Bioregional Futures: Reconnecting to Place for Planetary Health
The Great Simplification #139 with Daniel Christian Wahl
In the past century of abundant energy surplus, humanity’s globalized, large-scale approach to problem-solving has yielded remarkable benefits and innovations. However, as we face a future with reduced energy resources, mounting waste, and a biosphere in danger, the negative impacts of this approach are increasingly overshadowing its gains. How should we evaluate and change these tactics as we look to build future societies that can better attune with their environments and the health of the planet?
This week, I’m joined by Daniel Christian Wahl, a leader and activist in regenerative living, for an exploration into what our lifestyles and communities could look like if we aligned human systems—like agriculture, economy, and community planning—with the natural ecosystems of a specific bioregion to create more sustainable and harmonious ways of living.
How can small, incremental improvements made at the local ecological level create emergent benefits for the entire planet? What do we need to unlearn from past centuries of living in order to find balance with nature in the habitats and regions that we call home? How can individuals incorporate regenerative principles into their own lives today, regardless of their surrounding systems?
In case you missed it…
Last week, I was joined by one of the great systems thinkers, physicist and deep ecologist Fritjof Capra, to explore how his worldview has been shaped by his decades of work in physics, ecology, and community development – and his conclusions that addressing our ecological and social crises will require a broader shift in our values and philosophies.
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While I do strongly favor the visions of the the regenerative change movements and these leaders, that movement is really cracked up to not pay any attention to the rest of the world being enslaved by seeing no way out of the lasting suicidal trap of capitalism. Y’a know, things don’t go away just by closing your eyes. No, what makes them go away is studying how the trap works and showing people a way out, offering real promice not just attractive hopes that ignore the fate of mankind as a whole.
Is that harsh? No, just unexpectedly honest, one of the little openings that lead out of our suicidal trap.
I get your point Jessie, but the rest of the enslaved world has about as much hope of acquiring the required mindshift as a rat growing opposable thumbs to detrap itself.