2011 Plenaries

At the 2011 conference, we presented a live broadcast of these speakers from the national Bioneers conference in California.

FRIDAY PLENARIES
October 14 | 12:45 - 5:30 PM
Plenaries, Sharing with Youth, Break and Networking

JOHN D. LIU
John D. Liu helped open the CBS News Beijing News Bureau as producer-cameraman during the early normalization of relations between the United States and China. Since the mid-1990s Mr. Liu has concentrated on producing, writing, directing and presenting environmental films broadcast on BBC, National Geographic and other networks. His award winning film “Hope in a Changing Climate” has led to public speaking engagements on 6 continents. Liu now studies and documents restoration worldwide. (www.eempc.org)

Restoration Writ Large: Unleashing the Potential of Nature and People for Large-Scale Ecosystem Restoration
Chinese journalist and award-winning filmmaker John Liu recounts his long-term chronicling of China’s path finding experiments to revitalize the immense Loess Plateau. The breath taking restoration of this radically degraded ecosystem shows trans formational change on a large scale in fast forward once we widen our perspective beyond "production" to include ecoservices and natural cycles of renewal that can lead to vibrant lo cal living economies. Next stop: resto­ration of the entire nation of Rwanda.

KAREN BROWN
Karen Brown, Creative Director of the Center for Ecoliteracy, is an award-winning designer who has lectured throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan on the human and environmental consequences of design. Her design has shaped the online and print publications of the Center for Ecoliteracy, including its Rethinking School Lunch Guide, Big Ideas, and educators' guides to the films Food, Inc., Nourish, and Connected. Her work has been featured at the Smithsonian and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, as well as in many publications, including The New York Times and Architectural Digest. (www.ecoliteracy.org)

Revolutionizing K-12 Education with Sustainability in Mind
"Smart by Nature" education has the potential to impart to our young the keys to sustainable living, revitalize our nation's approach to schooling, and point the way to a hopeful future. This bold vision developed by the today's young people for the ecological challenges of the coming decades. Karen Brown, CEL Creative Director and an award-winning designer, explores how this vision is becoming reality in K-12 schools nationally.

ROXANNE BROWN
Roxanne Brown is the Assistant Legislative Director for the United Steelworkers (USW) and serves on the Steering Committee of the Blue Green Alliance, an alliance of the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club. She covers a range of issues including climate change, environment and labor law reform in her lobbying and advocacy work.

Blue and Green: Working Together to Secure a Sustainable Future
The clean energy economy presents transformational economic and en vironmental potential for the nation. To ensure we achieve energy indepen dence, mitigate the effects of climate change and secure a sustainable path for U.S. workers, it's critical that labor unions and the environmental community work together to advance clean energy policies. As assistant Legislative Director of the United Steelworkers (USW), Roxanne Brown focuses on issues including defense, environment and climate change as one of five lobbyists in the USW's Legislative Office in Washington, D.C. She also serves on the Steering Com mittee of the Blue-Green Alliance, a groundbreaking national partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations dedicated to expanding the number and quality of jobs in the green economy to secure a sustain able future.

REBECCA MOORE
Rebecca Moore, a computer scientist and longtime software professional, conceived and now manages the Google Earth Outreach program which supports nonprofits, communities and indigenous peoples around the world in applying Google's mapping tools to pressing problems in areas such as environmental conservation, human rights, cultural preservation and creating a sustainable society. (earth.google.com/outreach)

Google Earth-Eye View: Mapping a Future Environment of Hope
From the heart of the Amazonian rainforest to the depths of the oceans, from Navajo Nation to the jungles of Brazil, Google Earth mapping technology is providing remarkable high-tech tools to visualize alternative futures.

GLORIA STEINEM
Gloria Steinem, a world-renowned writer, lecturer, editor, and feminist activist, co-founded New York magazine in 1968 and Ms. Magazine in 1972, for which she continues to serve as a consulting editor. She has produced a documentary on child abuse, a feature film about the death penalty and been the subject of countless profiles. Her books include the bestsellers Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, Moving Beyond Words, and Marilyn: Norma Jean, and she helped edit The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History. Ms. Steinem has helped found many important groups, including: the Women's Action Alliance, the National Women's Political Caucus, Voters for Choice, Choice USA, the Ms. Foundation for Women, Take Our Daughters to Work Day, the Beyond Racism Initiative, and the Women's Media Center. (www.gloriasteinem.com)

When Women Are People...and Corporations Are Not: Why the First Inequality Will Also Be The Last
Often the same adversaries oppose women's, anti-racist, environmental, peace, human rights, indigenous, sex ual 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.

