that runs off impervious surfaces and get that back into the ground, we would be very closely approximating and recreating the natural hydrology in this area, the way the rivers responded to storms before we built our cities, the nutrient loading into rivers before we built our cities.”
The discussion also explored political, cultural, and community realities—from simplified landscapes to joyful depaving parties—and offered a hopeful reminder that cities can transform when people learn and act together. It also invited us to step outside during a storm: to stand under a tree, watch how it slows the rainfall, and notice how nature works with water.
Asphalt to Miniforest left us with two questions to reflect on:
We hope these questions deepen your own thinking as well.
A Moment for Art
Today, we are sharing another beautiful piece from Sue Butler, one of Bio4Climate’s board members. Susan Farist Butler's exhibit, "Gaia Song: Seeking Equilibrium," was featured on the Bio4Climate website in 2023, and it takes readers on a journey through essays, articles, and paintings about climate.
Artist Statement: Rewild. Protect Forests. Vegetation must be a sacred healing wrap on all the Earth, restoring the soil biome and the sky biome. Trees and all plants link the soil biome to the sky biome and keep a healthy climate balance. Photosynthesis pulls carbon dioxide from the air and builds sugars to feed trees and the soil biome, near and far. This healthy carbon sequestration has minimal cost, uses no energy from our grid, generates no pollution. As the sugars are built and distributed, the remaining oxygen is released to the sky. As photosynthesis occurs, the leaves are simultaneously evapotranspiring and cooling the locale.
The 2025 Northeast Miniforest Summit featured more than a dozen speakers across two virtual half-days and an in-person bus tour, bringing together practitioners, researchers, and leaders from diverse fields to unpack the Miyawaki Method from root to canopy.
Recordings Are Now Live! Learn more and stay connected at miniforests.bio4climate.org
Tell nature’s climate story, the story of connection and life.
― Beck Mordini
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).