Our Boston Premiere of Regenerating Life at Tufts University was a tremendous success! It was exciting to see about 100 people come together to experience how John Feldman wove the many threads of the importance of nature to climate stability together in film.
Tufts Screening
Conversation was lively during the lunch break, as people talked with exhibitors from local organizations while enjoying sandwiches. The room was abuzz with admiration for the way that all the pieces of the climate message came together, along with the beautiful photography and Feldman’s own sense of humor.
Attendees in the break
After Part 3, John Feldman answered questions about the making of the film and introduced us to Sheila Silver, the composer of the mood-setting, and often hauntingly beautiful score.
We concluded with an insightful discussion from our panel of experts who traveled here from Russia, Jamaica, Vermont, New York and Western Mass. The conversation, led by Didi Pershouse, brought together key researchers, some of whom have been with Bio4Climate since our first conference and most of whom were featured in the film. The discussion proved lively as some differences in how to best apply the information were expressed. Check out the recording of the panel discussion and Q&A here.
Panel: Dr. Anastassia Makarieva, Tom Goreau, Dan Kittredge, Judith D. Schwartz; Moderator: Didi Pershouse
Nearly 30 attendees had the chance to share with the rest of the audience and panel the questions they had, which were inspired by the film. Perhaps the most common question was “How can we get this message out to more people?” Which is the same question we ask ourselves every day at Bio4Climate – but the short answer is – share the film!
The distributor Bullfrog Films is now making the film available for individuals and community groups to host a live or virtual screening. You can learn more about hosting a screening here. Bio4Climate will also make a community screening toolkit available soon, so stay tuned.
We look forward to getting this excellent movie and its important messages out to the world. Thank you so much for being a part of it!
Have you seen the film at our Premiere or elsewhere? Please share your comments and pictures in the comments so we can Regenerate Life together!
To a climate conversation long dominated by computer models and technological jargon, Regenerating Life: How to Cool the Planet, Feed the World and Live Happily Ever After brings some badly needed rain, along with dung beetles, sweating trees, fungal mycelia, cloud-making forests, beavers, worms, soil microbes, cow patties and whales. As more and more people are learning, there’s another side to the climate that’s been overlooked, one having less to do with what we put in the air than what we do to the land and this film brings it beautifully to life.
It’s a daunting task, for once we open our eyes to the biological side of climate, we confront an almost incomprehensible complexity. There’s photosynthesis to understand as well as plant transpiration, the small water cycle and the greenhouse effect. Soil microbiology, cloud formation, ecosystem dynamics and nutrient cycles all figure in. There is the physics of light and heat and the twin chemistries of carbohydrates and hydrocarbons to account for, not to mention the legacies of colonization, slavery and the industrialization of agriculture. A lesser filmmaker would leave us lost in facts and figures and timelines, but John Feldman, writer, photographer and editor of the film, delivers a journey so visually sumptuous, so evenly paced and cleverly edited, we hardly realize we are being taught at all.
The film starts quietly, with the sound of rain, then opens to a downpour in a woodland. As the camera follows a creek down a mossy ravine Feldman begins, “When I started this film about the causes and solutions to the climate crisis, I had no idea I would be spending so much time looking at water.” And so it is with anyone who learns about the living basis of climate. It’s so much about water. And water is so much about life. Together, and in exquisite synchronization, through myriad cycles and feedbacks, they produce what we call the climate (of which CO2 emissions are a critical part.) But there is no simple linear explanation for how it all works. It’s too complex for that, with many things happening at once, cycling one through the other. As he discovers early on, “everything leads to everything else.”
Mist over field – still from Regenerating Life
To deal with this lack of linearity, Feldman divides his film into three parts, looking at the whole through three lenses, so to speak. Part 1, called Water Cools the Planet, looks through the water lens. Part II, Life Sustains the Climate, asks “How does life sustain itself?” and looks through the lens of life for the answer. Part III, Small Farms Feed the World, takes on the industrialization of agriculture while providing common sense climate solutions through the lens of food.
I use the word “lens” deliberately. Feldman shows his story as much as tells it. An example comes at the end of part I. He’s just led us through the intricate ferment of living processes that run the water cycles that cool our climates. We’ve seen how living soil not only sequesters carbon but also water, banking moisture against drought while hydrating green growth above, and how vegetation sweats much like we do, with forests cooling their environments much as a sweaty shirt in the wind cools us. We’ve examined the subtle, but oh-so-powerful physics of how heat moves through the phases of water, liquid to vapor and back again. There’s been a lot of information to take in, and then as reward he lets our eyes feast a while on a time-lapse unfolding of morning mist over a glen. Vapors rise, twist, curl and fall like dancing veils as we move beyond the science into the thing itself, the animate beauty and mystery of it.
Part II widens the lens yet further. To understand climate you must understand water and to understand water you must understand life, thus the question: “How does life sustain itself?” I love that he asks this question. It’s the very opposite of the scientific reductionism that characterizes the standard climate narrative, with Earth’s climate reduced to something of a machine with a carbon dial.
A particularly mesmerizing passage occurs when Feldman takes us behind a microscope to look at the creatures we’ve so far been referring to as “soil microbia.” Looking down on the slow, translucent bodies moving about at their tasks, with the film’s subtly melodic musical accompaniment tugging at my borders, I felt a sympathy and connection with these beings that I hadn’t expected. The passage affects me still. This morning I was looking at the edge of an incoming tide and saw what I first thought was a pale fragment of dead seaweed. But noticing it was translucent like the microbes I had seen in the film I looked longer and realized it was moving on its own. Then I saw the dark eyespots, and fin-like appendages waving from its sides. Would I have noticed this embryonic creature-in-making had I not seen this movie? Hard to say, but life is so at the center of this film that it seems to have affected how I look at things even days afterward. With this intensified attentiveness to life, my surroundings seem to have, well, come alive.