SATURDAY PLENARIES
October 15 |1:15 - 6:00PM
Plenaries, Break and Networking

PAUL STAMETS
Paul Stamets has written six seminal mushroom-related books, the most recent being Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World. Growing Gourmet & Medicinal Mushrooms and The Mushroom Cultivator are used as textbooks around the world by the specialty and medicinal mushroom industries. Paul started a medicinal and gourmet mushroom business, Fungi Perfecti, LLC, in 1980. He has received numerous environmental awards, including from Bioneers and the National Geographic, as well as Adventure's Magazine's Green-O-vator and the Argosy Foundation's E-chievement awards. In 2010, Paul received the President's Award from the Society of Ecological Restoration. (www.fungi.com)

Solutions from the Underground: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
In this Sixth Age of Extinctions, the life support systems that have allowed humans to thrive are eroding. Paul Stamets, the world's leading visionary "myco-technologist", shows how fungi and mushrooms can help restore ecosystems, degraded landscapes and human health - fast.

Like people, habitats have immune systems, and our close evolutionary relationship to fungi provides the basis for novel environmental deployments of key mushroom species that can lead to greater sustainability and better health.

NATALIA GREENE
Natalia Greene, born in Ecuador, coordinates the program on "Political Plurinationality and the Rights of Nature" at the Fundacion Pachamama in Ecuador and is the President of CEDENMA, Ecuador's national coordinating entity for environmental NGOs. A graduate in political science from Hampshire College, she holds a master's degree from FLACSO Ecuador and a special degree from Andina University on climate change. She was a key figure in the effort to include the recognition of rights for nature in Ecuador's constitution and has worked on the environmental and indigenous rights aspects of the Yasuni-ITT Initiative to keep oil underground in the Amazon.

The Rights of Nature: An Idea Whose Time Has Come
What if Nature had rights? Inspired by local work in the U.S., in 2008 Ecuador became the first country to recognize Rights of Nature in its national constitution. In 2010, the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature formed, calling for the universal acceptance of Nature as a subject with rights to "exist, flourish and evolve". As President of Ecuador's National Coordinating Entity for Environmental NGOs, Natalia Greene has been a key figure in the recognition of Rights for Nature. She surveys the transformational global movement for Earth Jurisprudence.

JOSHUA FOUTS & RITA KING
Joshua S. Fouts, a writer, journalist, gamer and technologist, is a Senior Fellow for Digital Media and Public Policy at the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress, a Next Generation Fellow at The American Assembly, and Executive Producer at Dancing Ink Productions. Fouts has an extensive career on the cutting-edge of journalism, online media, games, culture and foreign policy and a history exploring the impact of new technology tools for media years before they are adopted by the mainstream. In 2005 he was the first person to propose and direct a project illuminating how virtual worlds could be used for cultural relations.

Rita J. King is the Founding Director of Dancing Ink Productions, a company that works with major clients focused on the emergence of a new global culture and economy in the Imagination Age. King is Innovator-in-Residence at IBM's Analytics Virtual Center, a former Senior Fellow at The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York City and a current Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress in Washington DC. Her essays, various writings and works of art have been commissioned, published and exhibited globally. (www.dancinginkproductions.com)

The Emerging Imagination Age
Visionary media innovators Josh Fouts and Rita King call this time "The Imagination Age". From sudden revolutions in the Middle East to "unimaginable" natural and human made technological and economic disasters, our world is in a state of radical transformation and readjustment. At the same time, powerful new media are emerging that could presage a hopeful new global culture and economy. Josh and Rita illuminate how extraordinary new tools - virtual worlds, games and the worldwide web - can leverage global cultural empowerment and educational reform, amplified by creativity, collaboration, art and music.

