Bioneers: Protecting and Restoring Nature Bioneers

Biologist and author Sandra Steingraber explains how the town of Dryden, New York banned fracking and stood up against pro-fracking interests.

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.

In this moving presentation, Philippe Cousteau delivers a rich, visual account of his inheritance of the exploration and conservation of our “water planet,” carried out in the name of his grandfather Jacques Cousteau. He weaves his storytelling with vintage footage shot by his father on the Nile, and before and after filming among the coral reefs in the Florida Keys. As was impressed upon Philippe by his grandfather, the health and diversity of the oceans are precariously entangled with the wellbeing of people on land—including the empowerment of women and girls, access to safe drinking water, and ending our dependence on fossil fuel extraction. Philippe reads a cherished letter from his grandfather to his father, which serves as an inspiration to his family and all of humanity to “seek after the vanishing shapes of a better world.”

This speech was given at the 2011 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.

Paul Stamets describes a series of epiphanies around how to shape our world with fungi in ways that are not just sustainable, but regenerative, resourceful and fun. He shares his patented application of mycelium as an alternative to synthetic pesticides; his regenerative Life Boxes that serve as shipping materials until you add water and soil; and his newest invention -- mushroom cultivation centers that convert fungal sugars into ethanol while providing resources for enriching soil, growing food and metabolizing pollution in an environment that encourages community participation. Mushrooms will never look the same after you see this one.

This speech was presented at the 2006 Bioneers National Conference and is part of the Ecological Design, Vol. 2 and Protecting and Restoring Nature, Vol. 1.

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.

Paul Stamets, visionary mycologist extraordinaire, has discovered several new species of mushrooms and pioneers countless techniques in the field of edible and medicinal mushroom cultivation. He has recently achieved remarkable results cleaning up dangerous toxins using “fungal bioremediation” and radically improving soil fertility with mushrooms.

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.

Severn Cullis-Suzuki, daughter of David Suzuki, graduated from Yale with a B.S. in ecology and evolutionary biology, and is on track to outpace her father as an activist. She founded a children’s environmental group at age 9, addressed the Rio Summit at age 12, and hasn’t stopped since, starting several groups and project and becoming a dynamic, luminous light in a new generation of eco-leaders. Severn will discuss our responsibilities toward future generation; how to heal our disconnection from nature and each other; and how to draw from the best of ancient traditions and modern innovation to build a sustainable future. Introduction by Nina Simons, Co-Founder and President of Bioneers.

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.

The coming century requires that we rethink and restructure our relationship with our planet to avoid endangering the integrity of the biosphere and risking the end of human civilization. This means reforming our economic system, which uses a market and trade system that systemically under-prices and degrades both people and the natural world. How can we change that, and what would it look like if we did? One of the great visionary science fiction writers of our era will draw from his decades of work and thinking on this question to sketch a utopian but deeply informed and cogent scenario of a new economy for the coming decades. Introduction by J. P. Harpignies, National Bioneers Conference Associate Producer.

This speech was given at the 2015 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.