Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature

Religion is the oldest, most compelling moral framework for social action. As director of World Wildlife Fund’s Sacred Earth Program, Buddhist Dekila Chungyalpa shows how religion and spiritual consciousness are emerging globally as powerful forces for restoring our relationship with nature and each other.

“Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.” - Bertolt Brecht John Densmore, legendary drummer of the Doors, joins visionary spoken word duo Climbing PoeTree in an exploration of creativity and social change. This episode of Bioneers Radio features exclusive interviews with the artists and a special Bioneers performance of Jim Morrison's poem, "American Prayer".

Today gender reconciliation is a burgeoning new movement for transformational healing. Gender reconciliation visionaries Pat McCabe, Cynthia Brix, Will Keepin and Pele Rouge share powerful stories of transformation from the personal to the societal, including the nation of South Africa.

The genius of nature’s design, recipes and principles is serving as the inspiration for redesigning human civilization. This Biomimicry revolution is spawning a next industrial revolution. Biomimicry masters Janine Benyus and Jay Harman illuminate the forefront of nature-inspired design, including human organization and the power of networks.

“If success or failure of this planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do, then how would I be and what would I do?” asked visionary designer Buckminster Fuller. Buckminster Fuller Institute Board President David McConville says our view of the universe profoundly shapes our future as a species, and it’s changing radically.

The way we see the world creates the world. If a new way of seeing is needed, what might that look like? Indigenous leaders Dakota-Dine Tom Goldtooth, Anishnabe Winona LaDuke, Aleut Ilarion Merculief and The White Buffalo Souldiers conjure a new paradigm that begins with a change of heart.

The citizens of Detroit are challenging the failed policies that have long favored corporate wealth over the well being of city residents. Leading change-makers Malik Kenyatta Yakini, Lottie Spady and Sister Gloria Rivera are seeding community resilience with one of the most robust urban agricultural movements in the U.S., while contradicting the manipulative media narratives that justify oppression.

As lion populations crash in Africa, baboon numbers explode. Associate Professor of Ecology and Conservation Justin Brashares illuminates how to stem the cascading harms of nature out of balance. Visionary author Mary Ellen Hannibal recounts inspiring stories of citizen scientists restoring health to “the spine of the continent” from Alaska to Mexico by connecting nature back to itself.

Women-led movements arising around the world herald a profound shift that changes everything. Visionary women leaders Osprey Orielle-Lake, Leila Salazar and Lynne Twist report on the women leading the clean energy revolution in Africa, defending the Amazonian rainforest, and making peace in Liberia.

Governments and businesses are recognizing climate chaos as the threat multiplier from hell. The answer is not business as usual. How about crowdfunding and democratizing investment in clean energy? Young change-maker turned clean energy entrepreneur Billy Parish, founder of Mosaic, and banker Marco Krapels, co-founder of The Solutions Project, say 100% renewable energy is both possible and imperative.

How can we manifest the world we want, and who we want to be? Actor-activist Danny Glover and Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, former CEO of Green For All, show how one sure path to resilience is to build community and social movements. That requires learning how to reach out across our differences – and it gets really personal.

Queen of the forest canopy” Nalini Nadkarni is riding a new current of innovative scientists uncovering previously unexplored wonders in the forest canopy. Her imaginative passion supersedes the boundaries of science to inspire and enlist people from all walks of life, transforming the truth of trees into environmental and social healing.

Queen of the forest canopy” Nalini Nadkarni is riding a new current of innovative scientists uncovering previously unexplored wonders in the forest canopy. Her imaginative passion supersedes the boundaries of science to inspire and enlist people from all walks of life, transforming the truth of trees into environmental and social healing.

If the rate of destruction doesn’t change, by the year 2020 most of the Amazon ecosystem – the lungs of the planet - will be destroyed or irreparably damaged. But not if these visionary leaders can help it. Amazon Watch founder Atossa Soltani has supported local indigenous peoples to protect the rainforest and their lifeways. Legendary rainforest champion Marina Silva , Brazil’s past Minister of the Environment and Presidential candidate, offers deep wisdom and vision.