ANIM STEEL
Anim Steel is the Director of National Programs at The Food Project in Boston, MA, founded twenty years ago to create personal and social change through sustainable agriculture. It currently employs over 100 Boston-area teenagers from diverse backgrounds who annually grow, sell, and donate over 250,000 pounds of organic produce. Nationally, the Food Project is helping to build a strong youth movement for just and sustainable food systems. Since 2003, Anim has provided leadership training for over 700 young people and forged a network of 5,000+ young activists and farmers. In 2008, he co-founded the Real Food Challenge, a campaign to re-direct $1 billion of college food purchases away from industrial agriculture towards local, fair, sustainable, and humane sources. Born in Ghana and growing up in West Africa and Washington, DC, Anim holds a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School and a B.A. in Astrophysics and History from Williams College. (www.thefoodproject.org)

The Real Food Challenge
As Director of National Programs at Boston's famed The Food Project, Anim Steel has been building a strong nationwide youth movement for just food systems. Since 2003 he has provided leadership training for over 700 young people and forged a network of 5,000+ young activists and farmers. He highlights the Real Food Challenge, a campaign he co-founded to re-direct $1 billion of college food purchases away from industrial agriculture towards local, fair, sustainable and humane sources.

AMORY LOVINS
Amory Lovins, a physicist, consultant to businesses and government leaders, is Chairman and Chief Scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). He's written 31 books and received the Blue Planet, Volvo, Onassis, Nissan, Shingo, Zayed Future Energy, and Mitchell Prizes, MacArthur and Ashoka Fellowships, 11 honorary doctorates, and the Heinz, Lindbergh, Right Livelihood, National Design, and World Technology Awards. Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and Foreign Policy, one of the 100 top global thinkers. His most recent book (in collaboration with a large RMI team) is Reinventing Fire. (www.rmi.org)

Reinventing Fire
Living legend Amory Lovins, Chair man and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute, offers us a new roadmap to how the U.S. can get completely off oil and coal by 2050, led by business for profit, sped by smart policies, and driven by in formed customers. As the planet's most important thinker about energy efficiency and energy's links to re sources, security, development and the environment, he's a consultant to businesses and governments around the globe, has penned 31 books and won too many prizes to count. Now he and RMI are speeding the transformation, in short, Reinventing Fire




SUNDAY PLENARIES
October 16 | 1:15 - 6:00 PM
Plenaries, Break, Networking and Closing

MELISSA NELSON
Melissa K. Nelson, Ph.D. (Anishinaabe/Metis/Norwegian [Turtle Mountain Chippewa]), a cultural ecologist, scholar-activist, writer and media-maker, is a Professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State and the President of the Cultural Conservancy, a Native American nonprofit dedicated to the preservation and revitalization of indigenous cultures and their ancestral lands. She is the editor of the Bioneers anthology, Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings For A Sustainable Future and producer of the award-winning documentary film, The Salt Song Trail. She is the co-founder/co-producer of the Indigenous Forum at Bioneers and co-founder of the new Bioneers Indigeneity Program as well as serving on Bioneers' board. (www.earthdiver.org)

Revitalizing Indigeneity: Eco-Cultural Knowledge and Reciprocity
Dynamic indigenous eco-cultural revitalization movements provide compelling leadership models by Na tive peoples working to maintain and restore their Traditional Ecological Knowledge. TEK, the art and science of resilience for the sustainability of future generations, is critically needed as a partner to Western science to restore the world's ecosystems and biological and cultural diversity, in cluding native foods and languages. Professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State, Melissa Nelson is President of the Cultural Con servancy, a Native American nonprofit dedicated to the preservation and revitalization of indigenous cultures and their ancestral lands. She illuminates how the "re-indigenization" movement is inspiring a commitment to reciprocal relationships with place as well as collaborative partnerships among peoples and landscapes.

DAYNA BAUMEISTER
Dayna Baumeister has worked in the field of biomimicry with Janine Benyus since 1998 as a business catalyst, educator, researcher, and design consultant. Together they founded the Biomimicry Guild, The Biomimicry Institute, and Biomimicry3.8, collectively fertilizing the movement of biomimicry as an innovative practice and philosophy to meet the world's sustainability challenges. Dayna also designed and teaches the world's first Biomimicry Professional Certification Program and compiled over a decade of experience into the Biomimicry Resource Handbook: A Seed Bank of Knowledge and Best Practices (2011). (www.biomimicry.net)

Life's Operating Manual
Envision what our world would and could look like if we actually started reading and following the directions contained in "Life's Operating Manual." Co-founder with Janine Benyus of the Biomimicry Guild and Biomimicry Institute, Dayna Baumeister provides an eagle's-eye view of biomimicry breakthroughs using ecological design and nature-inspired technologies that emulate nature's profound design sophistication. She has worked in the field of biomimicry with Janine Benyus since 1998 and designed and teaches the world's first Biomimicry Professional Certification Program.