The network IS the fungi – still from Regenerating Life
In Part III the film takes on more of an edge. To talk about food is to talk about the industrial takeover of agriculture. It’s also to talk about slavery and its legacy, as well colonialism and its long trail of brutal land-taking. Feldman doesn’t shy from any of it, detailing just how the growing of food has become so poisonous, industrial and corporatized. The “green” revolution turns out to be not so green after all, kind of like “green” energy: imposing an industrial solution on what is an organic problem.
Karen Washington at her urban farm – still from Regenerating Life
I’ve mentioned how Feldman shows as well as explains his material. He also lets others do the telling. There’s long been a quiet community around the world of people who, coming to understand the power and beauty of this new, more ecological way of seeing the climate, have pretty much dedicated their lives to it. We meet many of these figures and what’s so refreshing is that none of them are big names. There are no Hollywood figures, just everyday people who, in their own way, have come to see how all the pieces fit together. Along with soil scientists, microbiologists and organizers, we meet an ecologist who homeschools eighth graders in science, a nutritionist turned soil communicator, two African American sisters reclaiming their afro-indigenous heritage, farmers in India applying regenerative agriculture at province-wide scale, growing food even during drought, and a community gardener in the middle of New York City who is regenerating life from the city-center out and has become very clear that “to grow your own food gives you power.”
There’s a good chance some people won’t like this film. They won’t appreciate it referring to carbon gases and the greenhouse effect as a cause of climate change, rather than the cause of climate change. Some may even try to portray it as a kind of climate denial. But this film isn’t about denying anything. It’s a film of affirmation. And what it affirms, over and over, is life, not only the wonder of it but the power of it to heal our broken climate. It’s more of an orchestration than a machine. But even that is too tightly structured a comparison. There is something wild and beautiful at its heart. It’s a force with its own will. And if you allow yourself, it will fill you with awe and even hope.
Feldman is surely awed. You may well be too. It’s something you can only see through discovery, and now you have this calm and generous film to help you with that. You might want to have pen and paper on hand, and maybe invite a friend or two to join you.
There’s a lot to talk about.
Rob Lewis
Pictures are stills from the film Regenerating Life, used with permission.
Rob Lewis is a poet, writer and activist working to give voice to the more-than-human world, and a member of Bio4Climate’s Leadership Team since 2021. His writings have appeared in Resilience, Dark Mountain, Atlanta Review, Counterflow and others, as well as the anthologies Singing the Salmon Home and For the Love of Orcas. He’s also author of the poetry/essay collection The Silence of Vanishing Things. Lately, he’s been writing about how the climate isn’t a machine with an engineering fix, but a living system that only can only be healed through restraint and restoration, at https://theclimateaccordingtolife.substack.com/
I’d like to introduce this piece with a scenario. Suppose someone pointed out that you’d been looking at the climate through a pair of glasses with only one lens? Lifting them off your nose, they then provide you a new pair of glasses with two lenses. Suddenly, parts of the climate you couldn’t see before appear. In addition to the atmosphere, you now see the landscapes around you and the soil beneath your feet, not as helpless victims, but as active drivers of this thing we call climate. Not only that, but you see that at one point, not too long ago, science looked at the climate in just such a manner. It was only later, in the 1980’s, that the glasses with the single lens was put before our eyes and declared the official scientific view.
These are some of the insights gained when you follow the path of Millan’s career and scientific work, though Millan uses different metaphors, referring to a “two-legged” climate understanding versus the one-legged, CO2-only view, the current orthodoxy. He also shows us that water, which lies at the heart of Earth’s climate, “begets water,” that soil is like a “womb” for rain and climate, and vegetation acts as a “midwife.”
I realize I’m throwing out a lot of metaphors here, but with today’s data-driven orthodoxy, metaphors are needed to help us see through the numerical fog. In any case, read on and things will become clear.
Millan Millan and the Mystery of the Missing Mediterranean Storms
When Mediterranean climate expert Millan M. Millan was a boy, his father brought him along on his frequent partridge hunting forays through the dry scrubland of southern Spain known as the maqui, often stopping to show him how to read the surrounding weather, pointing out how a “cloud in a certain place in the morning would move somewhere else by afternoon, triggering a rainstorm.” They’d watch the storms form across the landscape and plan their route home to avoid getting wet. Little could Millan know that 40 years hence he’d be asked by the European Commission to figure out why those afternoon storms, which he and his father so enjoyed tracking across the hillsides, were disappearing throughout the Western Mediterranean Basin, with rivers drying up in their wake.
The future Dr. Millan, Head of the Center for the Mediterranean Environment, degreed in Fluid Mechanics, Industrial Engineering, Aerospace Science, Atmospheric Physics and Spectroscopy, Synoptic Meteorology and Weather Forecasting, would indeed figure out why the summer storms were failing. “Land-use perturbations (mining, industrial expansion, deforestation, paving) that accumulated over historical time and greatly accelerated in the last 30 years” had rendered the land incapable of supporting the region’s climate. The storms were vanishing because the land was vanishing, Millan showed, with far reaching implications for our understanding of the human causes of climate change and how we should respond.