Conspicuous climate disruption is here now. At the same time, a global super-elite of fossil fuel mega-billionaires has cinched a political stranglehold on American democracy, energy policies and politics. How can these rogue financial titans be stopped? Activist Victor Menotti, legal scholar John A. Powell, and author and political operative Steven Hill outline strategies for rapid transformative change.

For millennia, prophets, mystics and poets have illuminated the oneness of all life. Today biology is confirming that we are genetic kin with the entire diversity of life. Episcopal Reverends Fletcher Harper and Sally Bingham and Baptist Church Administrator G.L. Hodge preach the gospel of Creation Care that more and more faith communities are embracing in a historic shift.

Women’s truths, perspectives and voices have been largely missing from the global conversation, but that is beginning to change as women awaken to their purposes and power. Courageous and eloquent women environmental and social justice leaders - journalist Rose Aguilar , biologist Sandra Steingraber , and reproductive justice advocates Vanessa Daniel and Eveline Shen - share their stories of how the leadership of women is changing the story and the world.

How extreme is wealth disparity in the US? Imagine every person in the economy walks by, in order of income from low to high, with heights proportional to what people make. You’d see mostly a parade of dwarves, with some unbelievable giants at the very end. Political economist and historian Gar Alperovitz and social entrepreneur Ted Howard of the Democracy Collaborative depict breakthrough models for breaking this vicious cycle by democratizing wealth, ownership and access to capital.

Our physical health is intimately tied to environmental health, as well as to our emotional and spiritual ecology. Visionary physician Dr. Gabor Maté explores the deepest psychological, emotional and social forces leading to our society’s poor health and unhappiness. He says we have the capacity to heal both ourselves and the planet by reconnecting with our true nature as empathic, nurturing, social beings.

As we enter what Paul Gilding calls the Great Disruption – it’s only a matter of when, not whether, the world will change course on the scale of a wartime mobilization – this time to restore nature and human communities. Author and 350.org founder Bill McKibben, Transition U.S. leader Carolyne Stayton, community organizer Mary Gonzales and retired Marine Colonel Mark “Puck” Mykleby show how people are building a national movement to create resilience from the ground up in local communities and regions.

Given the extreme economic disenfranchisement of Native American tribes, being an Indian in modern times has given rise to Indian casinos. Chairman Greg Sarris of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria found himself staring down the barrel of massive community resistance. Was it possible to create a casino that would uphold traditional values and benefit the land and local community? You wouldn’t want to bet against him.

It's obvious that we're not here for ourselves. That makes no evolutionary sense. There's something larger than us, and to the extent that we can live that and celebrate that, I think we're healthier, and then that's love.So I think if we think of love in this way, and a beloved community in this way, when we hold all this stuff together, together.

One of the things that the children wanted in their school, which a lot of kids would want if they had the opportunity, is a river flowing through their classroom. Kids like that kind of thing, and engineers immediately have a kind of tick that develops. [laughter] No, you can't have a river. But in this case, what the team decided, well, this is a living building, perhaps we should listen to the students.

I don't want to write words that fill jail cells, and yet it is my abiding responsibility to protect my children from harm and plan for their future. And my neighbors feel the same way. If the air, food and water out of which our children's bodies are constructed are contaminated, we can't do our job as parents. If the day comes when I can be a better mother inside of jail than outside, I will be that mother.

What we're trying to do is not about winning, it's about losing, and it's about losing this burden of having to make it, to be rich, to be comfortable, to be seen, to be famous, to be followed, to be friended, to be known. We don't need all that because it's an upside down world and the winners are the losers. And what we lose is the delusion and suffering that we are here on Earth for ourselves. That is such a delusion, you know. Takers suffer always.