PAM RAJPUT
Pam Rajput is an Indian academic turned internationally renowned activist who has been engaged in the women's movement since the mid-70s both in India and internationally. She helped organize and was the first Speaker of a "Women's Parliament" that brought together over 500 women leaders from every part of India. A recipient of many academic fellowships, she is a member of several expert committees and bodies in India including the nation's: Planning Commission, Ministry of Women & Child Development, National Commission for Women, delegation to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and many others. She is also the founder and Director of the Centre for Women's Studies & Development and the Head of the Department of Political Science at Panjab University.

Voices for Peace and Sustainable Development - The First Women's Parliament of India
India's first "Women's Parliament" brought together over 500 democratically-elected women leaders from every part of the country. What began as a "shadow" Parliament addressing the under-representation of women in government is an inspiring innovation and success story. Pam Rajput, among India's most eminent leaders in the struggle for women's rights, is an academic turned internationally renowned activist engaged in the women's movement in India and internationally. She helped organize and lead the Women's Parliament as its first Speaker, and shares her vision of how the empowerment of women globally will transform the world.

MARY EVELYN TUCKER
Mary Evelyn Tucker teaches world religions and ecology at Yale University. She helped establish this new field by organizing ten conferences at Harvard and editing ten volumes exploring views of nature in the world's religions. She founded the Forum on Religion and Ecology that has an outreach to 12,000 people worldwide. She is a member of the Earth Charter International Council. She has edited Thomas Berry's books and with Brian Swimme she helped create the Journey of the Universe book and film. She is the author of Worldly Wonder and The Philosophy of Qi. (www.emergingearthcommunity.org)

The Power of Story
Our lives are guided by stories from childhood to ever-growing maturity. Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale professor and founder of the Forum on Religion and Ecology, weaves our personal and diverse cultural and cosmological narratives together for the sake of creating a just and sustainable future for all life. She explores cosmic evolution as a profoundly wondrous process based on creativity, connection and interdependence. Her new book and film with cosmologist Briane Swimme, Journey of the Universe, tell the epic story of the universe from an inspired new perspective, weaving the findings of modern science with enduring wisdom in the traditions of the West, China, India and indigenous peoples.

PHILLIPE COUSTEAU
Philippe Cousteau, the 31-year-old son of Jan and Philippe Cousteau Sr. and grandson of the legendary Jacques-Yves Cousteau, continues his family's legacy as CEO of EarthEcho International, a non-profit he founded with his sister and mother. Philippe is also: co-founder of Azure Worldwide, a strategic environmental design, development and marketing company; Chief Ocean Correspondent for Discovery's Animal Planet; a special correspondent for CNN International hosting a series of environmentally themed specials; co-host with his sister Alexandra of Planet Green's annual Blue August initiative; Chief Spokesperson for Environmental Education for Discovery Education; and the coauthor of Going Blue, A Teen Guide to Saving Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, & Wetlands. Philippe also serves on many boards, including those of The Ocean Conservancy, Marine Conservation Biology Institute, and the National Environmental Education Foundation, as well as on the advisory boards of Planet Green and the National Council of the World Wildlife Fund. (www.earthecho.org, www.azureworldwide.com)

Continuing a Legacy: Building a Sustainable World in the 21st Century
Philippe Cousteau explores his iconic family legacy and their contributions to global oceanic exploration and conservation, and describes how that experience inspired him growing up. Explorer, social entreprenuer and environmental advocate, he is continuing the work of his father through EarthEcho International to engage and empower people to take action for a brighter future with education, balanced advocacy and a commitment to action. A special correspondent for CNN International, he is also Chief Spokesperson for Environmental Education for Discovery Education, the #1 provider of K-12 broadband delivered educational content to U.S. schools. He was appointed founder and co-chair of the Gulf Action Network for the Clinton Global Initiative. He will reveal not only the discoveries but also the challenges in a rapidly changing world, and why oceans and water are the most important systems on the planet. Using video clips from his father's films and some of his own TV work, he'll explore ways all of us can share in the adventure of building a sustainable future.



Celebrate, Collaborate, And Connect:
Transforming the Southeast Michigan Community.