Though hailed by Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen as the most significant finding for climate change in twenty years and published in the American Meteorological Association’s Journal of Climate and others,1,2 his work was effectively ignored by mainstream climate science, proving as Millan put it, “incommodious.” The CO2-oriented, global computer models that came to dominate climate science couldn’t see the local, land-level processes Millan uncovered. Politicians, with their pet building projects and “growth” mandate, ran from them.
Millan isn’t the only scientist raising the alarm about “land change” as a human cause of climate change,3,4 but at 82 he has been around the longest, long enough to remember a time when science held what he terms a “two-legged” view of climate, with a leg for atmospheric carbon and the greenhouse effect, and a leg for land disturbance and hydrologic effects (water cycles.) By researching past climate reports, I’ve been able to verify this,5,6 leading to another mystery: what happened to the two-legged understanding of climate? As it turns out, Millan’s story answers this mystery also, as we will see.
The boy, whose father pointed to his destiny and who went on to deftly met it, nonetheless feels defeated. “I failed, for all of us,” he wrote me once. And indeed, today’s climate narrative completely leaves out Millan’s work. But I don’t think the story is over. The wheel of science is moving toward Millan’s understanding, not away, and the scientific case for a two-legged view of climate just keeps building. Now, in fact, is the perfect time to tell his story.
Shared with permission from Rob Lewis, writer, activist, and member of Bio4Climate’s Leadership Team since 2021. This article was originally published on Resilience.org on July 17, 2023. Read the original article here.
Rob Lewis is a poet, writer and activist working to give voice to the more-than-human world. His writings have appeared in Resilience, Dark Mountain, Atlanta Review, Counterflow and others, as well as the anthologies Singing the Salmon Home and For the Love of Orcas. He’s also author of the poetry/essay collection The Silence of Vanishing Things. Lately, he’s been writing about how the climate isn’t a machine with an engineering fix, but a living system that only can only be healed through restraint and restoration, at https://theclimateaccordingtolife.substack.com/
Sources:
Millan, Millan et al, 2005, Climatic Feedbacks and Desertification: The Mediterranean Model, Journal of Climate, Volume 18, pp. 684-70.
Millan, Millan, 2014, Extreme Meteorological Events and Climate Prediction in Europe, Journal of Hydrology, Volume 518, pp.206-224.
Pielke, Roger Sr., 2009, Climate Change: The Need to Consider Human Forcings Besides Greenhouse Gases, Eos, Vol. 90, No. 45, pp. 413-414.
Schwarzer, Stefan, 2021, Working with Plants, Soils and Water to Cool the Climate and Rehydrate Earth’s Landscapes, UNEP Foresight Brief, pp. 1-7.
1971, Inadvertent Climate Modification: Study of Man’s Impact on Climate, MIT.
1979, Proceedings of the World Climate Conference: Conference of Experts on Climate and Mankind, World Meteorological Association.
Photo: Low maquis in Corsica (Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=181723)
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 altered. This happens when the soils are depleted or covered with pavement, or when local water sources are drained and exported to rivers and eventually oceans. To restore local climates, we can start by restoring local natural cycles, and the first cycle we can look to is water.
Not One Cycle, But Many
You might have heard of ‘the water cycle,’ but there are actually many water cycles. They are in action at all times. Long water cycles draw their moisture primarily from the ocean, while short water cycles – also known as small water cycles – recirculate moisture on land. These cycles release water into the atmosphere through plant water vapor. Once the water reaches the skies, it forms clouds, and the cycle continues as clouds return the water to the land via rain. Evapotranspiration and precipitation are two processes in water cycles that ensure water stays in the respective region long-term.
Without water and its many cycles, our Earth would be hot, far too hot for us to live. The energy from the sun has to go somewhere. It is, after all, aimed directly at the planet. When plants and water are involved, the sun’s energy goes into plants to create life. Without plants or water, that energy gets absorbed by the land and creates ground too hot to walk on, let alone live on. The presence of water and the cycling of it controls local climates. It also provides moisture to plants and forms the clouds that moderate the Earth’s temperatures. The saying “water is life” could not be more accurate.
Where Did the Water Go?
If you live in a region with constant drought, you might be wondering what happened to the local water cycles, as precipitation has become more infrequent and unpredictable. Unfortunately, this scenario is becoming more and more common. As we continue to develop, paving over soils that absorb water with concrete and asphalt, we are increasing the surface area of impenetrable surfaces. Depleted soils also don’t absorb water, and when water doesn’t go underground, water cycles get disrupted – making it more difficult for all living beings to survive. The water that fails to be absorbed runs off the land (hence, the term runoff) and flows into storm drainages. Rather than keeping water local, we’re sending fresh, life-giving water to faraway rivers and oceans. For water to contribute to the local climate, it must stay in the area, meaning we need permeable ground and healthy soil.
Poor land and water management has led to an alarming loss of topsoil and decline in soil health. Industrial farming systems rely on chemicals and heavy machinery detrimental to life in the soil. Yet we need those microorganisms in the soil to build good aggregation (pore spaces) and symbiotic relationships with plants that form the basis of a functioning small water cycle. When we disrupt local water cycles and water runs off rather than evenly spreading over the land and infiltrating, we create conditions that lead to droughts, floods, heat waves, intense storms, and sea level rise.
Graphic by NM Healthy Soil Working Group
How can we restore local water cycles?
