When we opened the Design School for Regenerating Earth, our dream was to weave patterns of ecological and social restoration across entire landscapes — until they emerge as continental tapestries of regeneration. Right now this dream is expressing itself around four major regions of the Earth:
- Cascadia in the northwestern part of North America;
- The Great Lakes of North America;
- The “Great Turn” of the Northern Andes in Colombia; and
- The Colorado River Basin of the southwest in North America.
Our ambitious vision is to activate a Planetary Network of Bioregions with learning exchanges within and between them. This is fundamental to living out The Design Pathway for Regenerating Earth.
Right now, we are preparing to embark on a sacred journey from the diverse headwaters of the Colorado River all the way to the Sea of Cortez. You can read about it in Regenerating the Colorado River. Our intention is to awaken the dream of regeneration for this incredibly vast web of landscapes that are self-organized at the continental scale.
When we visited the Great Lakes, it was clear that local landscapes are embedded within larger continental patterns. Five rivers cross the dense urban core of Toronto to drain into Lake Ontario. Ancestral trade routes connect this vast water body with Lake Huron, Lake Superior, and the headwaters of the great Mississippi River. Simply zoom in and out of Google Maps and you will see these linkages clearly.
Right now, the majority of work in regenerative design takes place on isolated plots of land — a regenerative farm, permaculture project, or ecological restoration effort. While laudable, none of these efforts has a systemic effect because they are not properly woven into the larger-scale systems of integrated landscapes or continental linkages. We are helping make this nested reality visible through creative storytelling and community organizing lead by local groups in each place.
As we prepare to visit the headwaters of the Colorado Basin, we open ourselves up to be invited to give free public talks everywhere we go. While traveling through the incredible canyons of Southern Utah and Northern Arizona, we hold the truly overwhelming majesty of the Colorado River in our hearts. And as we arrive into the humiliation of horrendous pillage where this great river drains into the Sea of Cortez through pipes, our hearts will grieve for the continent as a whole.
Can you feel the Earth calling out for love? Do you dream of regenerating entire landscapes at regional and continental scales? Then join us in the Design School for Regenerating Earth and help us spread the world that everything truly is connected to everything else.
Onward, fellow humans.
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