Sustainability and Humankind’s Dilemma: Life on a Tough New Planet Spring 2023, 12-2 pm ET, Fridays from April 21 – May 26 Approached from a Social Science perspective, this 6-week course provides a broad overview of the multiple crises confronting humankind: climate change, peak oil, resource depletions, ecological deterioration, and societal collapse. It focuses on…
Featured items related to the film Regenerating Live by John Feldman.
Biodiversity 8 – Deepdive into Symbiosis
Biodiversity 8 Deepdive: Symbiosis is Challenging Survival of the Fittest Spring 2023, Wednesdays, March 1 – May 12 How has conventional interpretation of Darwin’s survival of the fittest shaped not only our understanding of science and extinction, but also economics and cultural values? Are we genetically doomed to compete with nature and with each other…
Featured Creature: Beaver
Which creature fights fires, creates wetlands, recharges groundwater, alters landscapes, and is a climate hero?
Beavers!
Reforestation Solution: Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration
Tony Rinaudo is an Australian agronomist, who is widely known as the “forest maker.” Having lived and worked in African countries for many decades, he has discovered and put in practice a solution to the extreme deforestation and desertification of the Sahel region. Using an elegantly simple set of management practices, farmers can grow new…
Drying Rivers and Drought: What We Can Do in Massachusetts
Drought warnings in Massachusetts are a stark reminder that we are part of a global climate system where warming trends are accelerating. Is there something we can learn from adding a global lens to our local and regional mitigation efforts? Danielle Dolan, Deputy Director of the Mass Rivers Alliance, and Beth Lambert, Director of the…
Regenerating Soil And Water Landscapes with Judith Schwartz
Throughout the year 2020, the public has grown increasingly aware of the ways we have inadvertently harmed the biodiversity and ecosystems upon which life depends. The United Nations having declared 2021-2030 the Decade of Ecosystem Restoration presents the opportunity for a global focus on regenerating natural systems. Journalist and author Judith D. Schwartz has travelled…
Cooling The Climate Mess With Soil And Water featuring Walter Jehne
Soil and climate scientist Walter Jehne works to educate farmers, policymakers and others about “the soil carbon sponge” and its crucial role in reversing and mitigating flooding, drought, wildfires, and rising global temperatures. He shows us how we can safely cool the climate and restore essential biodiversity by repairing our disrupted hydrological cycles, returning excess…
Our Underrated Climate Ally: The Small Water Cycle
Cabezon Peak after rain, Photo by John Fowler (CC BY 2.0) Although climate change is a global issue, it can and must be addressed locally. Our overall climate is shifting drastically, but local climates are also changing, and they don’t always get the same amount of attention. Local climates change when the environment is drastically…
Reindeer, Beaver, And Healing Nature With Nature with Judith Schwartz & Ben Goldfarb
Our natural systems are under great stress. However, nature’s inclination is toward healing, and we can work with the logic of ecology to restore landscapes and waterways. Biodiversity for a Livable Climate hosts authors Judith D. Schwartz and Ben Goldfarb as they talk about regenerating landscapes—and the pivotal role of animals in earth healing. Judith’s…
The Ecology of Care by Didi Pershouse
Didi Pershouse is the founder of the Center for Sustainable Medicine and has developed a practice and theoretical framework for systems-based ecological medicine—restoring health to people as well as the social and ecological systems around them. In her work she connects the dots between soil health and public health, and the role of beneficial microorganisms…
The Remarkable Success Of India’s Natural Farming Movement with Vijay Kumar & Didi Pershouse
Learn about a movement that grew from over 40,000 farmers in 2016 to almost 800,000 farmers in 2020 in one of the driest states in India. This work has been successful in part because of a community supported approach where women-run self help groups are in charge of operations. Vijay Kumar, advisor to the government…
Featured Creature: Reindeer
What iconic creature can pull sleighs, see with superhero talent, and shape whole ecosystems? The reindeer! A very special deer The majestic reindeer is a member of the deer family found in Arctic forests and tundra. Native to Scandinavia and Northern Russia, they were later introduced to Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Iceland. Their species, Rangifer tarandus, includes both reindeer and caribou,…
Compendium 5.2: Ecological roles of animals
Animals contribute vitally to Earth’s water, carbon, and nutrient cycles. Every ecosystem is supported by uncountable animal species, ranging from birds to insects and mammals to fish, as well as microscopic organisms. The devastating news is that the Earth is losing about 150 animal, plant and microbial species every day, mostly due to human activities.[8] Understanding…
Miyawaki Forests and the Meaning of Regeneration
As many people know through firsthand experience, we planted the Northeast’s first Miyawaki Forest last weekend. After several months of planning, discussion, and organization, we gathered in Danehy Park in North Cambridge to create the forest. This was the part I participated in, but like so much of our work at Biodiversity for a Livable…
Life After Fossil Fuels
On August 16, Alice Friedemann and Adam Sacks joined our Life Saves the Planet lecture series to discuss moving beyond fossil fuels and how our civilization can rise to meet this inevitable transition we face. Check out the recording of their challenging and timely conversation.