The good news is that we can restore the small water cycle by re-building the porous structure of the soil sponge – a term coined by Australian soil microbiologist Walter Jehne. Following nature’s strategy and applying the soil health principles, combined with slowing and capturing rainfall through earthworks (e.g. swales and small check dams), allows the soil to regenerate. Water gets absorbed instead of running off, some of it providing moisture for plants near the surface, and some percolating deeper underground to recharge aquifers that create water sources for all living beings.
How plants create rain: Somewhat akin to us breathing in and out, plants move water from the roots through trunks, branches, and stems, and ultimately out via the stomata (tiny pores) in leaves. Through this process, plants move nutrients to where they are needed –either nutrients from the soil or the sugars and carbohydrates photosynthesized by leaves. The water transpired by the plants becomes a key source for the formation of clouds and rain.
Therefore, to create rain in arid environments, we need more plants. Keeping all possible surfaces covered with living plants and reducing paved areas and bare ground will go a long way to restoring the small water cycle and, in return, restoring life itself. It will also maintain cooler surface temperatures and reduce the reradiation of long wave infrared heat from the Earth’s surface, which is the primary factor that drives the natural, and now exaggerated, greenhouse effect. As Walter Jehne says: “On a larger scale these same processes all play their role in helping to regulate the global climate through both the carbon and water cycles. This means that as we work to restore our regional water cycles, we may well change the global climate.”
This workshop follows Jan’s talk: Soak Up the Rain! What We Can All Do to Reduce Drought, Floods, Heat Waves and Severe Storms
Jan Lambert: environmental writer and editor of The Valley Green Journal
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Connect with us Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bio4climate Twitter: https://twitter.com/bio4climate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bio4climate/
Presented at Blessed Unrest conference via online, extending across weekends in April & May of 2020
Did you ever stop to think about what happens with all the water that goes down the storm drains in your town or city every time it rains? Jan Lambert, even though a lifelong nature advocate, never gave that question much thought until 2014, when as an environmental journalist she learned about the profound and central role of the natural water cycle in regulating and moderating each region’s climate. It is not at all hard to understand how humans, by interfering with the natural flow of water through landscapes and the atmosphere, have damaged both land and climate. The good news is that by making some simple changes, we can restore the natural life-giving flow of water. It may surprise you to learn that it’s not how much water we use, but what happens after we use it, that really matters.
Jan Lambert: environmental writer and editor of The Valley Green Journal
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Connect with us Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bio4climate Twitter: https://twitter.com/bio4climate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bio4climate/
Presented at Blessed Unrest conference via online, extending across weekends in April & May of 2020
This workshop follows Reverend Dele and Lama Elizabeth Monson’s talk “The Necessity of the Divine Feminine in the Climate Crisis” This panel discusses: What is the Divine Feminine? Why should we care? How can the Divine Feminine significantly impact the climate movement?
Reverend Dele: Climate Reality leader and spiritual director Elizabeth Monson: Spiritual Co-Director of Natural Dharma Fellowship and the Managing Teacher at Wonderwell Mountain Refuge
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Connect with us Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bio4climate Twitter: https://twitter.com/bio4climate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bio4climate/
Presented at Blessed Unrest conference via online, extending across weekends in April & May of 2020
This workshop follows Precious’ talk “Building Community During Confusion and Uncertainty”
Precious Phiri: Field Professional in Holistic Management education with the Savory Institute, she works with rural communities through her organization EarthWisdom Consulting, and is the African Coordinator for Regeneration International
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Connect with us Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bio4climate Twitter: https://twitter.com/bio4climate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bio4climate/
Presented at Blessed Unrest conference via online, extending across weekends in April & May of 2020
Increasingly frequent droughts are destroying food production levels in the more drought-prone half of sub-Saharan Africa. Although most people have attributed this gathering crisis to climate change, about 80% of the cause of the droughts is that fallowing–allowing the forest to grow for fifteen years or more to replace the soil’s organic matter–is on its deathbed. The good news, however, is that there exists an extremely simple technology, called “green manure/cover crops,” that can reverse these soil organic matter losses within just a few years, at virtually no cost to the farmers. Even more amazing is that organic matter is 50% carbon. If all the world’s farmers and ranchers were to sequester as much carbon/acre/year in their soils as tens of thousands of smallholder African farmers are already doing, they would sequester, long-term, over 50% of all the carbon the world needs to sequester in order to reach the goals of the Paris Climate Accords.
Roland Bunch: has worked as a consultant in sustainable agricultural development for over 45 NGOs and governments in 50 nation
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Connect with us Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bio4climate Twitter: https://twitter.com/bio4climate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bio4climate/
Presented at Blessed Unrest conference via online, extending across weekends in April & May of 2020
Precious grew up in Zimbabwe and will tell us about her evolution as a trainer in Holistic Management and community facilitation. Her work currently focuses on working with rural communities and collaborating with networks in Africa to reduce poverty, rebuild soils, and restore food and water security for people, livestock and wildlife – and most recently, to address the corona virus.
