By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 4 Jul 24
See that patchwork of blue that spans the Great Plains? It is the Ogallala Aquifer — one of the largest and most important groundwater systems on Earth.Next week, Penny Heiple, Will Masters and I gather in Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado to explore how to #RegenerateTheOgallala. We know that this a region that has been profoundly transformed by colonization, displacement of local people, destruction of grasslands, and the creation of a profoundly unsustainable industrial agricultural system.This will be a different kind of bioregional activation tour. Our focus is less on who the humans are that we might come into contact with — and much more about
See that patchwork of blue that spans the Great Plains? It is the Ogallala Aquifer — one of the largest and most important groundwater systems on Earth.Next week, Penny Heiple, Will Masters and I gather in Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado to explore how to #RegenerateTheOgallala. We know that this a region that has been profoundly transformed by colonization, displacement of local people, destruction
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 29 Jun 24
Earlier this year, I shared that we are designing a regeneration fund for the Northern Andes. It is an ambitious effort growing out of the movement of territorial foundations in Colombia that is spearheaded by the support organization Territoria based in Bogota.We are excited to announce that we are receiving our first significant grant of $150,000 to catalyze this fund into being. Our focus will be to prototype a bioregional funding ecosystem that spans several distinct territories of the Northern Andes that are all based in Colombia.As you can see in the map below, there are local efforts to establish territorial
Earlier this year, I shared that we are designing a regeneration fund for the Northern Andes. It is an ambitious effort growing out of the movement of territorial foundations in Colombia that is spearheaded by the support organization Territoria based in Bogota.We are excited to announce that we are receiving our first significant grant of $150,000 to catalyze this fund into
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 16 Jun 24
We have just received a generous grant from the NoVo Foundation to support our work at Regenerate Barichara — where we are prototyping the regeneration of an entire territory in the Northern Andes of Colombia.As we have outlined on our website, there is a weaving of regenerative processes at the territorial scale that has been underway for several years. now. This is depicted graphically below and explained in greater detail here.The important thing to have in mind is that we organize around the natural organizing patterns of landscapes with watersheds and ecological corridors. In this way, we have created portfolios of projects that
We have just received a generous grant from the NoVo Foundation to support our work at Regenerate Barichara — where we are prototyping the regeneration of an entire territory in the Northern Andes of Colombia.As we have outlined on our website, there is a weaving of regenerative processes at the territorial scale that has been underway for several years. now. This is
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 4 Jun 24
This is an essay written on June 4, 2018 when I was the director for the Center for Applied Cultural Evolution I am reposting it as part of the original 3-part series from that time. Find Part 1 here and Part 3 here.Last week I published a 10-page essay arguing that my own life’s work cannot possibly succeed — in the hope that it would be taken up as a “grand challenge” for others to prove wrong. Astute readers will note the hidden pathway that resolves this seeming paradox. For the only way to prove me wrong is to actually build a rigorous
This is an essay written on June 4, 2018 when I was the director for the Center for Applied Cultural Evolution I am reposting it as part of the original 3-part series from that time. Find Part 1 here and Part 3 here.Last week I published a 10-page essay arguing that my own life’s work cannot possibly succeed — in the hope that
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 4 Jun 24
This is an essay written on June 1, 2018 when I was the director for the Center for Applied Cultural Evolution I am reposting it as part of the original 3-part series from that time. Find Part 2 here and Part 3 here.Let me start by saying that literally every social problem humanity now confronts will benefit from taking a rigorous, evidence-based approach to developing interventions that work. If I believe this — you might wonder — why would I title an article this way?The answer is simply that I have been trying to manifest into the world a science of large-scale social change for 18
This is an essay written on June 1, 2018 when I was the director for the Center for Applied Cultural Evolution I am reposting it as part of the original 3-part series from that time. Find Part 2 here and Part 3 here.Let me start by saying that literally every social problem humanity now confronts will benefit from taking a rigorous,
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 17 May 24
