Bioneers: Democracy, Human Rights and the Rights of Nature

The world is running out of fresh water, and there is no environmental crisis as great as the commodification of the world’s water supply by giant corporations. Maude Barlow, national chairperson of The Council of Canadians, and author of Blue Gold, will describe the movement to guarantee a water-secure future based on conservation, equity and the public good. Introduction by Kenny Ausubel, Bioneers CEO and Co-Founder. This speech was given at the 2003 Bioneers National Conference. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

It is the chief moral obligation of our time to build a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. The activist and founder of four non-profits, including the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Van Jones, urges us to carry our spiritual, cultural and economic movements into the electoral arena to transform politics and forge a green "New Deal" coalition so that kids who are now prison fodder will help create a zero-pollution economy, harvest the sun and heal the land instead. Introduction by Jodie Evans, co-founder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace. This speech was given at the 2007 Bioneers National Conference. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

john a. powell (spelled with lowercase), head of the UC Berkeley Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, explains what Martin Luther King Jr.'s concept of Beloved Community really means. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To learn more about topics like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

Van Jones, a highly influential, award-winning activist and author, currently a CNN political contributor, founded and led four social and environmental justice NGOs (The Ella Baker Center, promoting criminal justice reform; Color of Change, focused on racial fairness; Green for All, which promotes "green" job creation; and Rebuild The Dream/Dream Corps Unlimited). He is a major figure in challenging the criminal justice system and its over-incarceration of urban youth. His keen intelligence and dynamic but deeply centered initiatives have won him widespread local, national and international recognition and honors. Introduction by Nina Simons, Bioneers President and Co-Founder. This speech was given at the 2003 Bioneers National Conference. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

The world's leading proponent of sane drug policies asks us to imagine a world in which criminal laws and institutions play little role in drug control policy. What do we risk? What do we gain? What do we fear? And what can we do? This talk was presented at the 2012 Bioneers Annual Conference. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

How might we see the environment, social justice and our spirituality differently if we understood a bit better how our minds work and how connected we all are? john a. powell, an internationally recognized authority in civil rights and liberties, structural racialization, ethnicity, housing, poverty and democracy, was recently the Executive Director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State. He founded the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota; was National Legal Director of the ACLU; co-founded the Poverty & Race Research Action Council; and has taught at numerous law schools including Harvard, Columbia and Berkeley. Introduction by Paloma Pavel, Co-Founder of Breakthrough Communities. This speech was given at the 2001 Bioneers National Conference. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

Often the same adversaries oppose women’s, anti-racist, environmental, peace, human rights, indigenous, sexual liberation, consumer, children’s rights and other such movements. Yet these movements often remain separate and don’t see their organic linkage. Gloria Steinem, the iconic leader who continues to inhabit the leading edges of progressive social change, traces the historical, political and practical reasons movements are linked — not ranked — and why our success depends on it. Introduction by Nina Simons, Bioneers President and Co-Founder. This speech was given at the 2011 Bioneers National Conference. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers Everywoman's Leadership program, please visit http://www.bioneers.org/programs/every-womans-leadership/ and stay in touch via Facebook (bit.ly/everywomansFB) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/Bioneerswomen).

"Conservatives" and corporate interests use the powerful tools of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) to define arguments, win elections and persuade the public. To be effective in the public arena, progressives and bioneers must first understand these tools. Thom Hartmann learned NLP 27 years ago as a psychotherapist and advertising agency CEO. He is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host, and award-winning author of 14 books including Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights. This speech was given at the 2005 Bioneers National Conference. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

The beloved actor and progressive elder shares the long view of how change happens, and how we’re called upon today as never before to reclaim our rights and responsibilities as citizens. From South Africa to Detroit and Birmingham, he scans the arc of justice and the convergence of the movements to restore nature, human dignity and a life lived artistically. This speech was given at the 2013 Bioneers National Conference. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

The award-winning Canadian journalist, international activist and best-selling author (The Shock Doctrine, No Logo) depicts climate change as more than an “issue.” It’s a civilizational wake-up call delivered in the language of fires, floods, storms and droughts. It demands that we challenge the dominant economic policies of deregulated capitalism and endless resource extraction. Climate change is also the most powerful weapon in the fight for equality and social justice, and real solutions are emerging from the rubble of our failing systems. This speech was given at the 2014 Bioneers Annual Conference. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