Precious Phiri: Field Professional in Holistic Management education with the Savory Institute, she works with rural communities through her organization EarthWisdom Consulting, and is the African Coordinator for Regeneration International
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Connect with us Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bio4climate Twitter: https://twitter.com/bio4climate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bio4climate/
Presented at Blessed Unrest conference via online, extending across weekends in April & May of 2020
Increasingly frequent droughts are destroying food production levels in the more drought-prone half of sub-Saharan Africa. Although most people have attributed this gathering crisis to climate change, about 80% of the cause of the droughts is that fallowing–allowing the forest to grow for fifteen years or more to replace the soil’s organic matter–is on its deathbed. This problem has in turn caused a huge drop in soil organic matter and a resulting fall of rainwater infiltration rates from 60% to between 10 and 20%. The good news, however, is that there exists an extremely simple technology, called “green manure/cover crops,” that can reverse these soil organic matter losses within just a few years, at virtually no cost to the farmers. Even more amazing is that organic matter is 50% carbon. Putting all that organic matter back into the soil sequesters tremendous amounts of carbon. In fact, if all the world’s farmers and ranchers were to sequester as much carbon/acre/year in their soils as tens of thousands of smallholder African farmers are already doing, they would sequester, long-term, over 50% of all the carbon the world needs to sequester in order to reach the goals of the Paris Climate Accords.
Roland Bunch has worked as a consultant in sustainable agricultural development for over 45 NGOs and governments in 50 nation
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Connect with us Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bio4climate Twitter: https://twitter.com/bio4climate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bio4climate/
Presented at Blessed Unrest conference via online, extending across weekends in April & May of 2020
Spiritual leaders discuss the connections between feminism and environmentalism.
Reverend Dele: Climate Reality Leader and spiritual director Lama Elizabeth Monson: Spiritual Co-Director of Natural Dharma Fellowship and the Managing Teacher at Wonderwell Mountain Refuge
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Connect with us Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bio4climate Twitter: https://twitter.com/bio4climate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bio4climate/
Presented at Blessed Unrest conference via online, extending across weekends in April & May of 2020
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Regenerating Soil and Water Landscapes
Judy Schwartz, author of Cows Save the Planet, Water in Plain Sight, and a new book due out in July 2020, discusses what people around the world are doing to address our many ecological crises, including global warming. She is joined by entrepreneur and environmental advocate Nicola Williams in a lively and informative conversation. The event took place at the Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA) Public Library on December 12, 2019.
Soil and climate scientist Walter Jehne explains how healthy soils act as a sponge for carbon and water – the “soil carbon sponge.” When we manage soils to absorb water, biodiverse living systems thrive, photosynthesis pulls carbon out of the atmosphere, the biosphere cools, and regenerates a viable life-support system for millions of species including humans.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Connect with us Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bio4climate Twitter: https://twitter.com/bio4climate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bio4climate/
This is must reading if you really want to understand the dynamics of climate. No, this is not another piece on fossil fuel emissions! Jan Pokorny and his colleagues are leaders in presenting to all of us the vital interactions of water vapor, plants, and solar energy in creating and maintaining a livable climate.
Abstract:
To comprehend how the changes in evapotranspiration impact landscape sustainability, it is necessary to take a holistic view of landscape functioning and gain understanding of the underlying natural processes. The Earth’s surface has been shaped by water – in interaction with geological processes – for billions of years. Water and the water cycle – along with living organisms – have been instrumental in the development of the Earth’s atmosphere; free oxygen in the atmosphere is the result of the activity of autotrophic, photosynthetic organisms (stromatolites) that evolved in seawater some 3.5 billion years ago. This was the beginning of aerobic metabolism and enabled the evolution of higher organisms, including higher plants.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
David Rothenberg, author of Bug Music, is distinguished professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is a musician and writer known for his many works finding music and beauty in birds, whales, and bugs.
Presented at Listening to the Voices of Nature conference at Harvard University on November 17-18, 2018
Biodiversity for a Livable Climate presents a talk by Walter Jehne, Australian climate scientist and soil microbiologist who is the Director of Healthy Soils Australia.
Introduction by Didi Pershouse, The Center for Sustainable Medicine
Presented on April 26, 2018 at Harvard University
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Connect with us Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bio4climate Twitter: https://twitter.com/bio4climate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bio4climate/
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Please watch version with introduction here: https://youtu.be/123y7jDdbfY
Biodiversity for a Livable Climate presents Healthy Water Cycles and the Soil Carbon Sponge: New Climate Solutions A talk by Australian climate scientist and soil microbiologist Walter Jehne Director of Healthy Soils Australia Introduction by Didi Pershouse Harvard University, Haller Hall
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
The importance of community farms
Kannan Thiruvengadam: Eastie Farm
Presented at Revitalizing Ecosystems in Greater Boston to Survive Climate Change conference at Harvard University on March 31, 2018
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Transforming public spaces
Maggie Booz: Cambridge Committee on Public Planting
Presented at Revitalizing Ecosystems in Greater Boston to Survive Climate Change conference at Harvard University on March 31, 2018
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
John Reinhardt: President Mystic River Watershed Association
Presented at Revitalizing Ecosystems in Greater Boston to Survive Climate Change conference at Harvard University on March 31, 2018
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Anamarija Frankic: UMass Boston Green Harbors Project
Presented at Revitalizing Ecosystems in Greater Boston to Survive Climate Change conference at Harvard University on March 31, 2018
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Self-organization is a natural process—that, as a system grows it also becomes more complex. This talk focuses on how this process works in ecosystems via co-evolution to generate the incredible biodiversity we see in nature. Many examples of regional co-evolved relationships will be used to illustrate how co-evolution works. The talk then shows how this process is a wonderful model for creating sustainable human systems.
