The Power of Communities Working Together

Bioneers Pulse – updates from the Bioneers Community

Bioneer,  When communities come together to make change and uplift each other, the results are powerful. This is the root of our democracy. But as society faces growing threats from political corruption and climate insecurity, we must reclaim our people power as we navigate into an uncertain future. This week, we take a look at the power of communities coming together to make change, and highlight how #Bioneers did just that during the 2019 Conference. David Orr: Is There a Future for Our Democracy? Why Everything Depends on the Answer We are living through the most dangerous challenge to free government in the U.S. any one of us alive has encountered. Like a house with a crumbling foundation, American democracy is suffering from decades of deferred maintenance. The challenge of repairing and updating our institutions would be difficult enough, but we obviously do not live in “normal times.” The pace of change is faster, threats bigger, risks global, and the time to forestall the worst is very short. David Orr, one of the nation’s most lucid and influential thought leaders, draws from his forthcoming book, Democracy Unchained: Politics as if All People Matter, to consider what we must do to return to the better angels of our collective nature and turn the ship around. What happens next is up to us. Watch the full talk here. Check out the Bioneers 2019 Media Hub! Our full collection of videos from the 2019 Bioneers Conference is now online and ready for you to view! Watch empowering speeches and inspiring performances from some of the world's most innovative thought leaders. You won't want to miss this. Click here to see the Media Hub. Environmental Inclusivity: Heather McTeer Toney on Social and Climate Justice As the first African American, first female, and youngest mayor of Greenville, Mississippi, Heather McTeer Toney has seen firsthand how people of color and low-income communities are some of the most vulnerable populations to the consequences of climate change. She advocates embracing climate justice as the social justice issue of our time. Toney is now leading an environmental inclusivity movement in her work as National Field Director of Clean Moms Air Force, an organization of more than one million parents united in the fight against pollution to leave the next generation a healthy planet. In this article, McTeer Toney discusses what it means to be an environmentalist today. Read more here. Kenny Ausubel: The End of Prehistory "We’re in the endgame of the Dim Ages: the collision between the state of nature and the nature of the state. Our civilization is a failed state. The big wheels are turning. We face a reckoning: transform or perish. It’s emergence in an emergency. There’s as much cause for hope as for horror. The good news is that we’ve done it before, and as Bioneers has shown for 30 years, in great measure the solutions are present, or we know what directions to head in. The solutions residing in nature consistently surpass our conception of what’s even possible." Read more here. "Or The Whale" Bioneers-exclusive discount Jos Sances' mural "Or The Whale," as featured in the Bioneers 2019 program, is being offered from Vessel Gallery with a special discount code online! Click the button below to order your full size detailed signed print for $210 less than retail price, with the code: BIONEERS*ORTHEWHALE at checkout. Limited time only through 12/19/19. Buy Yours Now This Week on Bioneers Radio & Podcast Who Is An American? Is Our Democracy As Unequal As Our Economy? With Heather McGhee By around 2044, the U.S. will become a majority-minority nation. This seismic demographic shift has triggered a cultural earthquake, provoking a radical spike in hate crimes. In times of massive disruption and economic stress, what Carl Jung called the “shadow side of the psyche” comes into play: the pronounced psychological tendency in the collective psyche is to project these shadow qualities with unusual potency onto whomever people see as “the other.” But is there also a deeper story? Perhaps the question to ask is: Who benefits? In this half hour, we hear from Heather McGhee of Demos. She sees a direct connection between today’s extreme inequality and this peak moment of racial panic and white anxiety. Subscribe to the Bioneers podcast now: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | SoundCloud | Spotify Take Action: Moms Clean Air Force Moms Clean Air Force is a community of over 1,000,000 moms and dads united against air pollution – including the urgent crisis of our changing climate – to protect our children’s health. Follow and support Moms Clean Air Force today by clicking the button below! Get Involved Do you know people who might enjoy reading this? Please share it with them! Share Tweet Share +1 Forward

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