Bioneers: Democracy, Human Rights and the Rights of Nature

"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.