Future of Sustainability 2020: Has the disruption from COVID-19 accelerated the transition to a sustainable future, or made it more challenging?

This Forum for the Future

Future of Sustainability 2020: Has the disruption from COVID-19 accelerated the transition to a sustainable future, or made it more challenging?

This Forum for the Future webinar took place on 22 July 2020. We are in the midst of a historic moment that will shape society for decades to come. The COVID-19 crisis is having a devastating impact – both in terms of lives lost and economic disruption. The region’s informal, cash-based economies are particularly vulnerable. At Forum for the Future we believe this may also be a moment to re-imagine how we rebuild our economies.

We are therefore calling for business, governments, civil society and communities to seize this moment in helping to deliver a more just, sustainable and resilient world. Drawing on research and insights we gather annually to understand what is next for the fields of sustainability, impact investing and philanthropy, we will share a suite of futures trajectories we have been developing which help us understand possible ways forward as change-makers. We believe only one of these trajectories, which we are calling 'Transform', has the potential to create the just, resilient and sustainable systems we need. It is based on a mindset that recognizes the interdependent nature of the challenges we face today. The session included reflections from inspiring change-makers who are already driving towards this 'Transform' trajectory – aiming to shift our political, economic and social systems so that they work together in service of human and planetary health, justice and economic resilience. If there is ever a time to drive this transformative change, it is now.

In this age of global weirding where climate disruption has tumbled the Goldilocks effect into unruly surges of too much and too little water, the restoration of beavers offers ancient

In this age of global weirding where climate disruption has tumbled the Goldilocks effect into unruly surges of too much and too little water, the restoration of beavers offers ancient nature-based solutions to the tangle of challenges bedeviling human civilization. Droughts, floods, soil erosion, climate change, biodiversity loss – you name it, and beaver is on it.


In this episode, Kate Lundquist and Brock Dolman of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center share their semi-aquatic journey to becoming Beaver Believers. They are part of a passionate global movement to bring back our rodent relatives who show us how to heal nature by working with nature.


This is an episode of Nature’s Genius, a Bioneers podcast series exploring how the sentient symphony of life holds the solutions we need to balance human civilization with living systems. Visit the series page to learn more. (https://bioneers.org/natures-genius/)
Featuring


Kate Lundquist, co-director of the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center’s WATER Institute and the Bring Back the Beaver Campaign in Sonoma County, is a conservationist, educator and ecological artist who works with landowners, communities and resource agencies to uncover obstacles, identify strategic solutions, and generate restoration recommendations to assure healthy watersheds, water security, listed species recovery and climate change resiliency.


Brock Dolman, co-founded (in 1994) the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center where he co-directs the WATER Institute. A wildlife biologist and watershed ecologist, he has been actively promoting “Bringing Back Beaver in California” since the early 2000s. He was given the Salmonid Restoration Federation’s coveted Golden Pipe Award in 2012: “…for his leading role as a proponent of “working with beavers” to restore native habitat.




Resources


Beaver Believer: How Massive Rodents Could Restore Landscapes and Ecosystems At Scale (https://bioneers.org/beaver-believer-how-massive-rodents-could-restore-landscapes-and-ecosystems-at-scale-zmbz2110/)


Fire and Water: Land and Watershed Management in the Age of Climate Change (https://bioneers.org/fire-and-water-watershed-management-zmbz2008/)


Brock Dolman – Basins of Relations: A Reverential Rehydration Revolution (https://bioneers.org/brock-dolman-basins-of-relations-a-reverential-rehydration-revolution-bioneers/)


From Kingdom to Kin-dom: Acting As If We Have Relatives Brock Dolman, Paul Stamets and Brian Thomas Swimme (https://bioneers.org/from-kingdom-to-kin-dom-acting-as-if-we-have-relatives-brock-dolman-paul-stamets/)


The WATER Institute’s Beaver in California reader (https://oaec.org/publications/beaver-in-california/)


Bioneers – Where Water, Flows Life Thrives - Ensuring Drought Resilience and Water Security for Farms, People and Ecosystems (https://bioneers.org/water-security-access-clean-water/)




Credits



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Executive Producer: Kenny Ausubel


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Written by: Kenny Ausubel


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Senior Producer and Station Relations: Stephanie Welch


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Program Engineer and Music Supervisor: Emily Harris


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Producer: Teo Grossman


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Host and Consulting Producer: Neil Harvey


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Production Assistance: Monica Lopez


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Graphic Designer: Megan Howe

Nature’s Genius is a Bioneers podcast series exploring how the sentient symphony of life holds the solutions we need to balance human civilization with living systems. For all the talk about

Nature’s Genius is a Bioneers podcast series exploring how the sentient symphony of life holds the solutions we need to balance human civilization with living systems. For all the talk about the Age of Information, what we’re really entering is the Age of Nature. As we face the reality that, as humans, we have the capacity to destroy the conditions conducive to life, avoiding this fate requires a radical change in our relationship to nature, and how we view it. Looking to nature to heal nature, and ourselves, is essential. 


Traditional Indigenous wisdom and modern science show us that everything is connected and that the solutions we need are present in the sentient symphony of life. We can learn from the time-tested principles, processes, and dynamics that have allowed living systems to flourish during 3.8 billion years of evolution. 


In this enlightening series, we visit with scientists, ecologists, Indigenous practitioners of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, community organizers, and authors reporting from the frontlines of ecological restoration. They explore the intelligence inherent in nature and show us how to model human organization on living systems.