Nature’s Solutions as National Policy
Nature’s Solutions as National Policy June 5, 2021 9:00 – 11:00 am ET This June, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate hosted a mini-conference exploring how we can leverage nature’s solutions to shape policy on climate action and resilience. This was the first in a series of mini-conferences on nature’s solutions as national policy, bringing together global…
Tom Goreau
Tom Goreau is an award-winning marine, soils and climate scientist. He is President of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, a coral reef protection non-profit, and has been involved in issues affecting the United Nations, climate change, coral reef, and small island developing states all over the world in many different capacities. He has dived longer and in…
Walter Jehne
Walter Jehne is a leading Australian soil and climate scientist and Director of Healthy Soils Australia. He has extensive experience in industry and has worked overseas with Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, focusing on the microbial ecology of soil regeneration, the availability and cycling of nutrients, and how these govern the health, productivity, and resilience of biosystems. Walter is very interested…
Michal Kravčík
Michal Kravčík is an internationally recognized Slovak water scientist, ASHOKA fellow, and co-author of A New Water Paradigm: Water for the Recovery of the Climate, which emphasizes hydrologic cycles in addressing climate change. He is also a founding member and chairman of Slovakia’s NGO People and Water. In 1999, Kravčík was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for his contributions to…
Didi Pershouse
Didi Pershouse is a cross-pollinator, helping to connect the dots between soil health and human health. She is the author of The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities and the founder of the Center for Sustainable Medicine. After 22 years of clinical work with patients, she is now working with…
Judith Schwartz
Judith Schwartz is a longtime freelance writer and author of several books. Over the last several years she has written about the juncture of economics and the environment for such publications as Time, Time.com, the Christian Science Monitor, Conservation, and the UKGuardian. She is the author of the ground-breaking book, Cows Save the Planet and Other Improbable Ways of…
Jim Laurie
Jim Laurie, Restoration Ecologist, is a biologist from Rice University and a pioneer in biological remediation of waste water. He was the technical manager of the world’s largest “Living Machine” project to clean raw municipal sewage with no toxic chemicals. The facility, through a grant from the EPA, processed 80,000 gallons/day using the “living machine” methodology invented by ecological…
Adam Sacks
Adam Sacks is the Executive Director of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate. He has had careers in education, holistic medicine, computer technology, politics, and advocacy. A climate activist since 1999, since 2007 he has been studying and writing about the power of biology to reverse global warming and restore the earth. In 2009-10 he published articles in the online…
Compendium Vol. 2 No. 1: Appendix A: Scenario 300
Scenario 300: Reducing Atmospheric CO2 to 300 ppm by 2061 by Jim Laurie, Staff Scientist Biodiversity for a Livable Climate bio4climate.org jimlaurie7@gmailcom March 20, 2018 Danger in the Arctic: The Urgency of the Climate Situation Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased from 315 ppm in 1958 to 410 ppm in 2018. This is the…
Compendium Vol. 1 No. 2: Geotherapy
Geotherapy: Innovative Methods of Soil Fertility Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, and Reversing CO2 Increase. Edited by Thomas J. Goreau, Ronal W. Larsen and Joanna Campe [Goreau 2015] The term “geotherapy” was coined by Richard Grantham, an evolutionary biologist and geneticist who, in his later years, turned his attention to the deteriorating state of Earth in the current…
Compilation of agriculture articles
Natural climate solutions, Griscom 2017 This is one of the most comprehensive mainstream studies to date of a broad spectrum of natural climate solutions by thirty-two co-authors and supported by The Nature Conservancy. The report examines “20 conservation, restoration, and/or improved land management actions that increase carbon storage and/or avoid greenhouse gas emissions across global…
Jim Laurie: Back to 300 (Nature Wants to be Wet and Cool)
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Many strategies exist for taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and rehydrating the continents. Jim Laurie will review a broad vision of the potential for each ecosystem to be restored and to sequester carbon, building a graphic…
Water for the Recovery of the Climate: A New Water Paradigm
Ing. Michal Kravčík,CSc. / RNDr. Jan Pokorný, CSc. / Ing. Juraj Kohutiar/ Ing. Martin Kovác / RNDr. Eugen Tóth http://www.waterparadigm.org/download/Water_for_the_Recovery_of_the_Climate_A_New_Water_Paradigm.pdf Jan Lambert’s Quick-Take: The New Water Paradigm presents a very useful way to view drought and other climate change, a way that shows how humankind can influence climate for the better simply by restoring natural…
Our Oceans, Our Selves with Adam Sacks
Adam Sacks, Executive Director, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate emphasizes the connections between human well-being and the state of the Earth’s oceans. Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Connect with usFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/bio4climateTwitter: https://twitter.com/bio4climateInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/bio4climate/ Presented at Restoring Oceans, Restoring Climate: Facing Fire & Ice, Food & Water, Flood & Drought conference at…
Large-Scale Marine Ecosystem Restoration with Thomas Goreau
Thomas Goreau, Global Coral Reef Alliance, demonstrates the powerful potential of ocean restoration through coral reef restoration using biorocks and other techniques that mimic nature. Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Connect with usFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/bio4climateTwitter: https://twitter.com/bio4climateInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/bio4climate/ Presented at Restoring Oceans, Restoring Climate: Facing Fire & Ice, Food & Water, Flood &…
Walter Jehne (soil and climate scientist) and Michal Kravcik (hydrologist) Q&A
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/ Michal Kravcik: Slovakian hydrologistWalter Jehne: Australian soil and climate scientist Presented a Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University. #climatechange #watercycle #waterconservation
Water Follows Carbon Follows Water with Judith Schwartz & Thomas Goreau
Judith Schwartz will tell stories from around the world about the transformations resulting from different approaches to water management, and the effects on local climate. With the ongoing drought in California, people are waking up to concerns about water sources – but while there’s discussion over the effects that climate change can have on water,…