Bioneers Statement on North Bay Fires
As the annual Bioneers conference fast approaches, we’ll be gathering in the shadow of the calamitous California fires. The Bay Area is Bioneers headquarters, and our roots are deep and wide with so many of you in the region. Our hearts mourn for the loss that’s happening so rapidly and painfully to loved ones, and communities, throughout Northern California. As so many of us have beloved family and friends in the evacuated or damaged areas, this crisis is hitting home for us all, deeply. We send love and light to all of you. To pitch in, either in person or financially, a list of organizations, funds and opportunities to support those impacted by the fires is here.
Sadly, it will take more than love and light to make the region and the world whole again. This is the living truth of what the climate crisis looks like. It’s exactly the reason we gather each fall at Bioneers to fast-forward the solutions coming from our Bioneers Community to co-create a habitable, just and joyous world.
Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton recently coined the phrase “ climate swerve” to describe the massive climate awakening that’s finally happening here in the US. These kinds of tragedies across the nation and world are creating unprecedented receptivity as people search for solutions. Now is our time to reach more people than ever and actually build the political power to change the current systems, which are intrinsically a “strategy of tragedy,” as architect Bill McDonough calls it.
Although we can be highly adaptable, we are reeling from the impacts of fires that are wreaking havoc on the land, on homes, farms and animals, and on life itself. There is so much loss and upheaval happening so fast, so frighteningly – The Caribbean, Houston, Florida, Mexico, Las Vegas, the ongoing devastation in Puerto Rico (and that’s strictly a short list from the US and our immediate neighbors).
As the annual Bioneers conference approaches next weekend, we need each other now more than ever. We need to remember that we are defined by our relationships and all our relations. Our true wealth lies in our circle of loved ones, and in our capacity to show up in caring generosity to support each other through difficult times. Painful as it is that so many homes and so much life, land and beauty is going up in flames, we need the comfort and vision of each other now more than ever. We need to hold it, together.
This is about nothing less than fundamentally changing our way of living on Earth and with each other. It’s about building resilience for a predictably unpredictable future of shocks and disaster preparedness.
Communities that get through crises are ones where people build strong relationships, hold shared values across difference and keep coming back to the table to get the job done for the sake of the common good. That’s just what the Bioneers community has been practicing and doing for nearly 30 years.
This disaster is still unfolding on an hourly basis and the impact of these fires will be felt for months and years. This region is our home base and Bioneers will be involved for the long haul as our community collectively rebuilds.
At this now-more-than-ever moment, we look forward to hosting this community at the upcoming Bioneers Conference to hold and comfort each other and to be inspired by the clear visions of the future that we’re collectively building towards. They say the best way to predict the future is to create it. That’s what we’ll be doing together.
With All Our Love, Compassion and Gratitude –
Kenny Ausubel, Nina Simons, Joshua Fouts and All of Us at Bioneers
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