Bioneers, the Beaming Bioneers, they sometimes say, are a powerful creative force in the hearts and minds of people working for a healthy planet all over the world – and for the last 20 years! Here NEXT WEEKEND – Oct. 15-17th in the beautiful dreamscape known as Marin Civic Center, certainly one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s finest dreams. Helps good things come alive.
Founder Kenny Ausubel coined the term Bioneers in 1990 to describe an emerging culture. “Bioneers are social and scientific innovators from all walks of life and disciplines who have peered deep into the heart of living systems to understand how nature operates, and to mimic “nature’s operating instructions” to serve human ends without harming the web of life. Nature’s principles—kinship, cooperation, diversity, symbiosis and cycles of continuous creation absent of waste—can also serve as metaphoric guideposts for organizing an equitable, compassionate and democratic society.” Whew! No small goals here – just huge, possible constructs we can accomplish with hard labor together. And so many people you will meet have done amazing and useful things with their lives. So glad I can join in.
This year, I’ll spend several hours Friday in the presence of Jim Hansen, the NASA scientist researching the atmosphere of Venus when he came to understand how very threatened we all are by climate crisis BROUGHT ON BY US, WE, OURSELVES. Never in the history of this world has air pollution been so bad – and when you make such a mess of things, there is a heavy price to pay. His current book, Storms of My Grandchildren, the Last Chance to Save the World, tells a great scary, thoroughly documented story we all need to absorb. See Hansen on David Letterman discussed this alarming info. in a calm sort of way: This can’t keep happening! I will look for ways to work with Hansen and I’m sure I’ll find them!
I’ll add Jane Goodall and her planetary gathering of youth, Roots and Shoots, to my personal Bioneers mix, going way beyond her original fame as the translator of chimpanzee culture and language,
Goodall’s Roots and Shoots now gathers in over 150,000 students from 101 countries to protect and preserve some of the species we are in such a rush to kill off (Jim Hansen echoes her plight knowing we are in line to kill of maybe a quarter to half the lifeforms on this planet if we continue with the levels of pollution happening right now – and the huge increases projected as the developing world follows our lead!) I know of no one personally who actually carries this weight around around – it is just too shocking.
But back to joy: There’s a lot to love at Bioneers. The food, the people you will make friends with – above all its a place to check yourself. Is your own life a tool in some way you might want children to know of? Do you need more companions to complete the work you have discovered for yourself? Answers abound here.
Your work is to discover your world and then
with all your heart, give yourself to it. – the Buddha
Sometimes I met my mentor, Henry Dakin, at Bioneers, sharing lunch, thoughts and feelings about what message, what work has the greatest appeal and urgency. Twice he said author/activist, Bill McKibben, was outstanding for his focus on reversing greenhouse gas buildup. Yesterday was 101010, and a Global Work Party organized through Bill McKibben’s 350.org – 188 countries participating, millions of youth globally digging into the work of reversing the foolish wastes we have dumped in the wrong place. Check the photos and sign up if this appeals to you at People with the power to make us believe in ourselves to together we can get things done.
New leaders are emerging and trusted stewards of the planet come again and again. I hope you will go to , check out what sessions have special meaning for you – or choose to absorb the entire weekend, the whole loving challenge of it.