How can a grocery store lift a community out of poverty? The People’s Grocery provides creative solutions to community health problems that stem from a lack of access to and knowledge about healthy, fresh foods. The personal journey of Executive Director and home-grown food justice leader Nikki Henderson brings heart, soul and love to community health and wealth for the low-income community of West Oakland, California.

Social Capitalism and the United States of Europe - Despite suffering severe shocks from the 2008 global economic and banking crisis, nations of the European Union have provided the world with a potent new economic species. Social Capitalism shares prosperity more widely, institutionalizes broader national democracy, and creates long-term environmental sustainability. It includes universal healthcare thats affordable, education for all that is often free, family-friendly work policies, and real worker participation in corporate decision-making. Europe watcher Steven Hill believes it may be the most important innovation in the world economy since the rise of the corporation and we all have a ringside seat to history.

Healing the Inner Environment - Brain research is revealing astounding insights into the mechanisms of post-traumatic stress and neuroplasticity the brains ability to be rewired and re-trained. The world today is ravaged by traumas from war, privation and economic crashes to natural disasters and ongoing environmental degradation. In response, world-renowned psychiatrist Dr. James S. Gordon of the Center for Mind Body Medicine has trained thousands of teachers globally to advance ancient mind-body healing techniques of self-care to reconnect each individual with his or her own nature, with family and community, and with the natural world. The results are impressive. What might happen if we approach healing the environment from the inside out?

Blue Mind, Ocean Heart - Illuminating the magical underwater world, Jacques Cousteaus 1960s films and TV show caused a sea change by moving the hearts and minds of tens of millions. Marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols, ocean advocates Philippe and Alexandra Cousteau, and the Truckee High School Envirolution Club are among the rising tides of passionate innovators making remarkable advances to understand and restore the waters of the world. Their inspiring stories give good reason for hope, including the scientific fact that we have a blue mind born in and of the ocean to guide us.

Both or Neither - The emerging green economy promises to provide large-scale job creation while healing the Earth and building the middle class. Roxanne Brown, Assistant Legislative Director for the United Steelworkers and Steering Committee member of the BlueGreen Alliance, describes how this national partnership of major labor unions and environmental organizations is expanding the number and quality of jobs in the green economy. BlueGreen Alliance Director of Chemicals, Public Health and Green Chemistry Charlotte Brody portrays the real-time societal transformation underway when workers and environmentalists find common ground and also honestly acknowledge their differences.

Linking Gender, Social Movements and Democracy - World-renowned feminist, writer and change-maker Gloria Steinem connects the dots among disparate social movements to reveal the common patterns of oppression that underlie them all. From gender and race to democracy and universal spirituality, she applies her razor intellect, compassionate heart and nuanced eye to weave a unifying vision of a richly human and humane world where all people are valued for their uniqueness and full humanity - neither treated as property, nor defined by labels or stereotypes.

The Indigeneity Essentials - Were all indigenous to planet Earth, but weve not been acting that way. Cultural ecologist, indigenous scholar and activist Dr. Melissa K. Nelson reminds native and non-native peoples alike that we all need to re-indigenize ourselves by learning and practicing natures operating instructions and the Original Instructions for how to be a human being. At this unprecedented moment of globalized environmental breakdown, its going to take the best of Western science and the indigenous science of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) to navigate this evolutionary keyhole.

Environmental Security is Homeland Security - The concept of national security is moving beyond bullets, bombs, soldiers and warcraft to encompass the countrys internal resilience, health and environmental sustainability. Whats needed, say two leading environmental visionaries, is the equivalent of a wartime mobilization to create a sustainable planet including a far more decentralized infrastructure. Global energy strategist Amory Lovins and Oberlin College Professor David Orr advocate sustainability as the strategic imperative and foundation for a new national security narrative. The military is starting to agree.

Farming Fields of Dreams - Our food and farming systems may top the list of the most destructive abuses of land in history. What needs to change? What models are there to guide us? Visionary organic farmer, food system entrepreneur and award-winning writer/photographer Michael Ableman reflects on what it will take to restore healthy thriving lands and a functional and equitable food system with access for all. How will we feed the worlds growing population and provide access to healthy food? As locavores know, the answers hit close to home.

Fireflies, Dumpsters, Soft Power and the Design Science Revolution - The visionary designer and architect R. Buckminster Fullers remarkable legacy inspires new generations to create the Design Science Revolution he first called for in the 1960s. Elizabeth Thompson, executive director of the Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI), brings to life Buckys vision, along with contemporary BFI Challenge Award recipients. Sheila Kennedy, Professor of Architecture at MIT, and John Edel, Director of the Chicago Sustainable Manufacturing Center, whose imaginative design innovations address humanitys most pressing problems.

Reinventing Fire for the Clean Energy Era - The internationally acclaimed energy and design strategist Amory Lovins shows how by 2050 we can run our energy system with no oil, coal or nuclear power. He says we can achieve that vision with clean energy and energy conservation, led by business, without an act of Congress or any new inventions. By making this transition, we can save more than $5 trillion and double the size of the US economy.

Landscapes of Hope - Just like our bodies, nature has a profound capacity for healing and self-repair. Filmmaker-turned-ecological-restorer John Liu shifted from documenting Chinas massive environmental and societal upheavals to filming a groundbreaking, large-scale ecosystem restoration cum local economic renewal. Prioritizing natures ecological functions above producing goods and services, the groundbreaking work is spreading to other nations, with Liu as a global ambassador of dramatic ecosystem restoration wonders.

Growing Growers and Seeding Leaders for a Real Food Future What happens when green turns to grey? Fewer than 5 percent of 2 million American farmers are under 45 years old. Bucking that trend is the next generation of unstoppable young farmers Severine von Tscharner Fleming, Tyler Webb, and Sarita Role Schaffer, along with renowned urban food innovator Nikki Henderson and real food advocate Amin Steele. With dirt under their nails and laptops at their fingertips, theyre reinventing a radical patriotism founded in a return to local agriculture and community. It runs on clean energy and knows how to move markets. It seeks greater self-sufficiency, self-determination and food justice, and the checkout line is the pulpit.

Ethan Nadelmann, founder/director of the Drug Policy Alliance, the nation’s leading drug policy reform organization, traces the hidden history of drugs laws, which are intimately connected with racism and the political exploitation of people’s fears. He offers a set of practical and effective policy reforms that are now being advocated by a rising tide of former drug warriors.

History is a tale told by the winners. How then can we reclaim the voices of those who have been historically written out - silenced through the ages? Perhaps as women write herstory into history, well see clearly the eternal power, brilliance and unique value of womens contributions. Join media innovator Jensine Larsen and feminist historian Sally Roesch Wagner as they share the emerging landscape of an inclusive, sustainable and just society at whose heart is the leadership of women.

Somewhere in a typical American city, a woman wakes up to the noxious odors of a nearby sewage treatment plant. Her daughter carries a rescue inhaler to school. Like hundreds of her neighbors, this woman is sick and tired of being sick and tired. Women and men from vulnerable communities everywhere are rising up to gain equal access to clean water and air, equal environmental enforcement and protection, and equitable land use and planning. Impassioned community organizers Mary Gonzales and Peggy Shepard show us all how successful environmental justice campaigns across the U.S. are raising the voices of people of color and low-income communities and creating a better world for everyone.

When a culture is disintegrating and the stories everybody believed in no longer fit, its time to rekindle our connection to ancient wisdom and universal truths. Mythologist, author and storyteller Michael Meade, founder of the Mosaic Multicultural Foundation, reminds us that the word apocalypse - which has come to mean the end of the world, actually means an unveiling. Once we penetrate that veil, its not the end - but the beginning of a new story the a new beginning to the old story.