"Environmentalists are tree huggers and people concerned with the extinction of birds. We are not trees or birds." Mary Gonzales, a Mexican-American Chicago native, says this statement might be heard from people of color, poor or working class people, young people or immigrants, yet their immediate life experience and issues they're confronting have everything to do with the environment: transportation, housing, jobs, and education, to name a few. How do we connect? Mary is a legendary community organizer and California Director for Gamaliel Foundation, an international institute building faith-based organizing (and which trained Barack Obama as a community organizer). This speech was given at the 2010 Bioneers National Conference. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

Attorney Mari Margil chronicles the game-changing work to recognize the Rights of Nature in law. Whereas now nature is considered property subject to private property law, the Rights of Nature legal framework enshrines the right of nature "to exist, persist and thrive." Margil invokes the Dr. Seuss classic, The Lorax, who asks, "Who will speak for the trees?" This talk was presented at the 2009 Bioneers Annual Conference. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

Clayton Thomas-Muller, a leading organizer for Idle No More and Defenders of the Land, and a Co-Director of Polaris Institute’s Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign, portrays Canada’s rising Native-led rights-based movement, supported by labor, civil society, students and grassroots groups. It’s challenging the neo-liberal free market agenda that has turned Canada into a petro-state. It may be our last best effort to save our lands and the health of our people from the extractive industries and the banks that finance them. This speech was given at the 2014 Bioneers National Conference. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

In this gripping presentation, author and social entrepreneur Paul Hawken illuminates the premise of his subsequent bestselling book Blessed Unrest that the biggest movement in world history is developing under the radar screen largely through civil society. Reviewing the rich roots of today’s U.S. environmental movement, he observes that this new global movement is far more diverse. It is non-violent, grassroots, and has no central ideology. Its origins are in indigenous culture and the environmental and social justice movements. “Intertwining, morphing, enlarging, this movement does not seek power, but seeks to dismantle power.” Hawken closes to a standing ovation, acknowledging with deep emotion the many people who compose this movement. This speech was given at the 2004 Bioneers National Conference. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

Iroquois elder and global indigenous leader Oren Lyons describes the authentic origins of the U.S. Constitution in the ancient Iroquois “Great League of Peace.” He weaves the story of the Peacemaker and how leaders are raised and chosen, with decisions based on seven generations and women choosing chiefs. He warns climate disruption should motivate us to “raise up our leaders.” This speech was given at the 2003 Bioneers National Conference and is featured on the Indigenous Essentials, Vol. 1 and Democracy, Human Rights and the Rights of Nature, Vol. 1 Collections. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. Learn more about the Bioneers Indigenous Knowledge Program at http://www.bioneers.org/pages/indigen... and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

Democracy is eroding because the damage caused by the corporate elite is legal, but that may be changing because of Tom Linzey and his allies. He has shown true genius at devising creative strategies to achieve democratic control over corporations. He has worked with local communities to demand and assert their rights over corporate rights. This speech was given at the 2004 Bioneers Annual Conference and is part of the Food and Farming, Vol. 1 and Democracy, Human Rights and the Rights of Nature, Vol. 1 Collections. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

“All governments lie,” I.F. Stone instructed us. To counter the lies that take lives, we need an independent media. Investigative journalist and co-host of radio’s Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman compellingly calls out the liars and their media cheerleaders with inspiring stories of people who have resisted war and social and environmental injustice to create a better world. This speech was given at the 2006 Bioneers National Conference. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

Political icon Tom Hayden delivers a rousing call to action based on a profound historical overview of the arc of justice and social movements. Among the most important progressive political figures of our era, he co-authored the historic SDS-founding Port Huron Statements in the early 1960’s, was a defendant in the trial of the legendary Chicago Seven, and went on to serve as a California State Senator. In this deeply moving, visionary talk, he considers how a grassroots movement might overcome the most powerful empire in world history. This speech was given at the 2003 Bioneers National Conference. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

The number of Black Farmers has declined dramatically in the last 100 years and the USDA's racist lending practices hastened that decline. J.L. Chestnut, the chief attorney for the Black Farmers class-action discrimination lawsuit against the USDA, won the largest civil rights settlement in U.S. history, opening the door for restitution for Native American, women and Hispanic farmers. "Fighting on behalf of women, on behalf of minority people of color, fighting on behalf of the environment and the planet are all one big battle. It is all about a struggle for the soul of America." This talk took place at the 2001 Annual Bioneers Conference and is part of the Ecological Food and Farming, Vol. 1 and Democracy, Human Rights and the Rights of Nature, Vol. 1 Collections. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges.