John D. Liu and Paul Beckwith give an update from The #Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, as #COP15 closes in on the final agreement. Raya Salter and Dale Walkonen join them for a look at the

John D. Liu and Paul Beckwith give an update from The #Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, as #COP15 closes in on the final agreement. Raya Salter and Dale Walkonen join them for a look at the #30by30 proposal, which aims to set aside 30% of the world's lands and oceans for Nature by 2030. But what does that mean? Which lands, who will be in charge, will indigenous people determine the actions that are taken, will funds be made available to them? These are among the questions that now hang in the balance.

We can only address the Climate Crisis if we restore the natural systems that make life possible on our planet. The agreement is being hammered out now and should be ready by the end of the day on Friday December 19th.

For more information on the state of our planet, visit the FacingFuture Library at https://facingfuture.earth/library

The Center for Biological Diversity is a leading organization of lawyers, scientists, and activists fighting for endangered species and habitat protections across the planet.
Link to learn

The Center for Biological Diversity is a leading organization of lawyers, scientists, and activists fighting for endangered species and habitat protections across the planet.
Link to learn more: https://www.biologicaldiversity.org
All footage ©2025

Women for Climate Justice Leading Solutions on the Frontlines of Climate Change - COP27 Side Event

At this official UN Side Event, grassroots, frontline and Indigenous women leaders,

Women for Climate Justice Leading Solutions on the Frontlines of Climate Change - COP27 Side Event

At this official UN Side Event, grassroots, frontline and Indigenous women leaders, alongside representatives from international climate justice organizations, spoke out to address root causes of interlocking crises and the need for solutions based in a climate justice framework, including forest and biodiversity protection, Indigenous rights, agro-ecology, fossil fuel resistance, protection of women land defenders, and community-led solutions.

Speakers included:
--- Neema Namadamu, Democratic Republic of Congo Coordinator, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), Democratic Republic of Congo
-- Sônia Bone Guajajara (Guajajara), Indigenous Leader from Brazil, Federal Deputy of the National Congress of Brazil, Brazil
--- Casey Camp Horinek (Ponca Nation), Ponca Nation Environmental Ambassador and WECAN Board Member, USA
--- Anne Songole, Climate Justice Coordinator, The African Women’s Development and Communications Network (FEMNET), Kenya
--- Jessica Grefa, Indigenous youth leader from Santa Clara
--- Eriel Tchekwie Deranger (Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation), Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action, Canada
--- Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director of Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN)

The Center for Biological Diversity is a leading organization of lawyers, scientists, and activists fighting for endangered species and habitat protections across the planet.
Link to learn

The Center for Biological Diversity is a leading organization of lawyers, scientists, and activists fighting for endangered species and habitat protections across the planet.
Link to learn more: https://www.biologicaldiversity.org

Forests have long occupied a fertile landscape in the human imagination. Places of mystery and magic – of wildness and wisdom – of vision and dreaming. Yet beyond mythic realms of

Forests have long occupied a fertile landscape in the human imagination. Places of mystery and magic – of wildness and wisdom – of vision and dreaming. Yet beyond mythic realms of imagination, we’ve largely treated forests as inert physical resources to satisfy human needs and desires. The main operative science behind this commodification has been market science – how to extract maximum resources and profits.


Suzanne Simard is a revolutionary researcher who is transforming the science of forest ecology and coming full circle to the wisdom held by First Peoples and traditional land-based cultures from time immemorial. The story Simard is uncovering can change our story for how we live on Earth and with each other, for the long haul.
Featuring


Suzanne Simard, Professor of Forestry at the University of British Columbia, is an expert in the synergies and complexities of forests, as well as the development of sustainable forest stewardship practices. Her groundbreaking research focuses on the relationships between plants, microbes, soils, carbon, nutrients, and water that underpin the adaptability of ecosystems, particularly the below-ground fungal networks that connect trees and facilitate interplant communication. Learn more about Suzanne Simard and her work at her website. (https://suzannesimard.com/)
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Dispatches From the Mother Trees (https://bioneers.org/suzanne-simard-dispatches-from-mother-trees-zstf2112/) , Suzanne Simard’s keynote address to the 2021 Bioneers Conference, in which she discusses the dire global consequences of logging old-growth rainforests, and nature-based solutions that combine Western science and Indigenous knowledge for preserving and caring for these invaluable forest ecosystems for future generations.