Tom Wessels: Author of The Myth of Progress: Toward a Sustainable Future
Presented at Revitalizing Ecosystems in Greater Boston to Survive Climate Change conference at Harvard University on March 31, 2018
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Ecosystems across our highly developed region are threatened by climate change. At the same time, local ecosystems can help us to weather the coming climate shocks. Ecosystems are our allies, and there is much that we can do to revitalize them in our yards, streets, neighborhoods, parks, wetlands and waters.
Zeyneb Magavi: Research Director for HEET and serves on the National Health Impacts Team and the Gas Leaks Task Force for Mothers Out Front
Presented at Revitalizing Ecosystems in Greater Boston to Survive Climate Change conference at Harvard University on March 31, 2018
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
John Pitkin: Greater Boston Group of the Sierra Club
Presented at Revitalizing Ecosystems in Greater Boston to Survive Climate Change conference at Harvard University on March 31, 2018
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Our conventional view of water for decades has been to send it out to the oceans as quickly as possible. A new water paradigm developed by Michal Kravcik and colleagues explains why it’s so important to keep water where it lands on the ground for as long as possible. This simple shift in water management can make a dramatic difference in the course of global warming.
Adam Sacks, Executive Director, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate “Scenario 300: Making Climate Cool” conference at Washington D.C. on April 30, 2017
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 for water cycling; working WITH nature is vital to restoring healthy biodiverse ecosystems, to building resilient communities, and to cooling our human environment. Examples include small and large water cycles, the role of animals like beavers in restoration efforts, human engineering strategies at local, state, national, and international levels, wetland restoration, and living shoreline programs.
Panel moderator: Charlene Johnston, Washington DC Chapter, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate * Dan Medina, PhD, PE, D.WRE – Senior Engineer, Limnotech * Emily Landis – The Nature Conservancy * Claudio Ternieden – Water Environment Federation
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate “Scenario 300: Making Climate Cool” conference at Washington D.C. on April 30, 2017
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 for water cycling; working WITH nature is vital to restoring healthy biodiverse ecosystems, to building resilient communities, and to cooling our human environment. Examples include small and large water cycles, the role of animals like beavers in restoration efforts, human engineering strategies at local, state, national, and international levels, wetland restoration, and living shoreline programs.
Panel moderator: Charlene Johnston, Washington DC Chapter, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate * Dan Medina, PhD, PE, D.WRE – Senior Engineer, Limnotech * Emily Landis – The Nature Conservancy * Claudio Ternieden – Water Environment Federation
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate “Scenario 300: Making Climate Cool” conference at Washington D.C. on April 30, 2017
A documentary of the town meeting vote in Barnstead, NH on a local ordinance to prevent corporate takeover of the community’s groundwater taken on March 18, 2006.
Dedicated to the memory of Gail Darrell.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Carol Evans, Nevada Bureau of Land Management fisheries biologist whose work has been featured in the film The Beaver Whisperers, highlighting her deep involvement in monitoring the impact that planned grazing and returning beaver have had on restoring watersheds.
Jon Griggs, ranch manager for Maggie Creek Ranch, a beef-cattle operation running on both public and private lands in the high desert of Northeastern Nevada.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
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Foster Brown, Amazonian ecologist, gives an introduction to the interactive methods he uses to teach forest ecology in the Peruvian communities he works with.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Glenn Gall takes us through the groundbreaking work done by many permaculture practitioners, and the central part which water plays in permaculture design. Discussion includes methods such as keyline, subsoiling and grazing, where water has become the focus of land management.
Boston-area community gardener and permaculture teacher Allison Houghton gives an appreciation of the pyramid of species that support soil life and biodiversity, and the ways in which water retention can be supported for ecosystem health.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
Thomas Goreau tells of the successful reforestation centuries ago of the mountains surrounding Rio de Janeiro, and will describe the workings of the “biotic pump” by which forest transpiration supports healthy precipitation across wide areas.
Presented at the Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
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Rajendra Singh, the “Waterman of India”, winner of the 2015 Stockholm Water Prize, has led a decades-long successful campaign to reclaim degraded and mine-scarred landscapes using the traditional water harvesting methods such as the johad earthen dam. Local people have mobilized around these methods to restore water abundance in the driest state of India.
To activate closed captioning, click the “CC” icon at the bottom right of the video screen.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Connect with us Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bio4climate Twitter: https://twitter.com/bio4climate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bio4climate/
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Michal Kravcik: Slovakian hydrologist Walter 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.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Moderated by Adam Sacks, our three panelists speak of success in mobilizing people to work for water restoration in widely varied settings.
Maude Barlow speaks on how water supply and water rights are at the heart of many conflict and crisis zones throughout the world. On the positive side, this means that the empowerment that comes from the New Water Paradigm can reach a massive web of people positioned to repair local environmental problems locally, as well as participate in healing the planet.
Rajendra Singh tells the story of regeneration and hope from Rajasthan, and how the restoration of river watersheds has built community and livelihoods for its people.
Precious Phiri has been part of the Zimbabwean community grazing culture throughout her life. She has an inspiring vision of community strength and security coming from the collective village-based methods of holistic management.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Policy panel: Building Water Cycles into the International Climate Debate
Walter Jehne, Tom Goreau and Jan Lambert with Michal Kravčík each speak on the opportunities for broadening the debate over climate as we approach COP21 in Paris. How do we take it beyond the current global focus on carbon dioxide reduction to deploying methods for hydrological cooling that directly relieve climate extremes.
