“I realised this isn’t new, this interconnection, this view of holistic understandings of who we are… back to indigenous cultures” - Sam Crowell

This podcast utilises the audio from the webinar that took place on 30 April 2021 on the Planetary wellbeing platform by AnimalConcepts.

Let us welcome Dr Sam M. Crowell Jr. He is a professor emeritus from California State University, San Bernardino. He founded the MA in Holistic and Integrative Education and is a founding member of the Network in Spirituality and Education. He serves as a faculty member of the Earth Charter Education Center for Sustainable Development and has been engaged in the Earth Charter movement for several years.
Sam informs us how his beginnings with his doctorate in the social foundations of education, influenced his career as a teacher. He enthused about how teaching, allows for collaboration and further learning. Furthermore, he highlights how his indigenous heritage has given influenced his teaching style and sense of identity. They then discuss the influence of culture, both animal and human, and how understanding them could be used to encourage a peaceful future.

“All my relations are our saving grace, it points to the truth that we are all connected. The most important word is ALL, not just those that behave like me, all, every person…” - Sam reading from Richard Wagamese’s book Embers.

The podcast concludes by explaining the prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor. The eagle represents human technological advancements, the condor represents spirit. The prophecy states that every 500 years their prevalence switches, however, currently, both birds are flying.

Read about Sam Crowell HERE
Read about the Visible and Non-Visible Nature of Collaboration in Education HERE
Find out about the book; Embers by Richard Wagamese HERE
Find out about Sam’s Science and Spirituality course HERE

“Education can change minds, if you can change minds, you can change mindsets, you change the behaviours and change the collective, so it is crucial”. - Alicia

This week’s podcast utilises the audio from the webinar interview led by Alicia Jiménez which took place on the 29th of January 2021 from the AnimalConcepts platform.

Let us welcome Alicia Jiménez, the Director of Programmes at the Earth Charter International Secretariat in Costa Rica. She has been working in the field of conservation and sustainable development since 1998.

The conversation discusses why it is essential to work together to maintain nature. However, this would require a new mindset, through cultural transformation to expand our perception and rethink our values. Education is a key player in this and can influence change. The Earth Charter can be used as a guideline to produce lessons.

The Earth Charter is a working document, containing sixteen principles within four pillars in sixty languages to promote a global impact by teaching a new way to relate to other living beings.

“Across zoos and aquariums, not many people I have spoken to have heard about the Earth Charter. So it is wonderful that we converse together to spread the word, the message and the values”. – Sabrina

Alicia, Irma and Sabrina then discuss the benefits of weaving stories into education especially in a zoo environment to create relatability and therefore teach people how valuable all life is.

“The Earth Charter has a global effect, putting together how we should live on this planet”. - Irma

Read about Alicia Jiménez HERE
Read the Earth Charter preamble HERE

This week’s podcast utilises the audio from the webinar interview led by Irma Verhoeven which took place on the 31st of May 2021 from the AnimalConcepts platform.

Let us welcome Tracey Starke, the founder of the environmental news website Ecolightenment, which brings together positive environmental news from mainstream media, as well as smaller NGOs to highlight the important work these groups are carrying out.

The circular economy is a way of living in harmony with our ecological systems and restoring them. It is based on the principles of designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems.

The conversation begins by discussing what a circular economy means to them and their industry. Circular economy is a method to live and restore the ecological systems by dealing with waste and keeping materials in use. From this, they examine methods in which to reduce waste within the animal industry, including the importance of stories in promoting change and the outcome of shifting minds.

Read about Ecolightenment HERE

“Crises offer an invitation to do things differently. Embracing this opportunity clearly demands an overhaul of what is considered ‘leadership’ in our society. We need to up our game! What we need are masterful warriors with a crystal clear vision and the ability to incite the necessary inspiration, creativity and faith that catalysis transformational change. We need wise leaders instead of smart managers.” - Rolf Winters

Let us welcome Rolf Winters to WeBuzz. He is an explorer of life, a leadership coach, a public speaker, and Wise Leaders Ltd founder. 

Rolf starts by explaining how the meaning of success is fluid and changes every few years, as well as being subjective to the individual and what they had aimed to achieve. He explains how in his profession, he aims to promote the spirit of an individual and groups.