Our misbegotten industrial food system is one of our greatest vulnerabilities. Its dangerously fossil-fueled, toxic, monocultural and centralized. The real cost of cheap food is very high to both people and planet. Urban food innovators are designing vibrant new local food economies built on environmental and ecological integrity, sustainability, diversity and equity. Join author Michael Pollan, Fair Food Foundation CEO Oran Hesterman, faith-based change-maker James Ella James and student leader Victoria Carter for a smorgasbord of nourishing morsels from the emerging locavore movement.

Half of Americans cannot name one component of the water cycle upon which all life depends. Yet water is at the root of every human endeavor - from manufacturing to agriculture, energy production and waste management. No water, no life. Join master permaculture designers Darren J. Doherty and Brock Dolman for both practical and poetic ways to re-educate earthlings in soil and water literacy. Their practical vision for regenerating ecological integrity and social resiliency prepares us for the challenges of climate change and environmental stress. But above all, they illuminate inspired pathways for restoring nature and people in the re-enchantment of Earth.

We live in a society dependent on toxic chemicals. Today about 287 such chemicals trespass inside the blood of newborns and inside all of us - without our consent. Despite the odds, ecologist, author and mother Sandra Steingraber is an optimist. Shes betting that the burgeoning global environmental human rights movement will free us from our deadly dependency. She believes our grandchildren will look back on us and marvel that our economy was once dependent on toxic chemicals - and they will think of it as unthinkable.

Climate change. Energy crisis. Economic collapse. We live in a time of unprecedented global crisisand opportunity. Theres a monumental amount of work to be done to make the transition to a restored world, yet young people are unemployed at astonishingly high rates. How can we unlock the green economic opportunities that will open the door to doing well by doing good for generation green and generations to come?Join Apollo Alliance president Jerome Ringo and clean energy leader Billy Parish for a hopeful glimpse into the organizations and programs that will give our children the opportunity to make a living and make a better world.

A living building is like a flower, planted and rooted to its place. It collects its energy from the sun. It harvests its water from the rain. This building does not pollute. It engages actively with the environmental around it. And its beautiful and inspiring. This is natures blueprint for building a better world, says visionary architect Jason McLennan. He designed the Living Building Challenge 2.0 to raise the bar on green building: meet or exceed what nature provides. While the standards seem impossibly high, it may be simpler than we imagined.

How do we transform a vicious circle into a virtuous circle? How do we move from environmental degradation and the deterioration of human relations to restoration? From war to peace - from hatred to compassion - from isolation to community? How can one person make a crucial difference? Painter and professor Lily Yehs approach to community healing takes that which is broken and creates something whole and wholly new and beautiful through public art. From Philadelphia to Rwanda, broken places are her canvases. Peoples stories are the pigments. Peoples talents and creativity are the tools. At the heart of her work is the transformation of human heart.

Forty years ago when a logging road was blasted deep into the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, the outside world discovered the Surui people. Contact with the Western world led to their decimation by disease, warfare and illegal logging and mining. The Surui organized to save themselves and their homeland by electing a young leader to tell their story to the world. Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui traveled from the Amazon rainforest to the Google-plex to ask for help to bring his people back from the brink of extinction and save their precious rainforest. The collaboration with Google Earth Outreach manager Rebecca Moore has helped map a next world that marries the best of tradition and conservation with the best of high technology. Translation by Vasco van Roosmalen.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have long been held as the inalienable rights of the American people. Then why is it that corporate personhood consistently overrides the legal rights of citizens? And what about the rights of nature?Do rivers, mountains, whales or ecosystems - have inalienable rights that guarantee their interests? Join innovative environmental attorneys Thomas Linzey and Mari Margil for breakthroughs on the ground that are redefining democracy. In the 21st century, is it time to move from a Declaration of Independence to a Declaration of Interdependence?