Walter Jehne was trained as a microbiologist and over decades has worked in Australian business and government settings. He has led initiatives to recognize the climate value of the “in-soil reservoir”, the potential of carbon-rich soil to buffer climate extremes. He describes his strategic vision for expanding the awareness of water cycles in global climate policy.
Jan Lambert speaks as co-author with Michal Kravcik of the Global Action Plan, included in her new book Water, Land and Climate – the Critical Connection.
Thomas Goreau has long and patient experience in consulting and advising small nations in UN climate bodies. He describes the policy landscape for advancing ecological restoration, both inside and outside those official organizations.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Restoration ecologist Jim Laurie illuminates the vital connections between water cycles and biodiversity, describing numerous keystone species – from microbes and worms to beavers, burrowing animals and ruminants – which increase water infiltration and retention in landscapes. By partnering with these species we can jumpstart the restoration of stable local water cycles. Jim also introduces students from his Homeschool Advanced Placement Biology / Restoration Ecology course who perform a short play called “Symbiosis”, including sketches on “Making Holes to Improve the Small Water Cycle” and “Stopping Flash Floods and Cleaning Water.” Jim will finish with a brief description of a new initiative in state government: since 2009 the Mass. Division of Ecological Restoration has helped partners remove 40 dams and restore approximately 2,000 acres of coastal wetland.
Presented a Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Jan Lambert introduces, by way of photos and illustrations, the richly varied ways in which rainwater is now being successfully restored into landscapes. From holistic green pastures in America to green roofs in Scotland, from using beaver dams as models for water retention to jumpstarting new forests by curbing erosion, huge strides are being made in forest, farm, desert, and city to renew the water cycle, reduce floods and drought and renew hope for nature and humanity.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Precious Phiri of Zimbabwe discusses the managed grazing of ruminants from the perspective of how it opens soils for water – and raises water tables and brings back surface water for crops, domestic animals and wildlife, along with a surge of biodiversity and productivity for humans and many other species.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Emaline Conkey, Senior, Mascoma Valley Regional High School in New Hampshire, and Brianna Klauer, Sophomore, Hartford High School in Vermont, are two student leaders in the “Climate, Water, Soil and Hope” program developed by Didi Pershouse of the Soil Carbon Coalition. Students, teachers, and community members participate in a hands-on exploration of the role of soil aggregates in water flows and filtration, as well as role of plants and soil microorganisms in the carbon cycle. Emaline and Brianna share their experiences in the program and their goals for further involvement in the soil restoration movement.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Jim Laurie has used natural biological processes to turn some of the most toxic and polluted effluent around – both sewage and industrial waste – into clean, clear water.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Hydrologist Scott Horsley discusses green infrastructure as the new tool of water harvesting in urban areas and other settled landscapes.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference at Tufts University, October 16th-18th, 2015.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Foster Brown is a senior scientist for Woods Hole Research Institute, based in the State of Acre in the western Amazon. He explains the challenges of protecting Amazonia especially from fire, and of mobilizing local populations for ecological awareness.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Maude Barlow, longtime Canadian global activist for water rights, will describe the current crisis of global communities whose access to clean water is threatened by ecological damage and corporate exploitation.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Steve Apfelbaum explains how restoring biodiverse landscapes can be the most effective way to manage stormwater, as demonstrated in projects such as Seneca Meadows in New York state.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference at Tufts University, October 16th-18th, 2015.
Australian soil and climate scientist Walter Jehne discusses how the five kingdoms of life have created water cycles, moving water through sea, soil and air, navigating tumultuous changes through geological ages to the present, and how the human presence has brought earth’s systems into a crisis in which water is also the potential vehicle for stabilization and renewal.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
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Journalist Judith Schwartz, author of the groundbreaking book, Cows Save the Planet, gives the perspective of a concerned citizen seeking to understand how water fits into the complex workings of climate change.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
To activate closed captioning, click the “CC” icon at the bottom right of the video screen.
Michal Kravčík guides us through the concepts of the New Water Paradigm in greater detail, showing how water cycles can be supported to enhance local climates and biodiversity, and how this understanding can broaden and enhance our strategies for addressing climate change.
Presented a Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
Innovative Slovakian hydrologist Michal Kravčík gives an introduction to his New Water Paradigm and the critical importance of regional or “small” rainwater cycles. The result is a set of empowering ecological concepts that enable people everywhere to secure clean and adequate water, prevent floods and drought and moderate local climate, simply by harvesting rainfall. Since the 1990s he has demonstrated these concepts in his native Slovakia.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference at Tufts University, October 16th-18th, 2015.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Executive Director Adam Sacks welcomes conference attendees and speaks about the importance of water.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s “Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming” conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University.
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 Engineers, describes a large-scale project he worked on in the Alewife Reservation, transforming a degraded low-quality upland habitat into a constructed stormwater wetland and park.The interdisciplinary team incorporated green infrastructure strategies to create diverse upland and wetland native plant communities.
Lenni Armstrong talks about the Depaving Parties she organizes in collaboration with Somerville Climate Action. She works with residents who want to transform paved areas of their yards into green spaces or permeable walkways and driveways. Urban depaving helps keep the watershed clean and promotes healthy neighborhood ecosystems. Also, Depaving Parties are fun and build community!
Ellen Mass of the Friends of Alewife Reservation (FAR) speaks on what citizens can and must do to help their communities plan for climate change. FAR has been active for years in protecting and maintaining the Alewife wetlands and wild space, and will urge city dwellers to stay informed and involved in the public review process regarding development proposals, and to advocate for our environmental resources.
