Sustainability Now - exploring technologies and paradigms to shape a world that works

Like industrial hemp, Kenaf has tens of thousands of uses. Bob Lawrason of Kenaf Partners USA joins us to discuss the role kenaf can play in reversing climate change, reducing pollution, restoring the land, and generating profit for farmers.

Kenaf is fast growing, can be cultivated in most climates, regenerates the soil, and is unencumbered by the legal challenges faced by cannabis and industrial hemp production. When planted by existing corn cotton, and soy farmers as a rotational cash crop, it provides an economically viable way to make a gradual transition from sustainability, to resilience, and ultimately regenerative practices.

Join us to learn about this remarkable plant and how it can be instrumental in solving so many of our current planetary challenges.

Learn more and find resources mentioned in this interview at https://www.sustainabilitynow.global/2020/06/13/28-kenaf-the-next-industrial-hemp/

An almost prescient interview for this unique moment in time, we speak with elder activist Lynne Iser about the role of elder wisdom in shaping a new future. Touching on a range of topics —local economies, inclusive community, the movement from consumerism to conservation, and more — this thoughtful conversation affirms the importance of inter-generational connection and communication to inform the values that will guide our emerging culture.

Andrew Bailey, inventor of the Enviroplex, explains how his off-grid carbon-capture complex pulls CO2 directly from the air. Captured carbon is easily converted to calcium carbonate (for use in concrete), carbon fiber (an alternative to aluminum and steel that can be 3D printing) and baking soda (non-toxic with a plethora of uses).

Carbon sequestration is one step in a three-pronged approach to Climate Restoration, the endeavor to return earth’s atmosphere to the state it was in before the industrial revolution.

• Step 1: Stop burning fossil fuels
• Step 2: Remove excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
• Step 3: Re-freeze the arctic

...No small feat, however, the World Economic Forum identifies climate restoration as a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity. This is a conversation about possibility in a time of deep uncertainty and shifting priorities. We invite you join us in sourcing new perspectives and new solutions in this moment of global possibility.

Maya van Rossum, founder of The Green Amendment movement, has sparked an environmental revolution with a truly novel idea: amend the Bill of Rights in every state Constitution to include an inalienable right to clean water, clean air and a healthy environment. As surprising as it may seem, only Pennsylvania and Montana currently enshrine these rights as fundamental liberties. In 2013 van Rossum and her team won a watershed legal victory in Pennsylvania to stop unscrupulous frackers and succeeded in upholding the environmental protections in the PA Constitution, setting a precedent for other states to follow. Maya is a fireball, a woman on a mission to save our planet by shifting the balance of power from corporate interests to true protection of people and planet through constitutional environmental provisions. Join us for a spirited conversation that will ignite your hope, raise your awareness and provide meaningful opportunities to help turn this country around.

Good news! Climate change is not a natural disaster; it is a disaster of our own making, and we CAN reverse it by adopting new cultural assumptions and practices. Join us for an introduction by Vinit Allen to the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium, an initiative from the Pachamama Alliance to challenge and re-educate the notions at the core of our current state of planetary peril.

Ideas such as:

• Money makes things better
• More is better
• We have dominion over nature and it exists for our use
• Men do things better than women
• Life is about competition

are foundational assumptions of our culture that have led to social and environmental abuse and overconsumption. The key to restoring our planet and creating a just and sustainable world is a new cultural story — a story of one human family inextricably connected to all life and to the planet itself.

This conversation is one of hope and possibility, a call to take a stand and take action.

What’s ours to do?

• We can start by cutting back rather than cutting out.
• Change your bank and credit card to banks that are conscientious about who they are loaning to
• Research the companies you buy from
• Invest in socially responsible funds
• Generate less emissions: cut back on flights and do more carpooling
• Eat more plant-based foods
• Create healthy soils: compost
• Talk about the things that matter, spread the message
• Spend time in and cultivate a direct relationship with nature

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Spread the word! It’s up to us — together — to do this thing!