Wildlife & Climate
Is wildlife simply at the mercy of climate chaos, or could
its survival hold the key to restoring balance?
October 9, 16, 23 & 30
Thursdays — 12:00 Noon & 7:00 PM ET
Featuring Expert Guest Speakers
Jonathan Lundgren, PhD — October 9 – 12:00 noon ET
Alejandro Carrillo — October 9 – 7:00 PM ET
According to this report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), we have lost 73% of wildlife (vertebrates) in the last 50 years.
This 73% decline is both “staggering” and “catastrophic,” to quote the WWF.
The conventional wisdom is that climate change is causing this loss, but this idea has almost no scientific support, according to this article by conservation biologists: An inconvenient misconception: Climate change is not the principal driver of biodiversity loss, published in Conservation Letters, a journal of the Society for Conservation Biology
The article holds that conservation biologists do not list climate change as a frequent cause of wildlife extinctions. Instead, they list habitat loss (e.g., deforestation), pollution (including pesticides) and overexploitation (overhunting and overfishing) as major causes of wildlife extinctions.
So, saving our wildlife requires that we deal with the real causes and not be swept up in a false narrative about how climate change, per se, is the culprit.
Besides, forests, wetlands and grasslands serve as habitat AND climate regulators. So we have a powerful rationale for protecting–and creating–habitat in our farms, our forests, our landscapes and even our deserts.
Furthermore, wildlife is an essential component of each ecosystem. Every species plays a role in the function of an ecosystem as a whole, including the roles of our ecosystems in regulating a livable climate. Thus humans and all of the other species depend on wildlife for our survival, providing an extra incentive for us to create the conditions for wildlife to return and thrive by restoring their habitat and food supply.
Finally, according to Canadian scientist Vaclav Smil, we have eliminated 50% of the Earth’s biomass in the last 5,000 years. If we could reverse this trend, we could regain some of the habitat and climate regulating capacity that we have lost.
Combine this with the idea that the total quantity of human made things (known as anthropogenic mass), now equals the biomass of the world, and is set to double and redouble in this century.We are literally crowding out nature. If we don’t stop, it will not matter how much we reduce emissions.
We can live with nature. We can be a keystone species, creating habitat for other species. But we need to understand what’s going on and not be deceived by those who want us to ignore nature or make token changes, changes that are profitable for business but not people or the planet. We need real change, without which we will never address climate change.
This course explores the actual connections between wildlife and climate change and gives us a real and viable framework for living with nature, restoring habitat and addressing climate change in a way that actually works and can be implemented wherever we live, work and play.
What’s Included in the Course
- Live Classes every week! A 12:00 Noon and 7:00 PM live, 90-minute class each week on Zoom for a total of 10 live sessions, recorded for your convenience
- Thursdays – October 9, 16, 23 & 30, 2025 – from 12:00 – 1:30 PM and 7:00 – 8:30 PM ET (attend either or both classes)
- Guest Speakers will share their research and experience
- Membership in a private email group to ask questions, share resources and connect with a like-minded community
- Advocacy Coaching for you to be effective in your community
- Plus Resources you can use to help decision makers create truly effective climate action plans.
Reserve your spot today!
Guest Speakers
Dr. Jonathan Lundgren is an agroecologist, Executive Director of Ecdysis Foundation, and CEO for Blue Dasher Farm, in South Dakota. Lundgren’s research and education programs are helping applied science evolve in ways that foster the evolution of a regenerative food system. He regularly interacts with the public and farmers around the world regarding ecologically intensive farming and how biodiversity fuels the resilience and productivity of an agroecosystem and rural communities.
To view his important work, visit Ecdysis Foundation.
October 9 – 12:00 noon ET
Alejandro Carrillo is a fourth-generation rancher in the Chihuahuan desert. Rarely does his precipitation go beyond 9” per year (< 225mm). He is not willing to waste any water in such a brittle environment because he wants to graze year-round without inputs (such as irrigation, seeds and fertilizer).
Alejandro’s ranch, Las Damas Cattle Ranch, has been part of multiple documentaries and studies focused on regenerative ranching and “greening the desert” using livestock such as Common Ground, Sacred Cow, To Which We Belong, and Water in Plain Sight.
Alejandro’s Grasslands Regeneration Project company assists ranchers and organizations on regenerative grazing projects in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Australia, China and the Middle-East. He also participates as a delegate to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.
Before joining the ranch, Alejandro worked as a software engineer in multiple countries. He holds a MS in Technical Management from The Johns Hopkins University and BS in Computer Science from the Monterrey Institute of Technology.
To view his important work, visit Grasslands Regeneration Project.
October 9 – 7:00 PM ET
Your Course Instructor
Hart Hagan is an environmental reporter who has produced nearly 400 radio shows and close to 300 videos since 2018. He is the founder of Water & Climate, a Facebook group with over 4,600 members. Six years as a climate reporter has led him to focus on the value of ecosystems and water cycles as a key driver of climate, and the primary means of curbing extinction and providing habitat for our fellow species.
Hart is passionate about educating people that in order to understand flooding, drought, heatwaves and wildfires, we must look beyond CO2 and examine how we treat our land. He is an avid gardener with a focus on native wildflowers and creating landscapes that capture all the rainfall.
Hart is also an educator, a native plant expert, an Accredited Organic Land Care Professional certified through the Northeast Organic Farming Association, and he has been trained by the Savory Institute in the ecological evaluation of pastures through a process known as Ecological Outcome Verification.
To review and subscribe to Hart’s important work, visit his:
YouTube Channel: @harthagan23
Blog on Substack: harthagan.substack.com
Facebook Group: Water & Climate
Whether this is your first course or your tenth course, please join us if you are curious about nature and its power to restore the soil and other ecosystems to abundance. Everyone has much to learn and share, and there is much to be done. We are all on a journey of expanding our knowledge on nature’s climate solutions, and we each bring something valuable to the conversation.
If you have any registration or general course questions, email us at courses@bio4climate.org. If you have specific questions about the course for Hart Hagan, you can contact him at nhhagan@gmail.com.