Rolf shares with us about when he and his family lived with a clan of native Americans. They took themselves out of the Western system to live with nature and learn a new perspective of life. This five-year journey, which includes a year of global travelling, taught them to view everyone, no matter the age as equals, and all hold wisdom which we can learn from.  Following this, Rolf produced the documentary DOWN to EARTH intending to spread the brilliance of the clan. In later years, he noted that the Earth Charter shares similar visions to the clan.

Critically, Irma and Rolf highlight that being a leader is to serve your community and remain empathetic. He works with corporations around the world to promote change for the betterment of the Earth.

Irma concludes by saying “The wiser we get, the more we realise how little we know”.

Find out more about Wise Leaders Ltd. HERE

Find out more about DOWN to EARTH HERE

Find out more about the Wisdom-based Leadership master class HERE

Become a member HERE

"It’s important to emphasise that a key purpose of the Earth Charter is to expand and deepen a consciousness with regards to how we ought to relate not only with ourselves, and with others, but also how we ought to relate with the large living world." - Mirian Vilela

Let us welcome Mirian Vilela who is the Executive Director of the Earth Charter International Secretariat and the Centre for Education for Sustainable Development at the University for Peace (UPEACE). Additionally, Mirian coordinates the UNESCO Chair on Education for Sustainable Development with the Earth Charter.

Mirian first introduces us to her upbringing in Brazil on her father's farm, and how this cultivated a connection to nature.

Irma and Mirian then discuss what is the Earth Charter, how it was born from common human shared values and how the Earth Charter played a key role in Mirian’s life, giving her a voice. They also share the importance of telling stories to promote system thinking to establish relationships with everyone including the Earth.  

“Our favourite story is the flight of the hummingbird, it's an inspiration to act on behalf of the world’s limited and precious resources, this is very much in line with the vision of the Earth Charter” – Irma Verhoeven

Mirian concludes by telling us a couple of stories, including one where a relationship formed with the Earth in that instant.

Read about the Earth Charter HERE

Become a member HERE

Grian A. Cutanda has a PhD in Social Education from the University of Granada (Spain) and a Degree in Psychology from the University of Valencia. He is an author of fiction and essay, with 16 books published, some of them translated into 12 languages, and a number of academic papers and chapters at the request of various universities. To highlight his international bestseller The Gardener, published in English by Thorsons (HarperCollins) in 1998.

Social and environmental activist, Grian has been an organiser and coordinator in different fields within social movements such as the Indignados Movement in Spain, forerunner of the Occupy Movement in 2011; the People’s Climate March in 2014 and the subsequent 2015 climate campaign in Edinburgh (Scotland); and Extinction Rebellion, as co-founder of XR Spain and regional liaison for Latin America in XR International. The impact of his environmental activism reached an international level with a documentary screened at the Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival, The Earth Stories Collection, or How to End Modernism Once and for All (Cutanda, Kendall & Borecky, 2021) and when, in September 2021, he held a 33-day hunger strike as part of the Global Earth Fast campaign organised by Extinction Rebellion from the UK. This made him, along with Karen Killeen, the activist who held his hunger strike against climate change the longest in the world.

Founder of the Avalon Project – Initiative for a Culture of Peace, Grian has been linked to the University of Granada as a researcher. His main research led to the creation of The Earth Stories Collection, a global bank of worldwide traditional stories capable to transmit an ecocentric and systemic worldview, illustrating the different principles and fragments of the Earth Charter. In this line, he is also working, with the partnership of the Earth Charter Secretariat at the United Nations’ University for Peace and the Scottish International Storytelling Festival, on spreading these stories through the creation of a global network of storytelling activists, Earth Story Tellers.

Become a member HERE

Let's welcome Charlotte Corney, the former CEO of the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary in the Isle of Wight and the founder and trustee of the Wildheart Trust.

Charlotte tells us of what it is like growing up in the Isle of Wight Zoo (now the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary), and how agreeing to hand-raise Zia the Tiger cub committed herself to work with animals. She explains the journey from a zoo to a sanctuary, yet emphasises that throughout the sanctuary's history, each animal's life has always mattered.

“One thing, to this day, remains absolutely unshiftable, and that is that individual life matters to each and everyone of our animals, and never ever were our animals a commodity. The animal's life always comes first”.

Each animal in their care acts as an ambassador animal to promote the conservation and protection of animals. Charlotte gives us an example of SERVIVAL, a campaign to ban the breeding of exotic felids, such as Servals, with domestic cats. These ambassador animals contribute a small part to the human experience at the sanctuary, which overall contributes to promoting a change in thinking through empowerment.

“They come in, they learn a few facts that they may have been able to find out on Wikipedia, then they go home. It is not good enough now. We need people to go home now and do something different, think something differently. Make some difference. It is small steps”

Charlotte concludes by telling us the story of her four hand-raised tiger cubs, and how she and the Isle of Wight said goodbye to her last surviving cub Aysha.

Read about the Wildlife Trust HERE

Listen to our podcast with Dr Jane Goodall HERE

Become a member HERE

“Most people used to say, the Amazon is like the lung of the planet. I say it is like the heart. If you see the Amazon, you can see a heart and all the rivers are like veins. When you clog all these veins, the body is going to collapse. This is happening now."

Let us welcome Dr Fernando Trujillo, a marine biologist who is the Scientific Director of Foundation Omacha, an NGO he established in 1993 to promote the conservation of river species and their ecosystems in South America.

Fernando guides us through his studying history, achieving an MSc in Environmental Sciences (University of Greenwich) and a Doctorate in Zoology (University of Aberdeen) with the ambition of working with marine vertebrates. He was encouraged to work with dolphins in the Amazon. Although nervous, this place became his paradise so built his career around it. Fernando’s PhD allowed him to research Amazon River Dolphin behaviour, and habitat use and develop a technique to count them. From here, he developed the South American River Dolphin Initiative.

“Each tree is an ecosystem, 50 m high, there are hundreds, if not thousands of animals; ants, insects, spiders, frogs, mammals and reptiles. So every time you burn an area, you are killing millions of animals and plants."

Fernando informs us about the importance of the Amazon to the world, and how damaging it will affect everyone. Fernando and Sabrina then discuss the development of Foundation Omacha and its impact. They then discuss the perception of the residents and indigenous people to conservation and how it changed over time.

Throughout Fernando’s career, connections are key in conservation. Connecting indigenous people to wildlife, and westernised people to indigenous to learn from each other and promote change to benefit everyone.

“We need to learn, we need to move forward, we need to be committed to something. It’s important. It’s not a fight of a few people. It’s a fight with everybody. We are all on this amazing blue planet that we all call Earth, and we need to do something”

Read about Omacha HERE
Read about the Amazon River Dolphin HERE
Read about Fernando’s Whitley award HERE and Fernando’s work HERE

Become a member HERE

“I think one of the things we should do, and that I am experiencing more and more, is that, in order to think differently we have to look to the past, to find out why we are thinking as we are thinking right now”.

Let us welcome Jes Lynning Harfeld, an associate professor of applied ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy at Aalborg University, Denmark. Currently, his research focuses on the connections between animal welfare and ethics in the realm of human-animal interactions and the way that language interacts with thinking and character.

It was not until Jes’s PhD when he came across Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation, did he develop an interest in the ethical dilemmas regarding animal welfare. As such, he focused his thesis on the ethical dilemmas of modern agriculture. Querying, what it means to have a find and the different approaches of ethics and how it relates to animals. “Animal welfare understandings as types of interpretations, reading their signals then jumping to conclusions."

Jes and Sabrina then discuss the ethics and the varying interpretations of animal welfare, an intrinsically subjective phenomenon, across different audiences. Jes then, using a couple of his papers, explains the development of animal welfare sciences.

“Making barriers between disciplines is one of the things that is not a good thing for animal welfare science, we have to break down disciplinary boundaries to do even better animal welfare science”

Read about ‘What is animal happiness’ HERE
Read about ‘Rights, solidarity, and the animal welfare state’ HERE
Read about ‘Bearing Witness’ by Class Kirchelle HERE

Become a member HERE

“That is the real beauty, we often talk about global collaboration for animal welfare, or global collaboration for human wellbeing or for the greater community of life, or the planetary… What makes it so strong, is these different expertise, these different interests, these different talents, these different things that people bring… to effect change and the only way we can do that, is of course, is by doing it together.” - Sabrina Brando

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