One year ago, almost to the day, I wrote the essay Restoring Trust Among Regenerative Leaders. It was seen by some as a public apology, yet in truth the purpose was much deeper.Back then I was already seeing the collapse of sense-making among regenerative efforts. There simply was not enough coherence among us to say that we were functioning as a movement. So I “took one for the team” and attempted to role-model the kinds of social restoration that would be needed for coherence to increase at the movement scale.What I have seen emerge between then and now is deeply troubling.Through a
One year ago, almost to the day, I wrote the essay Restoring Trust Among Regenerative Leaders. It was seen by some as a public apology, yet in truth the purpose was much deeper.Back then I was already seeing the collapse of sense-making among regenerative efforts. There simply was not enough coherence among us to say that we were functioning as a
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 3 May 24
I want to share something special that is happening in Colombia right now. Penny Heiple and I have been in Cali this week to help cultivate deeper partnerships across the diverse territories of the Northern Andes.We came to meet with the director of TerritoriA (the support organization for territorial foundations in Colombia) and key leadership at the Charles Steward Mott Foundation (a Michigan-based private foundation that supports the movement of territorial foundations around the world). This is part of our work to establish a regeneration fund for the Northern Andes.The schedule for our visit was organized by TerritoriA to showcase several leading
I want to share something special that is happening in Colombia right now. Penny Heiple and I have been in Cali this week to help cultivate deeper partnerships across the diverse territories of the Northern Andes.We came to meet with the director of TerritoriA (the support organization for territorial foundations in Colombia) and key leadership at the Charles Steward Mott Foundation
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 24 Apr 24
Now that we have completed the first three webinars of our learning journey to regenerate bioregions, we would like to share more information about where we go from here.From the beginning, Penny and I have envisioned the full six months of this learning journey as having two phases — each lasting for three months. The first phase is more theoretical. Together we need to create shared language, take the time to be sure that when we use words like bioregional learning center we are talking about the same thing. And when we create frameworks for collaboration at the bioregional scale that they share
Now that we have completed the first three webinars of our learning journey to regenerate bioregions, we would like to share more information about where we go from here.From the beginning, Penny and I have envisioned the full six months of this learning journey as having two phases — each lasting for three months. The first phase is more theoretical. Together we need
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 20 Apr 24
Something magical happened in the last week as Penny Heiple and I traveled through Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York. We found ourselves inside the dream of bioregional regeneration for the Northeast Forest of Turtle Island.Our journey began in Norway, Maine where Roberta Hill welcomed us at the office of the Center for an Ecology-based Economy (CEBE). It was there that I took a photo of this wonderful decolonial map for North America.This felt appropriate because we were about to begin a journey of discovery into the Northeast Forest — something much bigger and more ambitious than what brought us to Maine in the
Something magical happened in the last week as Penny Heiple and I traveled through Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York. We found ourselves inside the dream of bioregional regeneration for the Northeast Forest of Turtle Island.Our journey began in Norway, Maine where Roberta Hill welcomed us at the office of the Center for an Ecology-based Economy (CEBE). It was there that
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 21 Mar 24
Last Thursday we had a very special work day in Bogota with members of Territoria, Paisano, Azai Consultores, and our new foundation Barichara Regenerativa to design a regeneration fund for the Northern Andes. This grew out of a powerful gathering that took place in Putumayo a few weeks ago for the Movement of Territorial Foundations in Colombia.Our purpose was as simple as it is ambitious — to create a Northern Andes regeneration fund focusing on the restoration of hydrological systems (watersheds and precipitation patterns) while restoring ecological connectivity for biological corridors across the entire country of Colombia.Current locations in Colombia where territorial
Last Thursday we had a very special work day in Bogota with members of Territoria, Paisano, Azai Consultores, and our new foundation Barichara Regenerativa to design a regeneration fund for the Northern Andes. This grew out of a powerful gathering that took place in Putumayo a few weeks ago for the Movement of Territorial Foundations in Colombia.Our purpose was as