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The Story Behind Kufunda – an African Learning Community
What follows is a transcript of an interview by my friend Christine Brauitgam of Maaianne Knuth, the founder of the Kufunda village in Zimbabwe. I edited the interview for length and clarity. You can listen to the entire interview here. – Bob Leonard Hello this is Christine Brautigam. I was a guest, volunteer, and […]
Allies On Our Earth Walk
What if set you out to change the world – and mostly it is you who changes? From April 1st to June 30th this year (three months) my wife, Willow, and I pilgrimaged in place on what we called Our Earth Walk. My intention, as I wrote in my April 5th blog, was “to […]
Climate Resilience Requires Global Cooperation
The one factor most likely to affect how well we endure a global crisis is the quality of our cooperation and collaboration. A great deal depends on whether we exhibit pro-social attitudes and responses, or we panic and blame. We must recognize that we’re all in this together. By cooperating and collaborating, we can salvage […]
Climate Resilience is Key to Avoiding Collapse
“Climate resilience is the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to hazardous events, trends, or disturbances related to climate. Improving climate resilience involves assessing how climate change creates new, or alters current, climate-related risks. We can take steps to better cope with these risks.”1 Humanity has a lot of problems. Climate change, political […]
Massive Opportunity on the Horizon
I’m sensing a pattern… not quite a zeitgeist, but I think it’s heading in that direction. Everything that’s happening now… with the climate, and income inequality, and rising authoritarian populism and all the rest; I think it’s a call to action. I think we are being given an opportunity. An opportunity to step up […]
Happy 50th Anniversary, Earthrise!
photo: William Anders, Apollo 8, December 24, 1968 Apollo 8 crew: Frank Borman, James Lovell, William Anders There are three NASA photographs that seem central in shaping and reshaping our consciousness, philosophy and reality regarding our interactions with each other, with other species, and with the planet as well as our role in […]
Overcoming Climate Change Can Put Us on the Road to a Whole New (Better) Life
First off, let me get something straight. We don’t need to save the planet. Planet Earth will be fine. It has been around for 4.5 billion years, and it will survive for billions more. To put things in perspective, humans have existed for 200,000 years. That’s 0.00004 percent of the total life of the planet. […]
The Environment is Crucial to Economic Health
The days of the ‘economy vs. environment’ fight are over, and really have been for several years. How do I know this? Because the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland tells me so. Since 2011 environmental factors have been in the top 5 global risks in both likelihood and impact. This year, environmental factors dominate […]
World Environment Day
This commentary originally appeared on Planetary Ethicist. This year’s theme for World Environment Day is about reconnecting with Nature: go outside and enjoy Nature, value Nature, and learn about the importance of Nature in our lives and livelihoods. We tend to take Nature, natural resources and nature’s services for granted. It’s easy to under-appreciate the […]
Today’s Climate Change is all about People
There’s no question that humanity is the cause of the rapid rate of climate change. The question is whether or not we are willing to work together (across party lines and the boundaries of counties, provinces, states and countries) to stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere; and, therefore, to reduce the harmful impacts of a warming climate. It’s a simple question, with a difficult answer. Are we the parents of the future or the children of the past?