Lessons from the Underground (https://bioneers.org/lessons-from-the-underground-panel-zstf2112/) , a panel discussion from the 2021 Bioneers Conference featuring Suzanne Simard as well as Anne Biklé and David R. Montgomery, a wife and husband team of scientific researchers whose groundbreaking work on the microbial life of soil has revealed its crucial importance to human wellbeing and survival. Moderated by Bioneers’ Restorative Food Systems Director Arty Mangan. 


Intelligence in Nature (https://bioneers.org/intelligence-in-nature-media-collection/) , a deep-dive resource featuring leading experts in this burgeoning field.


What We Owe Our Trees (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/05/29/what-we-owe-our-trees) , an article by Jill Lepore in the New Yorker.






This is an episode of the Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature series. Visit the radio and podcast homepage (https://bioneers.org/bioneers-radio/)  to learn more.

Calling someone an “animal” means they’re less than human – not worthy of respect, rights, or even of life itself. But in truth -- and in biological fact -- human beings

Calling someone an “animal” means they’re less than human – not worthy of respect, rights, or even of life itself. But in truth -- and in biological fact -- human beings ARE animals. Scientists continue to find that intelligence and what we call “consciousness” appear to saturate all of nature. Clearly it’s high time to think differently about just what it means to be an animal. Can we know what it’s like to be other-than-human? How can we see into the minds of animals? Visionary naturalist, author and conservationist Carl Safina says that the first step is paying attention and observing. And, he suggests, if we had humility, we’d have everything.

By now, we have all heard the statistic that Indigenous Peoples protect 80% of the world's biodiversity, despite being 5% of the world's population. This simple fact alone should position

By now, we have all heard the statistic that Indigenous Peoples protect 80% of the world's biodiversity, despite being 5% of the world's population. This simple fact alone should position Indigenous, Native, and Tribal Peoples as not only leaders but experts on resource management and climate mitigation and adaptation. Yet, in many spaces, political and institutional, Indigenous knowledge and expertise are seen as supplemental, and at worse, romantic.

So how can we move beyond just acknowledging Indigenous Peoples to working to ensure that their rights are centered and strengthened in climate action at the local, national and global levels? Jade Begay, one of North America’s most effective Indigenous Rights activists will share her insights on how far Indigenous leadership has come and what we can do to strengthen and embolden this leadership that is so needed if we are all to survive on planet Earth

This keynote talk was part of the Bioneers 2023 Conference.

Learn more at http://www.bioneers.org

Register now for the 2023 Conference! https://conference.bioneers.org/

Join us for three days of riveting talks and movement building with hundreds of visionary leaders, artists and

Register now for the 2023 Conference! https://conference.bioneers.org/

Join us for three days of riveting talks and movement building with hundreds of visionary leaders, artists and solutionaries! Tickets are going fast, get yours now!
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As Bioneers rolls into our 34th annual gathering, the big wheels of massive change are turning.

Climate disruption bears down daily, and there’s a widely felt morning-after awakening that it’s going to crash the economy and bring civilization to its knees. Although the regime shift to renewables is now an accelerating inevitability, it’s going to take relentless political action. To beat the clock, we also need to override the doom loop of delay and propaganda the desperate fossil fuel industry will keep pushing.

Meanwhile, the unprecedented movements of the past decade for liberation, justice and multicultural democracy are swelling to challenge the right-wing populist and neo-fascist forces underwritten by cynical plutocratic elites. “Make feudalism great again” is proving to be a marketing challenge. Something’s gotta give.

At the core is a crisis of democracy: a radical disconnect between the world people want and the world corporations and their client governments have hijacked. The climate crisis and the inequality crisis are the same crisis. Our separation from nature and our separation from each other are the same dis-integration. The choice is clear: nihilism or regeneration. Shattering or wholeness.

For over three decades, the Bioneers Conference has served as a trellis on which this visionary movement of movements has grown and grown together around authentic “solve-the-whole problem” solutions.

Especially in these darkest of times, we come together to regenerate and celebrate. We invite you to join forces with the Bioneers community of leadership in this time when we’re all called upon to be leaders.

Learn more at https://conference.bioneers.org/