Guests featured in the series include: Jeannette Armstrong - Co-Founder, Enwokin Centre; Brock Dolman - Co-Founder and Program Director, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center; Erica Gies - Author and Journalist; Brett KenCairn - Founding Director of Center for Regenerative Solutions (https://naturebasedclimate.solutions/) ; Toby Kiers - Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Co-Founder of SPUN (https://www.spun.earth/) ; Kate Lundquist - Water Institute Co-Director, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center; Samira Malone - Urban Forestry Program Manager, Urban Sustainability Directors Network; Teresa Ryan - Teaching and Learning Fellow, Forest and Conservation Sciences Dept., Univ. of British Columbia; Merlin Sheldrake - Biologist and Author; Suzanne Simard - Author and Prof. of Forest Ecology, Univ. of British Columbia; Rowen White - Seedkeeper/Farmer and Author from the Mohawk community of Akwesasne


Executive Producer: Kenny Ausubel


Written by Cathy Edwards and Kenny Ausubel


Produced by Cathy Edwards


Senior Producer: Stephanie Welch


Program Engineer and Music Supervisor: Emily Harris


Producer: Teo Grossman


Host and Consulting Producer: Neil Harvey


Post Production Assistants: Monica Lopez and Kaleb Wentzel-Fisher


Graphic Designer: Megan Howe

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant shares her personal odyssey as a wildlife ecologist, conservation biologist and co-host of the famed TV nature show “Wild Kingdom.” As a scientist dedicated to

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant shares her personal odyssey as a wildlife ecologist, conservation biologist and co-host of the famed TV nature show “Wild Kingdom.” As a scientist dedicated to protecting and conserving the diversity of the web of life, she reminds us that, as human beings, we are part of nature. It’s all connected, and it’s high time to bring about peaceful coexistence, not only with nature, but with one another.


Rae Wynn-Grant, Ph.D., is a wildlife ecologist and conservation biologist, creator of the award-winning podcast “Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant,” co-host of Mutual of Omaha’s “Wild Kingdom,” and author of “Wild Life: Finding My Purpose in an Untamed World (https://zandoprojects.com/books/wildlife/) .”
Resources


Rae Wynn-Grant – Wild Life: How Personal Journeys are Essential to Sustainable Leadership in Environmental Science (https://bioneers.org/rae-wynn-grant-wild-life-personal-journeys-essential-sustainable-leadership-environmental-science-zstf2404/)  | Bioneers 2024 Keynote


Rae Wynn-Grant – Becoming a Wildlife Ecologist in a Rugged World (https://bioneers.org/test-rwg-excerpt-ze0z2404/)  | Excerpt from “Wild Life: Finding My Purpose in an Untamed World”
Credits



•
Executive Producer: Kenny Ausubel


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Written by: Leo Hornak and Kenny Ausubel


•
Senior Producer and Station Relations: Stephanie Welch


•
Program Engineer and Music Supervisor: Emily Harris


•
Producer: Teo Grossman


•
Host and Consulting Producer: Neil Harvey


•
Production Assistance: Leo Hornak and Monica Lopez







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.Saving Nature Means Saving Ourselves | Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant

As global leaders gathered for the UN Climate Ambition Summit on Wednesday, September 20, WECAN hosted an event, right across the street from the UN, bringing together women leaders to call on

As global leaders gathered for the UN Climate Ambition Summit on Wednesday, September 20, WECAN hosted an event, right across the street from the UN, bringing together women leaders to call on governments to reckon with their role in fueling climate chaos, and harm against communities and the planet by continuing the extraction of fossil fuels. Governments must invest in and deploy a Just Transition that is grounded in a climate justice framework and uplifts care economies, community-led solutions, Indigenous rights, and a different vision than business as usual. During the event, we hosted two panels detailed below.

In the first panel, “Women Ending the Era of Fossil Fuels," speakers shared expertise and frameworks for transitioning away from extraction and ongoing policy advocacy and campaigns that seek to phase out fossil fuels and other harmful extractive practices.

Speakers included: Sharon Lavigne, Founder and President of RISE St. James, Turtle Island/USA; Farhana Yamin, Coordinator, Climate Justice & Just Transition Donor Collaborative, United Kingdom; Eriel Tchekwie Deranger (Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation), Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action, Canada; Tzeporah Berman, Chair, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, Canada; moderation and comments by Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director, WECAN.

In the second panel, "Women-led Climate Solutions Are Central to a Just Transition and Thriving Future," leaders shared how to implement and support solutions that are advancing a Just Transition, and recent successes and victories for community-led climate just solutions!

Speakers included: Casey Camp Horinek (Ponca Nation), Ponca Nation Environmental Ambassador and WECAN Board Member, Turtle Island, USA; Helena Gualinga (Kichwa from Sarayaku), Indigenous Youth Climate Leader, Ecuador; Ozawa Bineshi Albert (Yuchi and Anishinaabe), Climate Justice Alliance Co-Executive Director, Turtle Island/USA; Elizabeth C. Yeampierre, Executive Director, UPROSE, Turtle Island/USA; Zukiswa White, Coordinator, Women and Gender Constituency, South Africa; moderation and comments by Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director, WECAN.

The American economy will face significant and widespread disruptions from climate change. Our health, safety and prosperity are threatened unless policymakers and businesses take immediate action

The American economy will face significant and widespread disruptions from climate change. Our health, safety and prosperity are threatened unless policymakers and businesses take immediate action to respond to and reduce climate risk. This panel will highlight innovative public-private solutions and discuss how businesses, governments and communities can work together to become more resilient.

Panelists
- Joel Beauvais, Associate Administrator for the Office of Policy, U.S. EPA
- Pam O’Connor, Councilmember, City of Santa Monica, CA
- Harriet Tregoning, Director of the Office of Economic Resilience, U.S. Office of Housing and Urban Development
- Kate Dineen, Director, NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program, New York Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery