Natural Intelligence Worldwide

The Ocean: Our Source of Life and Every Second Breath

Peter Thomson; Special Envoy for UN to Oceans

In my interview with Peter Thompson, the Special Envoy to the UN on Oceans; he begins our conversation with this sobering message from the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.

“We are knowingly destroying the life support systems of the planet.”

It is extraordinary to me that we have come so far in our biological discourse on humanity’s relationship to nature to now directly state that our carbon, plastic, waste pollution is destroying the planet…and the seat of life, the ocean.

Do we really understand that without a health ocean, we don’t have a healthy planetary system to support all of life on earth, including our own?

Do we really feel the agency and urgency to act? Do we know what to do? Well, Peter Thompson gives us a few clues…and in the end, it is clear that our success or failure of stewarding life on earth IS all up to me and you.

So…

Let’s be diligent and consistent and vocal about our personal ban on single use plastic. As with CV 19 we are all becoming more conscious about what we touch; let’s become conscious about how much plastic we let into our homes and life.

Let’s be diligent and consistent and vocal about our food choices—and shift food fashion from top predator fin fish and shell fish 24/7 and out of season to high protein, marine-rich tofu.

Let’s be diligent and consistent and vocal about our concern for the disappearance of the coral reef ecosystem and the decimation of marine wildlife due to illegal fishing and consumption. Let’s let our local, regional, national political leaders know that we care about the ocean… and we want them to prioritize caring about and protecting them too.

Bringing Cultural Intelligence Home

Hindou Ibrahim

Chair of the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad

I saw by my eyes, my future seven generations ahead and seven generations back and because of this I know which way to go.

This statement captures the essence of my conversation with Hindou Ibrahim, the Chair for the Association of Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad. Speaking to Hindou is like speaking to nature herself, whose ability to adapt and to react to the changing environment and climate is as fluid, simple, direct, and natural as breathing.

Like many Indigenous Peoples, Hindou has been trained since childhood in the cultural intelligence of her people- she knows the land, she’s learned how to observe the animals. She is sensitized to the climate, and she views her home as not just the family house, but as the wider community and bioregion. It’s her nature. Its the cultural intelligence she was gifted by her family.

Hindou was fortunate to be born into a place and people who value above all else their cultural and ecological heritage, and who teach a way of directly sensing in the world “with my own eyes”—valuing every person and every living being as part of the natural ecosystem—making decisions about how to act—seven generations forward and seven generations back.

In our conversation, Hindou shares with us how each one of us-whether we live in a suburb or a city can also learn how awaken our cultural intelligence, to respect every member of our society—the gardener, the farmer, the grocer, the health worker—as home-keepers. We can evolve our cultural intelligence to value every person as an essential worker in supporting our livelihoods;  and to value nature as essential to regenerating sustainable economies.

Today marked the end of the 73rd Annual World Health Assembly hosted by the World Health Organization for member states. President Macron, Chancellor Merkel, the spokesperson for the European Commission, Virginie Battu-Henriksson— all emphasized that global cooperation forward is the only effective means to avoid a viral spiral. These European Heads of State and many other world leaders agreed to help support and further fund the worldwide efforts of the WHO to continue responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Health Organization, comprised of 7000 employees in 100 countries, assists all countries to respond to health crises, and especially the developing, most vulnerable nations. And yet, WHO operates worldwide on a third of the US Center for Disease Control budget, reserved only for the United States.

In my interview with Dr. David Nabarro in our continuing series: “Combatting COVID19 with Compassion” it is abundantly clear that our primary coordinated action must be to make it hard for the virus to move—and that means to practice good hygiene everywhere, protect yourself and others from spreading the virus by wearing masks and keeping physical distance, by ensuring local, sustainable community based health services in every town, village, county, and city—and by creating a smart system for preventing spread, protecting the most vulnerable, testing, isolating cases, contact tracing, and diligent, continual adaptation in business and government to respond to the highly contagious COVID-19 everywhere, all the time.

As information is everywhere; it’s super important to critically evaluate one’s sources; so I am happy that I have the privilege to bring to you one of the most trusted sources of information on global pandemics, Dr. David Nabarro.

Combatting COVID 19 with Compassion

Episode III: Solidarity with Developing Countries

And compassion will lead us home, back to a healthier more equitable global society; if we urgently now direct our attention, resources, best learned Covid19 prevention practices, and health expertise (perhaps also virtual) toward communities in developing countries with little or no local health infrastructure.

These small village communities and larger urban slums or refugee camps are the most vulnerable now to becoming infected by the corona virus— a virus which has largely spread from the developed world to the developing world seemingly overnight.

How do you “stay home” when you are homeless? Conversely, how can you sleep at night without contributing somehow to the COVID 19 fight, knowing that others who live in the dark, have — to a high quality life- the same birth right?

Let’s not forget that the poverty, hunger, conflict, and climate refugee humanitarian crises are still with us…and these people-these communities are not NOT NOW SAFE. They are the least resilient against the corona virus. And, they will be the communities to advance a second global wave of COVID 19 if we are not careful- NOW.

In my interview with Dr. David Nabarro in our continuing series: “Combatting COVID19 with Compassion” it is abundantly clear that we as a global society have a massive opportunity here to invest in the long term health of our future— to finance a complete upgrade of developing world health infrastructure, to reset our global economy trending more toward greater equality, and to create a safer society practicing better hygiene and living more nutritious, healthy lives.

If we play our cards right now, we can stay ahead of the COVID 19 curve while scientists find a vaccine and we can leverage the crisis to rebuild together a better world— one that’s more resilient, more prepared for future crisis, more energy and resource efficient… and optimally more humanitarian.

Combatting COVID 19 with Compassion: Rigorous Solidarity is Key

Be safe. Be smart, Be kind. This mantra lies at the heart of our NEW series with Dr. David Nabarro, : Combatting COVID 19 with Compassion. Again, David now serves as a Special Envoy to COVID 19 with the World Health Organization. In this episode we focus on building solidarity locally and globally.

Now that we are in lock-down; people need to feel supported emotionally, socially, psychologically; while physically isolating. There are 5 things needed on in every community to build and sustain solidarity:

Knowledge is key, communication is key; public health resources and linking people to them is key.

Everyone can participate in the COVID 19 solution— don’t wait to be asked, figure out ways to use your skills to help, , team up, adapt to others, and serve reliably—others are depending on you.

These same principles apply at a global governance level, as well. Rigorous solidarity in coordinating plans, programs, and especially sharing resources with the most vulnerable in developing countries becomes most important. Let’s listen now to what David has to say about meeting the eye of the COVID 19 storm with Compassion.

Who would have thought before March 11th that our world would be turned upside down by a microscopic virus? But, today we have the COVID19 pandemic crisis well rooted in 199 countries and territories. At the time of my interview Dr. David Nabarro is the Special Envoy on COVID19 to the United Nations and former Executive Secretary to the World Health Organization. At the time of my interview with him there were 333,000 cases, less than 36 hours later the WHO reports 465,915 cases, worldwide. The pace and scale of transmission of COVID19 is extraordinary.

And , we- the citizens of the world, lie at the heart of the solution to break the chains of transmission and bend the global outbreak curve.

Clear from my interview with David is that physical distancing and sheltering in place is mission critical now for every person , everywhere.

As well, its essential to be well ad rightly informed about the virus from the world’s leading experts. Join me in learning from David about the emergence of the corona virus, the cause and casualty of transmission, what it’s going to take (and how long) to mitigate and eradicate this virus, and who we must support- the 59 million health care workers on the ground, risking their lives to take care of the sick.

Indigenous Peoples- Guardians of Human+Nature Health

Part I

Our earth, what have we done to our earth? Oh, nature will survive. The real question is: What have we done to ourselves?

Is COVID 19- nature’s wake up call, an opportunity to look at our world, the pace and purpose of our lives, the drivers of our market-based economy, and the impacts of our peoples on our planet?

What can we learn from Indigenous Peoples about re-creating our human+nature relationship with humility? What can we learn from Indigenous Peoples about regenerating the natural places we love? What can we learn from Indigenous Peoples about rising above the fear, the force of a common threat to build communal resilience and common respect for every living creature on the planet?

Rising from COVID19,  as I believe we will, we have an historic opportunity to learn about how to be a thriving people in thriving places— we call home. We can evolve to become a new humane humanity if we would only stop, look, and listen to the ways and wisdom of Indigenous Peoples all over the world. They are responsible for protecting nearly 80% of the intact ecosystems in our biosphere. They are the true guardians of earth’s vital ecosystems. They are the secret to our recovery from pandemic diseases, like COVID19 and other global threats, like climate change.

They are the people who are going to bring us back to human+nature health. Let’s listen to what Peter Seligmann, Chair of Conservation International and CEO of Nia Tero has to tell us about how he and his poly-culture organization are going to help bring humanity back to health— back to real life on a thriving planet.

It’s Education & Political Will, Stupid: Divesting from Fossil Fuels and Investing in Green, Clean, Renewable Energy is Simply Smart

Now that we know with the corona virus—that when the world is faced with a global threat, perceived unilaterally by all as a global threat; governments can- in fact, move relatively swiftly; perhaps not always rightly, but relatively swiftly and forcibly, to mobilize and regulate large populations.

When in our lifetimes have we witnessed a widespread shutdown of business and travel; and legally enforcible home- neighborhood lockdown? Not in my lifetime…

Thus it begs the question: in the wake of the corona virus, how can governments apply these lock-down strategies and enforce these same regulations on business to shift from a still dominant fossil fuel economy powered by petroleum based oil, gas, and coal to a clean, renewable energy economy running on a global grid?

Undeniably, this energy transition now makes social, environmental, AND also economic sense… So, what’s holding us back? Why have banks continued to invest 1.4 trillion USD in future fossil fuel investments this year? Especially, when they know that the RE energy transition is happening and that these energy assets will soon be stranded assets?

Long Time climate action expert, Jennifer Morgan, now the CEO of Greenpeace International joins me to share her reflections on “Why”.

Crisis Creates Leaders at the Intersection of Business-Government-Society

Andrew Liveris, former CEO and Chair of Dow; Board Member to Saudi Aramco

We are living in a world continually impacted by more frequent and intense natural crises -- the earth’s responses to past and current human activity. The good news is that crisis creates leadership, according Andrew Liveris, former CEO and Chair of Dow.

In our conversation at Davos 2020, Andrew gives us hope in alerting us that an intellectual revolution is happening. New models of leadership, business, and governance are being proposed and considered, while new intersections of leadership among formerly isolated groups in government, business, and society are beginning to take shape. We are not there yet; but the good news is that there is economic opportunity in regenerating nature and in turning waste to wealth. Let’s listen to more of what Andrew has to say about collaborating forward on the issues of natural capital, plastic pollution, sustainability, and more.

Diving Deep:

How Technology and Near Real-Time Data Capture Helps us Dynamically Manage Fishing Operations and Ocean Ecosystems

The earth’s ocean comprises 70% of the earth’s surface and is 3700 m deep (on average) and 10 trillion times more opaque than the earth’s atmosphere. What this means is that historically we have known very little about the vast ocean ecosystem, let alone its health. However, now given the constellation of 1000’s of low level satellites-equipped with different sensing devices distributed around the earth, recently we have begun to learn a lot more. In my interview with Jim Leape, the Co-Director for Stanford’s Center for Ocean Solutions, he shares with us a few emerging technologies that are allowing companies that buy seafood and governments that regulate international waters to better understand the provenance of the fish and identify illegal fishing operations. Join me for this fascinating underwater exploration of technology that is driving the more dynamic and transparent management of our ocean ecosystem.