Part of the Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming Conference, organized by Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, at Harvard University on May 3, 2015.
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 offshore seagrass beds, one of the richest of ecological resources and carbon sinks and part of the Boston area’s native habitat. Eelgrass survival is entirely dependent on effective management of water resources for human use, especially intact healthy wetlands and efficient sewage disposal.
Presented at the Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming Conference, organized by Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, at Harvard University on May 3, 2015.
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 nature walk that some conference participants attended the previous day at the Alewife Reservation, Cambridge’s largest local urban wild area, home to crucially important wetland and biodiversity resources.
Presented at the Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming Conference, organized by Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, at Harvard University on May 3, 2015.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Some of the benefits of urban agriculture are well known: increased access to healthy fresh food, reduced “food miles,” and building robust local communities. Looking through the carbon farming lens we also see more benefits: biodiverse landscapes, building carbon-rich soil and creating resilient landscapes that purify the water and air. Our panelists will discuss how to support the growth of urban farm spaces and regional relationships that strengthen them.
Sarah Howard, Earthos, Moderator: Understanding and stewarding our urban-bioregional systems Bruce Fulford, City Soil: Creating agricultural land in an urban setting Mark Smith, Co-founder, Brookwood Community Farm in Milton, Massachusetts: Developing farms on peri-urban land – challenges and opportunities Liz Wiley, Program Manager at Round the Bend Farm, S. Dartmouth, Massachusetts: Regional support systems for urban farming efforts Emily Jodka, Founding member of New Urban Farmers, Pawtucket, Rhode Island: Engaging urban communities and kids in innovative and productive farms
From Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference “Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity and Planet” at Bristol Community College in Massachusetts. Friday February 20, 2015.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Biodiversity is the foundation of healthy, resilient ecosystems. We humans have the ability to create the conditions for biodiverse landscapes which restore water cycles, purify the air, grow nutritious foods and build soil carbon from the carbon dioxide in the air. Jim Laurie will give us some ideas of how to recreate the living systems which are so essential to our well-being, with a focus on Southeastern Massachusetts.
Jim Laurie, Restoration Ecologist, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate
From Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference “Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity and Planet” at Bristol Community College in Massachusetts. Friday February 20, 2015.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
Wetlands have the capacity to store enormous amounts of carbon because soils under water have minimal exposure to air. Gillian Davies will discuss how to integrate climate change thinking into managing wetlands, with multiple benefits for local resiliency such as flood control.
Gillian Davies, Senior Wetlands Scientist, BSC Group
From Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference “Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity and Planet” at Bristol Community College in Massachusetts. Friday February 20, 2015.
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/
There are critical connections between everyday food choices and climate change. Cool Foods emphasizes the key steps of retiring industrial agriculture and turning to practices which pull carbon and water back into the soils, thereby bringing economic vitality and human health to communities worldwide.
Diana Donlon: Director of the Center for Food Safety’s Cool Foods Campaign
From Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference: “Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming” Saturday November 22nd, 2014
Grandmother and long-time activist Candace Duchenaux is dedicated to preserving the Lakota way of life and the environmental integrity of our sacred mother earth. She has been at the frontlines in many battles for justice for the Lakota Oyate and against the destructive human forces threatening humanity and nature. She will tell us of the efforts of Mni, the grassroots water justice organization that she founded, to restore healthy water cycles to Cheyenne River and to all indigenous people worldwide.
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From Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference: “Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming” Sunday November 23rd, 2014
Precious Phiri directs engagement and training for villages in the Hwange Communal Lands region that are implementing restorative grazing programs using Holistic Land and Livestock Management. This cost-effective, nature-based and highly scalable solution helps rural communities in Africa to reduce poverty, rebuild soils, restore food and water security, and reduce drought and flood risks. Precious was born and raised in one of these communities now implementing restorative grazing.
From Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference: “Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming” Sunday November 23rd, 2014
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/
Mycorrhizal fungi are critical conduits moving photosynthetic energy to underground microbial communities. In return these microbes find minerals and water for their plant benefactors. In addtion, nematodes are essential nitrogen pumps in the soil, while dung beetles and earthworms can lock up tons of soil carbon, year after year. Jim Laurie illustrates and explains.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate “Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming” conference at Tufts University on November 21-23, 2014
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Wetlands are powerful carbon sinks because organic matter under water, with minimal exposure to oxygen, doesn’t release most of its stored carbon to the atmosphere. But wetlands have been broadly eliminated as a result of global development. Steve Apfelbaum is an eco-restoration expert and has been at the forefront of ecological remediation for almost forty years. He’ll explain the importance of wetlands in the climate equation, and how to return them to healthy abundance.
From Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference: “Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming” Saturday November 22nd, 2014
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, we’re not looking at the flip side: how restoring the water cycle can have a moderating effect on climate. Schwartz offers examples from the field, while Tom Goreau will comment from a scientist’s perspective.
Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate “Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming” conference at Tufts University on November 21-23, 2014
Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/ Connect with us Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bio4climate Twitter: https://twitter.com/bio4climate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bio4climate/
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Biogeochemist, restoration ecologist, climate scientist, and reef restoration expert Tom Goreau is passionate about soils as the primary way to address global warming at this late date, given that reducing emissions alone cannot prevent dangerous climate change unless natural carbon sinks are significantly increased. He’ll explain the basics of soil carbon and how healthy water cycles can cool the earth.
From Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference: “Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming” Saturday November 22nd, 2014
